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The Butcher Boy

6.5

1,413

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Original title

The Butcher Boy

Year

1997

Running time

110 min.

Country

Ireland

Director

Neil Jordan

Screenwriter

Neil Jordan, Patrick McCabe. Novel: Patrick McCabe

Cast

Music

Elliot Goldenthal

Cinematography

Adrian Biddle

Producer

Warner Bros., Geffen Pictures

Genre

Drama | Childhood. Disability

Synopsis

Francie (Eamonn Owens) and Joe (Alan Boyle) live the usual playful, fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However, with a violent, alcoholic father (Stephen Rea) and a manic depressive, suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When his mother eventually commits suicide and Joe goes off to boarding school, Francie sinks ever deeper into paranoia directed mainly against Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw), a nasty neighbour, and fantasy where he has visions of the Virgin Mary (Sinead O'Connor) After his father dies Fancie's condition worsens, his behaviour becomes more bizarre and erratic culminating in the extremely bloody murder of Mrs. Nugent whom he holds responsible for all the wrongs visited upon him.

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Awards: 1998: Berlin Film Festival: Silver Bear - Best Director, Honourable Mention (Owens)

1998: European Film Awards: Nominated for Best Film & Cinematography

1998: Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best OST. 2 Nominations

1998: Chicago Film Critics Awards: 4 Nominations, including Best Picture

1998: Boston Society of Film Critics Awards: Nom. for Best Supporting Actor (Rea)

1998: National Board of Review (NBR): nominated to Top Ten Films.

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Critics' reviews

"A brutally honest exploration of a disturbed mind that is both horrific and darkly comic (...) An instant classic"

Emanuel Levy: Variety
"[A] bland 1998 shocker that fails miserably as satire, character study, and anything else it might have aspired to."

Lisa Alspector: Chicago Reader
"Instead of bathing his story in the warm, lyrical glow of an Irish lament, Jordan mixes domestic tragedy with fierce gallows humor and the stark horror of a Goya painting."

Edward Guthmann: SFgate
"I cannot feel the emotional shift that would involve me in the material: It remains for me an exercise, not an experience (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"The Butcher Boy is a trip, all right, but one that I'm sorry I took."

Paul Tatara: CNN

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The Butcher Boy

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