Synopsis
Based on Irish poet Brendan Behan's experiences in a reform school in 1942. A 16 year-old Irish republican terrorist arrives on the ferry at Liverpool and is arrested for possession of explosives. He is imprisoned in a Borstal in East Anglia, where he is forced to live with his would-be enemies, an experience that profoundly changes his life.
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Cast
- Shawn HatosyBrendan Behan
- Danny DyerCharlie Milwall
- Robin LaingJock
- Ian McElhinneyVerreker
- Eva BirthistleLiz Joyce
- Mark HubermanMac
- Lee InglebyDale
- Ronnie DrewCustoms man
- Eamon Glancy
- Dennis Conway
Recommendations
- 80
Los Angeles Times
But if the film flirts with being sentimental, it never completely gives in: The inherent strength of the material as well as the integrity of the filmmakers gives this coming-of-age story restraint as well as warmth. - 63
Miami Herald
An important and interesting story, but the reform school itself never seems terribly harsh. - 58
Portland Oregonian
Though exploring, among other things, fallibility, homosexuality, injustice and loss, the picture seems afraid to really make any kind of strong statement, whether political or psychological. - 58
Entertainment Weekly
A quaint, romanticized rendering. - 50
Philadelphia Inquirer
The film's intimations of bisexual romance have a certain innate drama that no amount of bad acting or cornball rugby matches can completely erase. - 50
Chicago Tribune
It's really a crock: a coming-of-age boys' prison film that has only a fanciful link with Behan's life. The film is a bastard grandchild of Tony Richardson's 1962 "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner." - 40
Salon
As drama it feels forced and highly conventional. - 38
New York Post
Somewhere along the way, Borstal Boy became fatally compromised.
