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The Birdcage
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 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2014)

The Birdcage
Birdcage imp.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Mike Nichols
Produced by
Mike Nichols
 Neil A. Machlis
Screenplay by
Elaine May
Based on
La Cage aux Folles
 by Jean Poiret
Francis Veber
Starring
Robin Williams
Gene Hackman
Nathan Lane
Dianne Wiest
Music by
Stephen Sondheim
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by
Arthur Schmidt

Production
 company

Nichols Film Company

Distributed by
United Artists

Release dates

March 8, 1996


Running time
 118 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$31 million[1]
Box office
$185,260,553
The Birdcage is a 1996 American comedy film, directed by Mike Nichols and stars Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, and Dianne Wiest. Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski appear in supporting roles. The script was written by Elaine May. It is a remake of the 1978 Franco-Italian film, La Cage aux Folles, by Édouard Molinaro, starring Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Soundtrack
4 Reception
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
Armand Goldman is the openly gay owner of a drag club in South Beach called The Birdcage and his partner Albert is "Starina" the star attraction of the club and is a very effeminate and flamboyant man. Living with them is Agadora Spartacus, their flamboyant housekeeper who dreams of being in Albert's drag show as well.
One day, Armand's son Val comes home to visit and says he met a girl named Barbara, who he intends to marry and wants his father's blessing. However, Armand learns that her parents are the extremely conservative Republican Senator Kevin Keeley and his wife Louise. Keeley, who is a co-founder for a conservative group called the "Coalition of Moral Order" -a society developed on traditional views and moral codes- is embroiled in a scandal, after the founder was found dead after having sex with an underage black prostitute, and by association, his reputation and chances for re-election are tarnished. Hesitantly, Armand agrees to the deception, and learns that Barbara, who is also in on their true identities, has told her parents that he is a straight, married and a cultural attaché to Greece. Meanwhile Barbara convinces her parents to meet the Goldmans, in the hopes that a "traditional" family appearance would help clear Kevin's name. However, in order to do this, Val convinces Armand that they need to reflect a traditional family. They compromise with Albert to play the part of Val's uncle instead of Armand's lover, and Val's birth mother Katherine agrees to the farce, pretending to be married to Armand. Val also convinces him to use the last name "Coleman" in order to hide his Jewish heritage. However, things quickly fall apart as they realize that the outrageous Albert can't convincingly play the act of a straight man and he locks himself in his room. Agador, who was made to be the house's butler; despite the fact that he cannot cook and does not like to wear shoes, makes a meal from a broth made of shrimp and hard boiled eggs.
Katherine gets caught in traffic and does not arrive before the Keeleys do, Albert dons a wig and convinces them that he is Val's middle aged, conservative mother. Fooled by the disguise, the Keeleys begin to interact with "Mrs. Coleman" as Armand, Val and Barbara hide homoerotic Greek depictions on their dinner plates. Albert manages to successfully win over the senator with her right-wing arguments over the collapse of morality in society, while Louise is a bit more suspicious, but still accepting. Two members of the paparazzi, hoping for a scoop remove a note intended for Katherine not to go upstairs, and she walks in, introducing herself as Mrs. Goldman, confusing Kevin and Louise. Realizing that he can't keep up the lies anymore, Val reveals Albert's identity to them and they explain the situation. The Keeleys forgive them for the deception, but don't intend on getting caught in a gay nightclub. As they attempt to leave they realize that the club is surrounded by photographers and they will not be able to leave without being seen. Albert suggests going through the club's dressing room and they dress Kevin in drag while Armand choreographs a dancing line through the exit and Kevin goes unnoticed. Even to the point where his driver; who had earlier betrayed the Keeleys to the press, didn't recognize him.
Later, at an interfaith wedding, Val and Barbara are married as both families attend.
Cast[edit]
Robin Williams as Armand Goldman
Gene Hackman as Senator Kevin Keeley
Nathan Lane as Albert Goldman
Dianne Wiest as Louise Keeley
Dan Futterman as Val Goldman
Calista Flockhart as Barbara Keeley
Hank Azaria as Agador Spartacus
Christine Baranski as Katherine Archer
Tom McGowan as Harry Radman
Grant Heslov as National Enquirer photographer
Kirby Mitchell as Keeley's opportunistic chauffeur
Soundtrack[edit]
A number of songs written by Stephen Sondheim were used in the film. The song that Albert rehearses during the sequence with the gum-chewing dancer is entitled "Little Dream" and was written specifically for use in the film.[2] Albert's first song as "Starina" is "Can That Boy Foxtrot," cut from Sondheim's Follies. The song that Armand and Katherine sing and dance to in her office, "Love Is in the Air," had been intended as the opening number for the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962. The song was cut from the show and replaced with Comedy Tonight.[3]
Reception[edit]
The film opened on March 8, 1996 and grossed $18,275,828 in its opening weekend, topping the box office.[4] It remained at #1 for the next 3 weeks before being derailed by the openings of Primal Fear and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. By the end of its 14-week run, the film had grossed $124,060,553 domestically and $61,200,000 internationally, coming down to a $185,260,553 worldwide total.[5]
The film holds a 77% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 43 critic reviews, which are summarized by the site thus: "Mike Nichols wrangles agreeably amusing performances from Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in this fun, if not quite essential, remake of the French-Italian comedy La Cage aux Folles."[6] The review aggregator Metacritic reported that the film received "generally favorable" reviews, with a score of 72% based on 18 reviews.[7]
James Berardinelli wrote “The film is so boisterously entertaining that it’s easy for the unsuspecting viewer not to realize that there’s a message here.”[8] Desson Thomson from The Washington Post commented “A spirited remake of the French drag farce, has everything in place, from eyeliner to one-liner.”[8] Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly wrote “Enchantingly witty.”[8]
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) praised the film for "going beyond the stereotypes to see the character's depth and humanity. The film celebrates differences and points out the outrageousness of hiding those differences."[9] The film was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.[10]
The film was nominated for American Film Institute's 2000 list, "100 Years...100 Laughs".[11]
See also[edit]
La Cage aux Folles, the original 1973 French play
La Cage aux Folles, the 1983 American stage musical
Cross-dressing in film and television
List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-related films by storyline
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://powergrid.thewrap.com/project/birdcage
2.Jump up ^ Kimmel, Bruce. "The Birdcage". Sondheim.com. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ". Sondheim.com. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
4.Jump up ^ "Weekend Box Office: March 8-10, 1996 Weekend". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
5.Jump up ^ The Birdcage at Box Office Mojo
6.Jump up ^ "The Birdcage (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
7.Jump up ^ "The Birdcage reviews". Metacritic.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c Alexander Ryll (2014). "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, The Birdcage". Gay Essential. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
9.Jump up ^ Calley, John (March 5, 1996). "GLAAD APPLAUDS 'THE BIRDCAGE'". GLAAD. Retrieved January 20, 2007
10.Jump up ^ "What to Watch: Thursday, September 1". GLAAD. August 1, 2011.
11.Jump up ^ "America's Funniest Movies". AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs. American Film Institute. 2002. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Birdcage.
The Birdcage at the Internet Movie Database
The Birdcage at AllMovie
The Birdcage at Box Office Mojo
The Birdcage at Rotten Tomatoes
The Birdcage at Metacritic


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[show]
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Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (1995–2000)
















  


Categories: 1996 films
English-language films
1990s comedy films
1990s LGBT-related films
American comedy films
American films
American LGBT-related films
American remakes of French films
Cross-dressing in film
Films based on plays
Films directed by Mike Nichols
Films set in Miami, Florida
Films shot in Miami, Florida
Interfaith romance films
LGBT-related comedy films
Screenplays by Elaine May
United Artists films









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The Birdcage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2014)

The Birdcage
Birdcage imp.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Mike Nichols
Produced by
Mike Nichols
 Neil A. Machlis
Screenplay by
Elaine May
Based on
La Cage aux Folles
 by Jean Poiret
Francis Veber
Starring
Robin Williams
Gene Hackman
Nathan Lane
Dianne Wiest
Music by
Stephen Sondheim
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by
Arthur Schmidt

Production
 company

Nichols Film Company

Distributed by
United Artists

Release dates

March 8, 1996


Running time
 118 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$31 million[1]
Box office
$185,260,553
The Birdcage is a 1996 American comedy film, directed by Mike Nichols and stars Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, and Dianne Wiest. Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski appear in supporting roles. The script was written by Elaine May. It is a remake of the 1978 Franco-Italian film, La Cage aux Folles, by Édouard Molinaro, starring Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Soundtrack
4 Reception
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
Armand Goldman is the openly gay owner of a drag club in South Beach called The Birdcage and his partner Albert is "Starina" the star attraction of the club and is a very effeminate and flamboyant man. Living with them is Agadora Spartacus, their flamboyant housekeeper who dreams of being in Albert's drag show as well.
One day, Armand's son Val comes home to visit and says he met a girl named Barbara, who he intends to marry and wants his father's blessing. However, Armand learns that her parents are the extremely conservative Republican Senator Kevin Keeley and his wife Louise. Keeley, who is a co-founder for a conservative group called the "Coalition of Moral Order" -a society developed on traditional views and moral codes- is embroiled in a scandal, after the founder was found dead after having sex with an underage black prostitute, and by association, his reputation and chances for re-election are tarnished. Hesitantly, Armand agrees to the deception, and learns that Barbara, who is also in on their true identities, has told her parents that he is a straight, married and a cultural attaché to Greece. Meanwhile Barbara convinces her parents to meet the Goldmans, in the hopes that a "traditional" family appearance would help clear Kevin's name. However, in order to do this, Val convinces Armand that they need to reflect a traditional family. They compromise with Albert to play the part of Val's uncle instead of Armand's lover, and Val's birth mother Katherine agrees to the farce, pretending to be married to Armand. Val also convinces him to use the last name "Coleman" in order to hide his Jewish heritage. However, things quickly fall apart as they realize that the outrageous Albert can't convincingly play the act of a straight man and he locks himself in his room. Agador, who was made to be the house's butler; despite the fact that he cannot cook and does not like to wear shoes, makes a meal from a broth made of shrimp and hard boiled eggs.
Katherine gets caught in traffic and does not arrive before the Keeleys do, Albert dons a wig and convinces them that he is Val's middle aged, conservative mother. Fooled by the disguise, the Keeleys begin to interact with "Mrs. Coleman" as Armand, Val and Barbara hide homoerotic Greek depictions on their dinner plates. Albert manages to successfully win over the senator with her right-wing arguments over the collapse of morality in society, while Louise is a bit more suspicious, but still accepting. Two members of the paparazzi, hoping for a scoop remove a note intended for Katherine not to go upstairs, and she walks in, introducing herself as Mrs. Goldman, confusing Kevin and Louise. Realizing that he can't keep up the lies anymore, Val reveals Albert's identity to them and they explain the situation. The Keeleys forgive them for the deception, but don't intend on getting caught in a gay nightclub. As they attempt to leave they realize that the club is surrounded by photographers and they will not be able to leave without being seen. Albert suggests going through the club's dressing room and they dress Kevin in drag while Armand choreographs a dancing line through the exit and Kevin goes unnoticed. Even to the point where his driver; who had earlier betrayed the Keeleys to the press, didn't recognize him.
Later, at an interfaith wedding, Val and Barbara are married as both families attend.
Cast[edit]
Robin Williams as Armand Goldman
Gene Hackman as Senator Kevin Keeley
Nathan Lane as Albert Goldman
Dianne Wiest as Louise Keeley
Dan Futterman as Val Goldman
Calista Flockhart as Barbara Keeley
Hank Azaria as Agador Spartacus
Christine Baranski as Katherine Archer
Tom McGowan as Harry Radman
Grant Heslov as National Enquirer photographer
Kirby Mitchell as Keeley's opportunistic chauffeur
Soundtrack[edit]
A number of songs written by Stephen Sondheim were used in the film. The song that Albert rehearses during the sequence with the gum-chewing dancer is entitled "Little Dream" and was written specifically for use in the film.[2] Albert's first song as "Starina" is "Can That Boy Foxtrot," cut from Sondheim's Follies. The song that Armand and Katherine sing and dance to in her office, "Love Is in the Air," had been intended as the opening number for the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962. The song was cut from the show and replaced with Comedy Tonight.[3]
Reception[edit]
The film opened on March 8, 1996 and grossed $18,275,828 in its opening weekend, topping the box office.[4] It remained at #1 for the next 3 weeks before being derailed by the openings of Primal Fear and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. By the end of its 14-week run, the film had grossed $124,060,553 domestically and $61,200,000 internationally, coming down to a $185,260,553 worldwide total.[5]
The film holds a 77% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 43 critic reviews, which are summarized by the site thus: "Mike Nichols wrangles agreeably amusing performances from Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in this fun, if not quite essential, remake of the French-Italian comedy La Cage aux Folles."[6] The review aggregator Metacritic reported that the film received "generally favorable" reviews, with a score of 72% based on 18 reviews.[7]
James Berardinelli wrote “The film is so boisterously entertaining that it’s easy for the unsuspecting viewer not to realize that there’s a message here.”[8] Desson Thomson from The Washington Post commented “A spirited remake of the French drag farce, has everything in place, from eyeliner to one-liner.”[8] Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly wrote “Enchantingly witty.”[8]
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) praised the film for "going beyond the stereotypes to see the character's depth and humanity. The film celebrates differences and points out the outrageousness of hiding those differences."[9] The film was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.[10]
The film was nominated for American Film Institute's 2000 list, "100 Years...100 Laughs".[11]
See also[edit]
La Cage aux Folles, the original 1973 French play
La Cage aux Folles, the 1983 American stage musical
Cross-dressing in film and television
List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-related films by storyline
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://powergrid.thewrap.com/project/birdcage
2.Jump up ^ Kimmel, Bruce. "The Birdcage". Sondheim.com. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ". Sondheim.com. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
4.Jump up ^ "Weekend Box Office: March 8-10, 1996 Weekend". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
5.Jump up ^ The Birdcage at Box Office Mojo
6.Jump up ^ "The Birdcage (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
7.Jump up ^ "The Birdcage reviews". Metacritic.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c Alexander Ryll (2014). "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, The Birdcage". Gay Essential. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
9.Jump up ^ Calley, John (March 5, 1996). "GLAAD APPLAUDS 'THE BIRDCAGE'". GLAAD. Retrieved January 20, 2007
10.Jump up ^ "What to Watch: Thursday, September 1". GLAAD. August 1, 2011.
11.Jump up ^ "America's Funniest Movies". AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs. American Film Institute. 2002. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Birdcage.
The Birdcage at the Internet Movie Database
The Birdcage at AllMovie
The Birdcage at Box Office Mojo
The Birdcage at Rotten Tomatoes
The Birdcage at Metacritic


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
La Cage aux Folles






















[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Mike Nichols



























[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (1995–2000)
















  


Categories: 1996 films
English-language films
1990s comedy films
1990s LGBT-related films
American comedy films
American films
American LGBT-related films
American remakes of French films
Cross-dressing in film
Films based on plays
Films directed by Mike Nichols
Films set in Miami, Florida
Films shot in Miami, Florida
Interfaith romance films
LGBT-related comedy films
Screenplays by Elaine May
United Artists films









Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















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Edit links
This page was last modified on 8 January 2015, at 14:21.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Contact Wikipedia
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Mobile view
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Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birdcage






















Philadelphia (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Philadelphia
Philadelphia imp.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Jonathan Demme
Produced by
Jonathan Demme
Edward Saxon
Written by
Ron Nyswaner
Starring
Tom Hanks
Denzel Washington
Music by
Howard Shore
Cinematography
Tak Fujimoto
Edited by
Craig McKay

Production
 company

Clinica Estetico

Distributed by
TriStar Pictures

Release dates

December 22, 1993
[1][2]

Running time
 125 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$26 million
Box office
$206,678,440[3]
Philadelphia is a 1993 American drama film and one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner, directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.
Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Andrew Beckett in the film, while the song "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Nyswaner was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but lost to Jane Campion for The Piano.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Inspiration 3.1 Controversy
4 Release 4.1 Box office
4.2 Reaction
4.3 Reception
4.4 Accolades
5 Soundtrack 5.1 Track listing
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
The movie tells the story of Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a Senior Associate at the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. Beckett hides his homosexuality and his status as an AIDS patient from the other members of the law firm. On the day Beckett is assigned the firm's newest and most important case, a partner in the firm notices a lesion on Beckett's forehead. Although Beckett attributes the lesion to a raquetball injury, it is actually due to Kaposi's Sarcoma, a form of cancer marked by multiple tumors on the lymph nodes and skin.
Shortly thereafter, Beckett stays home from work for several days to try to find a way to hide his lesions. While at home, he finishes the paperwork for the case he has been assigned and then brings it to his office, leaving instructions for his assistants to file the paperwork the following day, which marks the end of the statute of limitations for the case. Later that morning he receives a call asking for the paperwork, as the paper copy cannot be found and there are no copies on the computer's hard drive. The paperwork is finally discovered in an alternate location and is filed with the court at the last possible moment. The following day Beckett is fired by the firm's partners.
Beckett believes that someone deliberately hid his paperwork to give the firm an excuse to fire him, and that the firing is actually as a result of his diagnosis with AIDS. He asks several attorneys to take his case, including personal injury lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington). Miller has mysophobia and knows little about Beckett's disease. After declining to take the case, Miller immediately visits his doctor to find out if he could have contracted the disease. The doctor explains the methods of AIDS infection.
Unable to find a lawyer willing to represent him, Beckett is compelled to act as his own attorney. While researching a case at a law library, Miller sees Beckett at a nearby table. After a librarian announces that he has found a book on AIDS discrimination for Beckett, others in the library begin to first stare and then move away, and the librarian suggests Beckett retire to a private room. Disgusted by the other people's behavior, Miller approaches Beckett, reviews the material Beckett has gathered, and takes the case.
As the case goes before the court, the partners of the firm take the stand, each claiming that Beckett was incompetent and that he had deliberately tried to hide his condition. The defense repeatedly suggests that Beckett had invited his illness through his homosexual acts and was therefore not a victim. In the course of testimony, it is revealed that the partner who had noticed Beckett's lesion had previously worked with a woman who had contracted AIDS after a blood transfusion and so should have recognized the lesion as relating to AIDS. According to that partner, the woman was an innocent victim, unlike Beckett, and further testified that he did not recognize Beckett's lesions. To prove that the lesions would have been visible, Miller asks Beckett to unbutton his shirt while on the witness stand, revealing that his lesions were indeed visible and recognizable as such.
Beckett eventually collapses during the trial. During his hospitalization, the jury votes in his favor, awarding him back pay, damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages. Miller visits the visibly failing Beckett in the hospital after the verdict and overcomes his fear enough to touch Beckett's face. After Beckett's family leaves the room, he tells his partner, Miguel (Antonio Banderas) that he is ready to die. The movie ends with a reception at Beckett's home following the funeral, where many mourners, including Miller, view home movies of Beckett as a healthy child.
Cast[edit]
Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett
Denzel Washington as Joe Miller
Jason Robards as Charles Wheeler
Antonio Banderas as Miguel Álvarez
Joanne Woodward as Sarah Beckett
Robert W. Castle as Bud Beckett[4]
Mary Steenburgen as Belinda Conine
Ann Dowd as Jill Beckett
Lisa Summerour as Lisa Miller
Charles Napier as Judge Lucas Garnett
Roberta Maxwell as Judge Tate
Buzz Kilman as Crutches
Karen Finley as Dr. Gillman
Robert Ridgely as Walter Kenton
Bradley Whitford as Jamey Collins
Ron Vawter as Bob Seidman
Anna Deavere Smith as Anthea Burton
Tracey Walter as Librarian
Julius Erving as himself
Ed Rendell as himself
Chandra Wilson as Chandra
David Drake as Bruno
Roger Corman as Mr. Laird
Inspiration[edit]
The events in the film are similar to the events in the lives of attorneys Geoffrey Bowers and Clarence B. Cain.
Bowers was an attorney who in 1987 sued the law firm Baker & McKenzie for wrongful dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases. Cain was an attorney for Hyatt Legal Services who was fired after his employer found out he had AIDS. He sued Hyatt in 1990 and won just before his death.[5]
Controversy[edit]
Bowers' family sued the writers and producers. A year after Bowers's death, producer Scott Rudin interviewed the Bowers family and their lawyers and, according to the family, promised compensation for the use of Bowers's story as a basis for the film. Family members asserted that 54 scenes in the movie are so similar to events in Bowers's life that some of them could only have come from their interviews. However, the defense said that Rudin abandoned the project after hiring a writer and did not share any information the family had provided.[6] The lawsuit was settled after five days of testimony. Although terms of the agreement were not released, the defendants did admit that "the film 'was inspired in part'" by Bowers's story.[7]
Jonathan Demme has stated that he was moved to direct the film after a friend of his, the illustrator Juan Suárez Botas, was diagnosed with AIDS.
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
Philadelphia was originally released on December 22, 1993, in a limited opening of only 4 theaters, and had a weekend gross of $143,433 with an average of $35,858 per theater. The film expanded its release on January 14, 1994 to 1,245 theaters and opened at #1, grossing $13,817,010 over the 4-day Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, averaging $11,098 per theater. The film stayed at #1 the following weekend, earning another $8,830,605.
In its 14th weekend, the weekend after the Oscars, the film expanded to 888 theaters, and saw its gross increase by 70 percent, making $1,941,168 and jumping from #15 the previous weekend (when it made $1,141,408 from 673 theaters), to returning to the top 10 ranking at #8 that weekend.
Philadelphia eventually grossed $77,446,440 in North America and $129,232,000 overseas for a total of $206,678,440 worldwide against a budget of only $26 million, making it a huge box office success, and becoming the 12th highest grossing film in the US of 1993.[3]
Reaction[edit]
The film was the first Hollywood big-budget, big-star film to tackle the issue of AIDS in the U.S. (following the TV movie And the Band Played On) and signaled a shift in Hollywood films toward more realistic depictions of gays and lesbians. According to a Tom Hanks interview for the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, scenes showing more affection between him and Banderas were cut, including one with him and Banderas in bed together. The DVD edition, produced by Automat Pictures, includes this scene.[8]
Reception[edit]
Philadelphia earned mostly positive reviews from critics, garnering a 77% approval rating at online movie critic site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10.[9] In a contemporary review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars and said that it is "quite a good film, on its own terms. And for moviegoers with an antipathy to AIDS but an enthusiasm for stars like Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, it may help to broaden understanding of the disease. It's a ground-breaker like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), the first major film about an interracial romance; it uses the chemistry of popular stars in a reliable genre to sidestep what looks like controversy."[10]
Christopher Matthews from Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote “Jonathan Demme’s long-awaited Philadelphia is so expertly acted, well-meaning and gutsy that you find yourself constantly pulling for it to be the definitive AIDS movie.” [11] James Berardinelli from ReelViews wrote “The story is timely and powerful, and the performances of Hanks and Washington assure that the characters will not immediately vanish into obscurity.” [11] Rita Kempley from the Washington Post wrote “It’s less like a film by Demme than the best of Frank Capra. It is not just canny, corny and blatantly patriotic, but compassionate, compelling and emotionally devastating.” [11]
Accolades[edit]
The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks), and Best Original Song (Bruce Springsteen for "Streets of Philadelphia"). Tom Hanks also won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.[12]
It was also nominated for another Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Philadelphia" (Neil Young), as well as Best Makeup (Carl Fullerton and Alan D'Angerio), and Best Original Screenplay (Ron Nyswaner).[13]
This film's protagonist, Andrew Beckett, is listed at #49 among the heroes on the AFI's list of the Top 100 Heroes and Villains.
The film was ranked #20 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers.
Soundtrack[edit]
A soundtrack album was released in 1993 containing the main music featured in the film,[14] mastered by Ted Jensen.
Track listing[edit]

No.
Title
Artist(s)
Length

1. "Streets of Philadelphia"   Bruce Springsteen 3:56
2. "Lovetown"   Peter Gabriel 5:29
3. "It's in Your Eyes"   Pauletta Washington 3:46
4. "Ibo Lele (Dreams Come True)"   RAM 4:15
5. "Please Send Me Someone to Love"   Sade 3:44
6. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"   Spin Doctors 2:41
7. "I Don't Wanna Talk About It"   Indigo Girls 3:41
8. "La mamma morta" (From the Opera Andrea Chénier) Maria Callas 4:53
9. "Philadelphia"   Neil Young 4:06
10. "Precedent"   Howard Shore 4:03
The album was rereleased in 2008 in France only as a joint CD and DVD pack with the film itself, however the track listing remained the same. The catalogue number is 88697 322052 under both the Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Sony Classical labels with identical catalogue numbers.[15] The director purposefully asked Bruce Springsteen to make the main song for this film in an effort to try to get more people who don’t know much about AIDS to be more comfortable with viewing the film, and to raise awareness overall.[16]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Philadelphia portal
Portal icon Film portal
List of American films of 1993
Cultural depictions of Philadelphia
Andrea Chénier, opera by Umberto Giordano
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-22/entertainment/ca-4314_1_socially-conscious-films
2.Jump up ^ "The film opens Wednesday in New York, L.A., and Toronto..." [December 22, 1993 was a Wednesday
3.^ Jump up to: a b Philadelphia (1993), Box Office Mojo
4.Jump up ^ Fox, Margalit (2012-11-06). "Robert W. Castle Jr., Outspoken Harlem Priest and Accidental Actor, Dies at 83". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-11-25.
5.Jump up ^ Margolick, David (April 13, 1990). "LAW: AT THE BAR; A Lawyer With AIDS Wins a Legal Victory, and Gives His Employer Some Unwelcome Publicity". The New York Times.
6.Jump up ^ Pristin, Terry (March 11, 1996), "Philadelphia Screenplay Suit to Reach Court", New York Times, retrieved 2008-02-25
7.Jump up ^ "Philadelphia Makers Settle Suit", New York Times, March 20, 1996, retrieved 2008-02-25
8.Jump up ^ Philadelphia. Dir. Jonathan Demme. Perf. Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington. TriStar Pictures, 1993.
9.Jump up ^ Philadelphia. Rotten Tomatoes. Flixter. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
10.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (January 14, 1994). "Philadelphia Movie Review & Film Summary (1994)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Alexander Ryll. "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, Philadelphia". Gay Essential. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
12.Jump up ^ "Berlinale: 1994 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
13.Jump up ^ Cante, Richard C. (March 2009). "Afterthoughts from Philadelphia...and Somewhere Else". Gay Men and the Forms of Contemporary US Culture. London: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0-7546-7230-1.
14.Jump up ^ http://www.discogs.com/Various-Philadelphia-Music-From-The-Motion-Picture/master/77792
15.Jump up ^ http://www.discogs.com/Various-Philadelphia-Music-From-The-Motion-Picture/release/2397401
16.Jump up ^ Alexander Ryll. "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, Philadelphia". Gay Essential. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Philadelphia (film)
Philadelphia at the Internet Movie Database
Philadelphia at AllMovie
Philadelphia at Box Office Mojo
Philadelphia at Rotten Tomatoes
Movie stills


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Jonathan Demme


Caged Heat (1974) ·
 Crazy Mama (1975) ·
 Fighting Mad (1976) ·
 Handle with Care (1977) ·
 Last Embrace (1979) ·
 Melvin and Howard (1980) ·
 Who Am I This Time? (1982) ·
 Swing Shift (1984) ·
 Stop Making Sense (1984) ·
 Something Wild (1986) ·
 Swimming to Cambodia (1987) ·
 Married to the Mob (1988) ·
 The Silence of the Lambs (1991) ·
 Cousin Bobby (1992) ·
 Philadelphia (1993) ·
 Storefront Hitchcock (1998) ·
 Beloved (1998) ·
 The Truth About Charlie (2002) ·
 The Agronomist (2004) ·
 The Manchurian Candidate (2004) ·
 Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) ·
 Man from Plains (2007) ·
 Rachel Getting Married (2008) ·
 Neil Young Trunk Show (2009) ·
 Neil Young Journeys (2011) ·
 A Master Builder (2014) ·
 Ricki and the Flash (2015)
 

  


Categories: 1993 films
English-language films
American films
1990s drama films
HIV/AIDS in film
American legal drama films
American LGBT-related films
Films that won the Best Original Song Academy Award
Films directed by Jonathan Demme
Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance
Films set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TriStar Pictures films
Courtroom films
Films set in Pennsylvania
Films shot in Pennsylvania
Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance
Film scores by Howard Shore
Homophobia in fiction




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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Philadelphia (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Philadelphia
Philadelphia imp.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Jonathan Demme
Produced by
Jonathan Demme
Edward Saxon
Written by
Ron Nyswaner
Starring
Tom Hanks
Denzel Washington
Music by
Howard Shore
Cinematography
Tak Fujimoto
Edited by
Craig McKay

Production
 company

Clinica Estetico

Distributed by
TriStar Pictures

Release dates

December 22, 1993
[1][2]

Running time
 125 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$26 million
Box office
$206,678,440[3]
Philadelphia is a 1993 American drama film and one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner, directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.
Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Andrew Beckett in the film, while the song "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Nyswaner was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but lost to Jane Campion for The Piano.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Inspiration 3.1 Controversy
4 Release 4.1 Box office
4.2 Reaction
4.3 Reception
4.4 Accolades
5 Soundtrack 5.1 Track listing
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
The movie tells the story of Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a Senior Associate at the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. Beckett hides his homosexuality and his status as an AIDS patient from the other members of the law firm. On the day Beckett is assigned the firm's newest and most important case, a partner in the firm notices a lesion on Beckett's forehead. Although Beckett attributes the lesion to a raquetball injury, it is actually due to Kaposi's Sarcoma, a form of cancer marked by multiple tumors on the lymph nodes and skin.
Shortly thereafter, Beckett stays home from work for several days to try to find a way to hide his lesions. While at home, he finishes the paperwork for the case he has been assigned and then brings it to his office, leaving instructions for his assistants to file the paperwork the following day, which marks the end of the statute of limitations for the case. Later that morning he receives a call asking for the paperwork, as the paper copy cannot be found and there are no copies on the computer's hard drive. The paperwork is finally discovered in an alternate location and is filed with the court at the last possible moment. The following day Beckett is fired by the firm's partners.
Beckett believes that someone deliberately hid his paperwork to give the firm an excuse to fire him, and that the firing is actually as a result of his diagnosis with AIDS. He asks several attorneys to take his case, including personal injury lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington). Miller has mysophobia and knows little about Beckett's disease. After declining to take the case, Miller immediately visits his doctor to find out if he could have contracted the disease. The doctor explains the methods of AIDS infection.
Unable to find a lawyer willing to represent him, Beckett is compelled to act as his own attorney. While researching a case at a law library, Miller sees Beckett at a nearby table. After a librarian announces that he has found a book on AIDS discrimination for Beckett, others in the library begin to first stare and then move away, and the librarian suggests Beckett retire to a private room. Disgusted by the other people's behavior, Miller approaches Beckett, reviews the material Beckett has gathered, and takes the case.
As the case goes before the court, the partners of the firm take the stand, each claiming that Beckett was incompetent and that he had deliberately tried to hide his condition. The defense repeatedly suggests that Beckett had invited his illness through his homosexual acts and was therefore not a victim. In the course of testimony, it is revealed that the partner who had noticed Beckett's lesion had previously worked with a woman who had contracted AIDS after a blood transfusion and so should have recognized the lesion as relating to AIDS. According to that partner, the woman was an innocent victim, unlike Beckett, and further testified that he did not recognize Beckett's lesions. To prove that the lesions would have been visible, Miller asks Beckett to unbutton his shirt while on the witness stand, revealing that his lesions were indeed visible and recognizable as such.
Beckett eventually collapses during the trial. During his hospitalization, the jury votes in his favor, awarding him back pay, damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages. Miller visits the visibly failing Beckett in the hospital after the verdict and overcomes his fear enough to touch Beckett's face. After Beckett's family leaves the room, he tells his partner, Miguel (Antonio Banderas) that he is ready to die. The movie ends with a reception at Beckett's home following the funeral, where many mourners, including Miller, view home movies of Beckett as a healthy child.
Cast[edit]
Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett
Denzel Washington as Joe Miller
Jason Robards as Charles Wheeler
Antonio Banderas as Miguel Álvarez
Joanne Woodward as Sarah Beckett
Robert W. Castle as Bud Beckett[4]
Mary Steenburgen as Belinda Conine
Ann Dowd as Jill Beckett
Lisa Summerour as Lisa Miller
Charles Napier as Judge Lucas Garnett
Roberta Maxwell as Judge Tate
Buzz Kilman as Crutches
Karen Finley as Dr. Gillman
Robert Ridgely as Walter Kenton
Bradley Whitford as Jamey Collins
Ron Vawter as Bob Seidman
Anna Deavere Smith as Anthea Burton
Tracey Walter as Librarian
Julius Erving as himself
Ed Rendell as himself
Chandra Wilson as Chandra
David Drake as Bruno
Roger Corman as Mr. Laird
Inspiration[edit]
The events in the film are similar to the events in the lives of attorneys Geoffrey Bowers and Clarence B. Cain.
Bowers was an attorney who in 1987 sued the law firm Baker & McKenzie for wrongful dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases. Cain was an attorney for Hyatt Legal Services who was fired after his employer found out he had AIDS. He sued Hyatt in 1990 and won just before his death.[5]
Controversy[edit]
Bowers' family sued the writers and producers. A year after Bowers's death, producer Scott Rudin interviewed the Bowers family and their lawyers and, according to the family, promised compensation for the use of Bowers's story as a basis for the film. Family members asserted that 54 scenes in the movie are so similar to events in Bowers's life that some of them could only have come from their interviews. However, the defense said that Rudin abandoned the project after hiring a writer and did not share any information the family had provided.[6] The lawsuit was settled after five days of testimony. Although terms of the agreement were not released, the defendants did admit that "the film 'was inspired in part'" by Bowers's story.[7]
Jonathan Demme has stated that he was moved to direct the film after a friend of his, the illustrator Juan Suárez Botas, was diagnosed with AIDS.
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
Philadelphia was originally released on December 22, 1993, in a limited opening of only 4 theaters, and had a weekend gross of $143,433 with an average of $35,858 per theater. The film expanded its release on January 14, 1994 to 1,245 theaters and opened at #1, grossing $13,817,010 over the 4-day Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, averaging $11,098 per theater. The film stayed at #1 the following weekend, earning another $8,830,605.
In its 14th weekend, the weekend after the Oscars, the film expanded to 888 theaters, and saw its gross increase by 70 percent, making $1,941,168 and jumping from #15 the previous weekend (when it made $1,141,408 from 673 theaters), to returning to the top 10 ranking at #8 that weekend.
Philadelphia eventually grossed $77,446,440 in North America and $129,232,000 overseas for a total of $206,678,440 worldwide against a budget of only $26 million, making it a huge box office success, and becoming the 12th highest grossing film in the US of 1993.[3]
Reaction[edit]
The film was the first Hollywood big-budget, big-star film to tackle the issue of AIDS in the U.S. (following the TV movie And the Band Played On) and signaled a shift in Hollywood films toward more realistic depictions of gays and lesbians. According to a Tom Hanks interview for the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, scenes showing more affection between him and Banderas were cut, including one with him and Banderas in bed together. The DVD edition, produced by Automat Pictures, includes this scene.[8]
Reception[edit]
Philadelphia earned mostly positive reviews from critics, garnering a 77% approval rating at online movie critic site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10.[9] In a contemporary review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars and said that it is "quite a good film, on its own terms. And for moviegoers with an antipathy to AIDS but an enthusiasm for stars like Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, it may help to broaden understanding of the disease. It's a ground-breaker like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), the first major film about an interracial romance; it uses the chemistry of popular stars in a reliable genre to sidestep what looks like controversy."[10]
Christopher Matthews from Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote “Jonathan Demme’s long-awaited Philadelphia is so expertly acted, well-meaning and gutsy that you find yourself constantly pulling for it to be the definitive AIDS movie.” [11] James Berardinelli from ReelViews wrote “The story is timely and powerful, and the performances of Hanks and Washington assure that the characters will not immediately vanish into obscurity.” [11] Rita Kempley from the Washington Post wrote “It’s less like a film by Demme than the best of Frank Capra. It is not just canny, corny and blatantly patriotic, but compassionate, compelling and emotionally devastating.” [11]
Accolades[edit]
The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks), and Best Original Song (Bruce Springsteen for "Streets of Philadelphia"). Tom Hanks also won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.[12]
It was also nominated for another Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Philadelphia" (Neil Young), as well as Best Makeup (Carl Fullerton and Alan D'Angerio), and Best Original Screenplay (Ron Nyswaner).[13]
This film's protagonist, Andrew Beckett, is listed at #49 among the heroes on the AFI's list of the Top 100 Heroes and Villains.
The film was ranked #20 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers.
Soundtrack[edit]
A soundtrack album was released in 1993 containing the main music featured in the film,[14] mastered by Ted Jensen.
Track listing[edit]

No.
Title
Artist(s)
Length

1. "Streets of Philadelphia"   Bruce Springsteen 3:56
2. "Lovetown"   Peter Gabriel 5:29
3. "It's in Your Eyes"   Pauletta Washington 3:46
4. "Ibo Lele (Dreams Come True)"   RAM 4:15
5. "Please Send Me Someone to Love"   Sade 3:44
6. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"   Spin Doctors 2:41
7. "I Don't Wanna Talk About It"   Indigo Girls 3:41
8. "La mamma morta" (From the Opera Andrea Chénier) Maria Callas 4:53
9. "Philadelphia"   Neil Young 4:06
10. "Precedent"   Howard Shore 4:03
The album was rereleased in 2008 in France only as a joint CD and DVD pack with the film itself, however the track listing remained the same. The catalogue number is 88697 322052 under both the Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Sony Classical labels with identical catalogue numbers.[15] The director purposefully asked Bruce Springsteen to make the main song for this film in an effort to try to get more people who don’t know much about AIDS to be more comfortable with viewing the film, and to raise awareness overall.[16]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Philadelphia portal
Portal icon Film portal
List of American films of 1993
Cultural depictions of Philadelphia
Andrea Chénier, opera by Umberto Giordano
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-22/entertainment/ca-4314_1_socially-conscious-films
2.Jump up ^ "The film opens Wednesday in New York, L.A., and Toronto..." [December 22, 1993 was a Wednesday
3.^ Jump up to: a b Philadelphia (1993), Box Office Mojo
4.Jump up ^ Fox, Margalit (2012-11-06). "Robert W. Castle Jr., Outspoken Harlem Priest and Accidental Actor, Dies at 83". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-11-25.
5.Jump up ^ Margolick, David (April 13, 1990). "LAW: AT THE BAR; A Lawyer With AIDS Wins a Legal Victory, and Gives His Employer Some Unwelcome Publicity". The New York Times.
6.Jump up ^ Pristin, Terry (March 11, 1996), "Philadelphia Screenplay Suit to Reach Court", New York Times, retrieved 2008-02-25
7.Jump up ^ "Philadelphia Makers Settle Suit", New York Times, March 20, 1996, retrieved 2008-02-25
8.Jump up ^ Philadelphia. Dir. Jonathan Demme. Perf. Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington. TriStar Pictures, 1993.
9.Jump up ^ Philadelphia. Rotten Tomatoes. Flixter. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
10.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (January 14, 1994). "Philadelphia Movie Review & Film Summary (1994)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Alexander Ryll. "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, Philadelphia". Gay Essential. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
12.Jump up ^ "Berlinale: 1994 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
13.Jump up ^ Cante, Richard C. (March 2009). "Afterthoughts from Philadelphia...and Somewhere Else". Gay Men and the Forms of Contemporary US Culture. London: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0-7546-7230-1.
14.Jump up ^ http://www.discogs.com/Various-Philadelphia-Music-From-The-Motion-Picture/master/77792
15.Jump up ^ http://www.discogs.com/Various-Philadelphia-Music-From-The-Motion-Picture/release/2397401
16.Jump up ^ Alexander Ryll. "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, Philadelphia". Gay Essential. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Philadelphia (film)
Philadelphia at the Internet Movie Database
Philadelphia at AllMovie
Philadelphia at Box Office Mojo
Philadelphia at Rotten Tomatoes
Movie stills


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Jonathan Demme


Caged Heat (1974) ·
 Crazy Mama (1975) ·
 Fighting Mad (1976) ·
 Handle with Care (1977) ·
 Last Embrace (1979) ·
 Melvin and Howard (1980) ·
 Who Am I This Time? (1982) ·
 Swing Shift (1984) ·
 Stop Making Sense (1984) ·
 Something Wild (1986) ·
 Swimming to Cambodia (1987) ·
 Married to the Mob (1988) ·
 The Silence of the Lambs (1991) ·
 Cousin Bobby (1992) ·
 Philadelphia (1993) ·
 Storefront Hitchcock (1998) ·
 Beloved (1998) ·
 The Truth About Charlie (2002) ·
 The Agronomist (2004) ·
 The Manchurian Candidate (2004) ·
 Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) ·
 Man from Plains (2007) ·
 Rachel Getting Married (2008) ·
 Neil Young Trunk Show (2009) ·
 Neil Young Journeys (2011) ·
 A Master Builder (2014) ·
 Ricki and the Flash (2015)
 

  


Categories: 1993 films
English-language films
American films
1990s drama films
HIV/AIDS in film
American legal drama films
American LGBT-related films
Films that won the Best Original Song Academy Award
Films directed by Jonathan Demme
Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance
Films set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TriStar Pictures films
Courtroom films
Films set in Pennsylvania
Films shot in Pennsylvania
Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance
Film scores by Howard Shore
Homophobia in fiction




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This page was last modified on 5 February 2015, at 18:23.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_(film)










Boys Don't Cry (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry movie.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Kimberly Peirce
Produced by
Christine Vachon
Eva Kolodner
Written by
Kimberly Peirce
 Andy Bienen
Starring
Hilary Swank
Chloë Sevigny
Peter Sarsgaard
Brendan Sexton III
Alicia Goranson
Jeanetta Arnette
Matt McGrath
Music by
Nathan Larson
Cinematography
Jim Denault
Edited by
Tracy Granger
Distributed by
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Release dates

October 8, 1999


Running time
 118 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$2 million
Box office
$11,540,607
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a trans man played in the film by Hilary Swank, who is beaten, raped and murdered by his male acquaintances after they discover he is anatomically female. The picture explores the themes of freedom, courage, identity and empowerment. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures and was released theatrically in October 1999.
After reading about the murder of Brandon Teena while in college, Peirce intently researched the case—as well as Teena's life—and worked on a screenplay for the film for almost five years. All She Wanted, the 1996 book about the case written by Aphrodite Jones, inspired Peirce, but she chose to focus the story on the relationship between Brandon and his girlfriend Lana Tisdel. Many actors campaigned for the lead over the course of three years; a then unknown Swank was cast because her personality seemed similar to Teena's. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alicia Goranson, Jeanetta Arnette, and Matt McGrath. The majority of characters were based on real-life people, while some were composites. Shooting lasted from October until November 1998 and filming took place in the area of Dallas, Texas.
Boys Don't Cry premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 8, 1999 to overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics and was widely cited as one of the best films of the year.[1][2] Praise was specifically focused on the two lead performances by Swank and Sevigny. The film received a limited nationwide release on October 22, 1999, and performed moderately well at the North American box office. At the 72nd Academy Awards in 2000, Swank was awarded an Oscar for Best Actress, while Sevigny was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film has been cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999, initially being assigned an NC-17 rating, later modified to an R rating. The release of the film was concurrent with the murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard, which sparked additional public interest.[3] The film was named after the song of the same name by The Cure, and a cover version of the song appears in the film.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Background
3.2 Casting
3.3 Filming 3.3.1 Principal photography
3.4 Cinematography
3.5 Music
4 Themes
5 Release 5.1 Critical reception
5.2 Awards and nominations
5.3 Home media
6 Controversy
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) is a young female-to-male non-operative transgender man, whose birth name was Teena Renae Brandon.[4] When Brandon is discovered to be anatomically female by the brother of a former girlfriend, he becomes the target of physical threats. Not long after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin's trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska, where he cultivates friendships with ex-convicts John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom Nissen (Brendan Sexton III), and their friends Candace (Alicia Goranson) and Lana Tisdel (Chloë Sevigny). Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is unaware of his biological sex and troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis, where Brandon will manage Lana in a karaoke career.
Brandon is detained for charges that arose prior to his relocation and placed in the women's section of the Falls City prison. Lana bails Brandon out. After Lana asks why Brandon was in a women's prison, Brandon lies to her, saying he was born a hermaphrodite and will soon receive a sex change. Lana declares her love for Brandon, "no matter what he is." Tom and John become suspicious after they read a newspaper article about Brandon that refers to him by his birth name, Teena Brandon. Tom and John force Brandon to remove his pants, revealing his genitals. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes and turns away. After this confrontation Tom and John drag Brandon into Lotter's car and drive out to an isolated location, where they violently beat and rape him. Afterward, they take Brandon to Nissen's house. Though injured, Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Having been threatened by his assailants and told not to report the attack to the police, a distressed Brandon is nonetheless convinced by Lana to file a report.
One evening, John and Tom get drunk, and decide to kill Brandon. Despite Lana's attempts to stop them, John and Tom drive to Candace's remote house where they find Brandon, who has been hiding in a shed on Candace's property. John shoots Brandon under the chin, and Tom shoots Candace in the head while Lana fights them and screams for them to stop. Tom stabs Brandon's lifeless body and then he attempts to shoot Lana, but is stopped by John. John and Tom flee the scene, while Lana lies with Brandon's dead body.
The next morning, Lana wakes up on Brandon's dead body. Her mother arrives and takes an emotionally wrenched Lana away from the scene. The film ends with Lana leaving Falls City while a letter Brandon wrote to her is read in a voice-over.
Cast[edit]
Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena
Chloë Sevigny as Lana Tisdel
Peter Sarsgaard as John Lotter
Brendan Sexton III as Tom Nissen
Lecy Goranson as Candace
Jeanetta Arnette as Lana's Mom
Matt McGrath as Lonny
Alison Folland as Kate
Libby Villari as the Nurse
Lou Perryman as Sheriff Charles B. Laux
Production[edit]
Background[edit]
Brandon Teena was a trans man who was raped and murdered by two male acquaintances in December 1993, when he was 21.[nb 1][5][6][7] Kimberly Peirce, at the time a Columbia University film student, became interested in the case after reading a 1994 Village Voice article by Donna Minkowitz.[8][9] Peirce became engrossed in Brandon's life and death and recalls, "the minute I read about Brandon, I fell in love. With the intensity of his desire to turn himself into a boy, the fact that he did it with no role models. The leap of imagination that this person took was completely overwhelming to me."[10] The sensational publicity and coverage generated by the case prolonged her interest.[8] Peirce stated she looked beyond the brutality of the case and instead viewed the positive aspects of Brandon's life as hopeful and full of goodwill. She admired Brandon's "audacity", compassion, free spirit, and passionate "generosity" toward women.[11][nb 2]
Peirce wanted to tell the story from Brandon's perspective. She felt there was an inspirational, tragic story behind the ordeal that was different from the one presented to the public. Peirce wanted to use the film as an opportunity to present Brandon's search for freedom rather than capitalize on his sexual identity crisis. She was familiar with Brandon's desire to wear men's clothing: "I started looking at all the other coverage and a great deal of it was sensational. People were focusing on the spectacle of a girl who had passed as a boy because that is so unfamiliar to so many people. Where to me, I knew girls who had passed as boys, so Brandon was not some weird person to me. Brandon was a very familiar person."[12] Peirce was influenced by the public perception of the case, believing the American public were generally misinformed: "People were also focusing on the crime without giving it much emotional understanding and I think that's really dangerous, especially with this culture of violence that we live in."[12] Peirce began working on a concept for the film and gave it the working title Take It Like a Man.
The project drew interest from various production bodies. Diane Keaton's production company showed interest in the screenplay in the mid-1990s, with Drew Barrymore an early candidate to star. Initially the film was to be largely based on Aphrodite Jones' 1996 true crime book All She Wanted, which told the story of Brandon's final few weeks alive.[13] Rather than focusing on Brandon's early life and background, the screenplay was subsequently modified closer to Peirce's vision, which focused the majority of the film on the relationship between Brandon and girlfriend Lana Tisdel[14] and the events that led to Brandon's murder. Peirce felt there was a "great love story" at the center of the case.[8] In order to fund the writing and development of the feature, Peirce worked as a paralegal on a midnight shift and as a 35mm film projectionist, and received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant.[15] The project attracted the attention of producer Christine Vachon, who had seen Peirce's short film she had made for her thesis in 1995.[10] Peirce co-wrote the screenplay with Andy Bienen. They worked together for a year and a half on the final drafts and made sure they didn't "mythologize" Brandon; the aim was to keep him as human as possible.
Prior to filming, Peirce conducted extensive research into the case which lasted almost five-and-a-half years.[16] She immersed herself in the extensive information available about the murder, including trial transcripts. She met Lana Tisdel at a convenience store and subsequently interviewed her at her home. Peirce also interviewed Tisdel's mother. She also interviewed Brandon's friends, but was unable to interview Brandon's mother or any of his biological family.[8][12] Much factual information was incorporated into Boys Don't Cry, including Nissen being an arsonist, and the games of chicken and joy riding that were a common pastime of the real Lotter, Nissen, and Brandon.
Casting[edit]



Hilary Swank had initially lied to Kimberly Peirce about her background. When confronted about the lies, Swank told Peirce "but that's what Brandon would do" and she was eventually cast in the film. To prepare for the role, Swank lived as a man for one month.
The filmmakers retained the names of most of the real-life protagonists. Several supporting characters were given different names, including Candace's character, who in real life was named Lisa Lambert. The casting process for Boys Don't Cry was extensive and lasted for almost four years.[17] Peirce scouted the LGBT community, looking mainly for masculine lesbian women for the role of Brandon Teena. The LGBT community was highly interested in the project because of all the publicity the murder had received.[8] High profile actors were not sent to auditions at the request of their agents because of the stigma associated with the role. The project was almost abandoned because Peirce was not satisfied with most of the people who auditioned.[18] In 1996, after a hundred actresses had been considered and rejected, a then relatively unknown Hilary Swank sent a videotape to Peirce and was signed on to the project.[8][19] During her audition, Swank, who was 22 at the time, presented Peirce with a lie about her age. Swank claimed that, like Brandon, she was also 21 years of age. When Peirce later confronted her about the lies, Swank responded, "But that's what Brandon would do."[20] Swank's anonymity as an actress persuaded Peirce to cast her; Peirce said that she did not want a "known actor" to portray Teena.[21]



Chloë Sevigny had initially sought after the role of Brandon Teena. Kimberly Peirce, however, believed she would be better suited playing Lana Tisdel.
Swank underwent significant preparation for the role by dressing and living as a man for at least a month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her pants in much the same way as Brandon Teena had done. Her masquerade became particularly convincing. Swank's neighbors believed the "young man" coming and going from her home was Swank's visiting brother. She reduced her body fat to seven percent to accentuate her facial structure and refused to let the cast and crew see her out of costume.[21][22] Swank earned only $75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, culminating in a total of $3,000.[23][24][25] Her earnings were so low that she did not earn enough to qualify for health insurance.[26]
Peirce had envisioned only two actors for the role of Lana Tisdel: a young Jodie Foster and Chloë Sevigny, who had prior credits in mostly independent films. Peirce had decided to cast Sevigny based on her impressive performance in The Last Days of Disco (1998).[27] Sevigny had auditioned for the role of Brandon,[28] but Peirce decided that Sevigny would be suited playing Tisdel.[29][30] Sevigny dyed her hair red for the role to match the real Lana's strawberry blonde hair. Peirce later said: "Chloë just surrendered to the part. She watched videos of Lana. She just became her very naturally. She's not one of those Hollywood actresses who diets and gets plastic surgery. You never catch her acting". Peter Sarsgaard plays John Lotter, Lana's charismatic former boyfriend and the man responsible for Teena's rape and murder. Sarsgaard was one of the first choices for the role. He later commented that he wanted his character to be "likable, sympathetic even", because he wanted the audience "to understand why they would hang out with me. If my character wasn't necessarily likable, I wanted him to be charismatic enough that you weren't going to have a dull time if you were with him."[31] In another interview, Sarsgaard said he felt "empowered" by playing Lotter.[32] Peirce cast Alicia Goranson, known for playing Becky on the sitcom Roseanne, as Candace because of her likeness to Lisa Lambert, who was 24 when she was shot by John Lotter.[8] Like Sevigny, Goranson had initially auditioned for the lead role.[28]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography[edit]
Principal photography for Boys Don't Cry lasted from October 19 to November 24, 1998. The small budget dictated some of the filming decisions, including omitting incidents to speed up the overall pacing. Timing constraints put limits on what could be achieved with the narrative.[8][33] The film portrays a double murder when in actuality a third person, Phillip DeVine, a black disabled man, was killed at the scene. At the time he had been dating Lana Tisdel's sister, Leslie Tisdel.[34][35] Peirce produced the film independently on a $2 million budget. Boys Don't Cry was primarily filmed in Greenville, Texas, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Most of the actual incidents took place in Nebraska,[36][37] but the Texas locations were chosen due to budget constraints.[8] Peirce incorporated filming techniques that gave the audience an opportunity to delve into Brandon's perspective, his imagination, and the way he perceived things. "The work was informing me about how I wanted to represent it. I wanted the audience to enter deeply into this place, this character, so they could entertain these contradictions in Brandon's own mind and would not think he was crazy, would not think he was lying, but would see him as more deeply human."[8][12] Peirce took inspiration from other true crime films, including In Cold Blood (1967), directed by Richard Brooks and the fictional love-on-the-run tale Badlands (1973), directed by Terrence Malick. She also drew some inspiration from the story of Pinocchio. Peirce chose to not show how Brandon looked before he began cross-dressing, so the audience could recognise Brandon the way he perceived himself—as a male.[38]
Boys Don't Cry featured various scenes which required emotional and physical intensity and thus were allocated extended periods of filming. The bumper-skiing scene was delayed when a police officer, just arriving at a shift change, required that a large lighting crane be moved from one side of the road to the other. The scenes took six hours to shoot and ended up being filmed at sunrise, which resulted in a blue sky in the background.[8] A flood gave the cast and crew a "mud bath" and resulted in some of the filming equipment being stuck in mud. Radio wires in some of the scenes conflicted with the sound production. Swank required a stunt double for the scene in which she falls off the back of a truck. Teena's rape scene was given an extended filming time, and Sexton, who portrayed the attacker, walked away in tears afterward.[8] Swank also found portraying her character daunting and felt the need to "keep a distance" from the fact that the event actually occurred. When scenes became difficult, Swank requested the company of her husband on set.[18]
Initially, the restricted budget gave Boys Don't Cry five weeks of filming (32 days). When Fox Searchlight purchased the film in 1998 and IFC Films agreed to distribute it, the project gained an additional day of photography the following Spring, the most significant part of which was the scene of Lana driving from the beginning of the film.[39]
Cinematography[edit]



 Peirce set up a sequence to make the viewer feel like they are walking with Brandon while on his date. The three-shot structure was inspired by a scene from The Wizard of Oz (1939). After a shot of the character; he walks through the door; the viewer sees the door opening; the character goes through the door; the viewer goes through the door.[8]
Peirce had originally sought a career in photography, but chose to pursue a career in film making instead, which gave her the ability to apply techniques she had learned into the film.[40] She described the mood she was trying to evoke as "artificial night" —a mirror to the characters' mental states which was, in many cases, influenced by the use of chemical stimulants.[clarification needed] Director of Photography Jim Denault showed her the work of photographer Jan Staller, whose long exposure night photography under artificial lighting inspired Denault to avoid using "moonlight" effects for most of the film. As a way to further incorporate the sense of artificial night, John Pirozzi, who had been doing some experiments with time-lapse photography using non-motion-controlled moving camera, was invited to create the striking transition shots seen throughout the film.[39]
The visual style is often dark, saturated, and raw, depicting the harsh Midwestern United States in a "withdrawn",[41] dark and understated light to give a "surreal" effect.[42] Denault shot Boys Don't Cry in flat spherical format on 35 mm film using Kodak Vision film stock. The film was shot with a Moviecam Compact camera and Carl Zeiss super speed lenses. For the violent, emotionally charged scenes (such as the scene in which Brandon is stripped), a hand-held camera was used to give a sense of subjectivity to the scene.[39]
Many scenes were shot at night to give a muted palete. However, there is a significant use of color and brightness in certain scenes, such as both scenes featuring Brandon and Lana making love. During a very compressed prep period Peirce and Denault talked through the whole script and drew storyboards for the major scenes, many of which are representative of how the scene was finally shot. She also watched several of her favorite films and broke down certain scenes that she had liked. In addition, she took a significant portion of visual inspiration from older films, including Raging Bull (1980) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Peirce opened the film with a shot of Brandon traveling down the highway, as seen from the character's imaginative or dream perspective, similar to the beginning of Raging Bull.[8] Peirce also used the same shots in the opening roller rink scene (where Brandon pursues his first relationship with a young girl) that were used in The Wizard of Oz (1939) when Dorothy first left her house and entered the land of Oz. The scene consists of a three shot sequence meant to symbolize a metaphoric "entrance to manhood" for Brandon. Some scenes were given a prolonged shooting sequence to induce a hallucinatory feeling. An example is the sequence in which Lana has an orgasm, followed by a shot of her, Brandon, Candace, and Kate driving in a car against the backdrop of the city skyline.
Peirce drew inspiration from the filming style of John Cassavetes and the early work of Martin Scorsese, and incorporated neo-realism techniques in filming.[11] When a character expresses a dream or hopeful assertion about their dead-end existence, Peirce cuts to an "eerily lit" dream landscape, which one critic observed was "almost David Lynch-like in its beauty, dotted with simple elements like water towers, naked trees and low ceilings of clouds."[43] Time lapse photography is used in several sequences, most significantly in the scene where Brandon and Lana discuss plans to tell the family that she has "seen him in the full-flesh", and when Lana is seen driving on the highway after Brandon's murder, before the credits appear.
Music[edit]
The Boys Don't Cry soundtrack features a compilation of country and rock music from the film. Nathan Larson and Nina Persson of The Cardigans composed an instrumental version of Restless Heart's 1988 country-pop hit "The Bluest Eyes in Texas". A variation of the song was used as the film's "love theme" and score,[8] while the actual song appeared during a karaoke scene, sung by Sevigny and at the end of the film. The title of the film is taken from the song of the same name by British rock band The Cure. An American cover of the song plays in the background in two scenes: when Lana bails Brandon out of jail, and the scene in which the two make love in the car, where it is heard at a low volume in the background. However, the song is not included on the released soundtrack. In addition, songs from Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Tuesday's Gone"), Paisley Underground band Opal ("She's A Diamond") and The Charlatans ("Codine Blues") also appear, as well as various covers. The soundtrack was released on November 23, 1999, by record label Koch Records.
"The Bluest Eyes in Texas" was played when Hilary Swank went onstage to receive her Academy Award for Best Actress in 2000.
Themes[edit]



Unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times[44]
Boys Don't Cry has been regarded academically as a thematically rich love story between two ill-fated lovers, not unlike Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet or the story of Bonnie and Clyde.[45] Some critics regarded the film as being a "romantic tragedy" occurring in a working class American setting. Roger Ebert supported this view, calling the film a "Romeo and Juliet set in a Nebraska trailer park".[46] In trailers, the film was marketed as a non-fictional tale about "hope, fear and the courage that it takes to be yourself". This summarization strengthens the academic view that the film is about the search for freedom and identity in a society where diversity is rarely accepted.[38] The question of identity (particularly Brandon's) is alluded to frequently in Boys Don't Cry and the line "who are you?" is even uttered at one point in the film by Lana to Brandon. Peirce proposes this as the main question of the film.[47] Janet Maslin stated the film was about accepting identity, which in turn means accepting the fate predisposed for that identity.[48] Critics like Paula Nechak have called the film a "bold cautionary tale",[49] with references to the pressure of conformity and acceptance, and some critics even cite parallels to Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005).[38] Nachak regarded the film as a negative, dismal depiction of Midwestern America: "[Peirce's film has] captured the mystique and eerie loneliness" and "isolation of the Midwest, with its dusty desolation and nowhere-to-go frustration that propels people to violence and despair."[49] Some critics noted that the film was about the illusions often produced by love or a strong relationship.
Critics and academics have attributed Boys Don't Cry's success to the fact that it ostensibly argued for tolerance of sexual diversity by depicting a relationship between two unlikely people. This tragic aspect of the love story led many commentators to compare Brandon and Lana's relationship and subsequent drama to classic and modern romances like Romeo and Juliet, often using the term star-crossed lovers.[50] Freedom is an obvious and dominant theme in Boys Don't Cry. Brandon was in search of a place to be himself, having been ostracized and judged by nearly everyone who discovered his biological sex. Critics have called the film a "sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame",[46] describing Brandon—heroic and fatally flawed—as this spirit who was murdered when angry townspeople discovered who he really was.
Maslin saw Boys Don't Cry as a tale of a trapped small town character's search for life beyond their rural existence and the high price they pay for their view of the "American dream".[48] Brandon yearns for the freedom of a new life, and Lana, who sees Brandon as an escape from her small town life, gains the ability to make the leap of faith. It is Brandon who provides Lana with the opportunity to escape. At one point in the film, Lana even discusses running away to Memphis with the intentions of starting a new life as a karaoke singer with Brandon as her manager. Most of the characters lead a dull and meaningless existence in a desolate small town. Many of them drink at the local bar and abuse recreational drugs to pass the time and block out their disappointing realities. Christine Vachon stated that "It's about these guys whose world is so tenuous and so fragile that they can't stand to have any of their beliefs shattered", in regards to John and Tom's views about their life, Brandon's aspirations and his biological sex. Along with other turn-of-the-millennium films such as Fight Club (1999), In the Company of Men (1997), American Psycho (2000) and American Beauty (1999), critics suggest Boys Don't Cry "raises the broader, widely explored issue of masculinity in crisis".[51] In addition, some scholars and authors have regarded the film as an exploration on "social problems", along with Patty Jenkins's Monster (2004).[52]
Release[edit]
Boys Don't Cry premiered in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 1999. It received its US premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 8, 1999, to critical acclaim. It was shown at the Reel Affirmations International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in early October to further praise. Boys Don't Cry was given a special screening at the Sundance Film Festival. The film received a limited release theatrically on October 22, 1999, in the United States, where it was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, that specializes in independent films. The film grossed $73,720 in its opening week, followed by an additional $237,504 by October 17, 1999. By December 5, the film had grossed in excess of $2 million. By May 2000, the film had a United States total gross of $12 million—more than threefold higher than its production budget. Internationally, the film was released on March 2, 2000 in Australia and April 7, 2000 in the United Kingdom.
The film won a variety of awards, with the majority of wins going to Swank for her performance. Swank won a Best Actress Oscar while Sevigny received a nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress.[53] From the Hollywood Foreign Press, the film received two Golden Globe nominations in the same two categories (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress) for Swank and Sevigny, with one win (Best Actress). Swank and Sevigny both received Best Actress Awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award. The film won three awards at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards: Best Actress (Swank), Best Supporting Actress (Sevigny), and Best Director (Peirce). Swank and Sevigny won Satellite Awards for their performances, while the film itself was nominated in two other categories: Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director. It was named one of the best films of the year by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.[54] Boys Don't Cry's release was concurrent with the murder of a homosexual teenager, Matthew Shepard, who was killed on October 12, 1998, almost a year before the film's premiere. The murder sparked additional public interest in hate crime legislation in America and in Brandon Teena, and aided public interest in Boys Don't Cry.[55]
Critical reception[edit]



"There may not be a better acted film this year. Every inch of the character exudes a male sensibility so powerfully, and at times so vulnerably, that Swank's performance crosses into a realm of veracity rare in any film acting.
Peter Stack of The San Francisco Chronicle[56]
Boys Don't Cry received a highly favorable critical reception in 1999, with many critics declaring it one of the best films of the year.[41][54][57][58][59] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% out of 75 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with the site consensus being that "Hilary Swank's acclaimed performance pays fitting tribute to the tragic life of Brandon Teena."[56] Some critics called the film one of the most "sensational independent movies" in years. One reviewer said the film was a "critical knockout".[11] The performances of Swank and Sevigny were picked out as some of the film's strongest elements, with many critics declaring Swank's performance to be "one of the greatest" in recent years. Swank was considered an immediate favourite to win Best Actress at various film awards, including the 72nd Academy Awards.



"Swank and Sevigny give performances that burn in the memory. Boys Don't Cry means to shake you, and does.
Rolling Stone magazine[60]
Boys Don't Cry became one of the most applauded films of the year. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was particularly enthusiastic in his review: he called it "one of the best films of the year", and listed it as one of his five best films of 1999, stating "this could have been a clinical movie of the week, but instead it's a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame".[46] Janet Maslin of The New York Times said the film was "stunning", and gave it four out of four stars. Maslin observed that "unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope".[48] She ended up calling Boys Don't Cry "the best film of the year". Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times praised the lack of romanticization and dramatization of the characters and reported that "Peirce and Bienen and the expert cast engage us in the actuality of these rootless, hopeless, stoned-out lives without sentimentalizing or romanticizing them" and said that "Boys Don't Cry is an exceptional—and exceptionally disturbing film",[61] while Mike Clarke of USA Today commended Peirce's depth of knowledge of the case and the subject matter: "Peirce seems to have researched her subject with grad-school-thesis intensity".[56] Online film reviewer James Berardinelli gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising the performances of Swank and Sevigny as the film's greatest success and likening the intensity of the film to that of a train wreck. Berardinelli stated that Swank "gives the performance of her career" and that "Sevigny's performance is more conventional than Swank's, but no less effective. She provides the counterbalance to the tide of hatred that drowns the last act of the film."[62] Emanuel Levy of Variety Magazine called the acting "flawless" and acknowledged that the "stunningly accomplished" and "candid" film could be "seen as a Rebel Without a Cause for these culturally diverse and complex times, with the two misfits enacting a version of the James Dean—Natalie Wood romance with utmost conviction, searching, like their '50s counterparts, for love, self-worth and a place to call home." Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post noted that the performances are of such "luminous humanity that they break your heart".[63] Premiere voted Swank's performance as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time".[64] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called Swank a "revelation" and noted that "by the end, her Brandon/Teena is beyond male or female. It's as if we were simply glimpsing the character's soul, in all its yearning and conflicted beauty".[65]
The film was not without detractors, with most backlash focusing primarily on the adult themed subject matter. Elizabeth L. Bland of Time magazine was one of the film's negative reviewers, claiming that "the film lets down the material. It's too cool: all attitude, no sizzle". Peter Rainer of New York Magazine gave an unfavorable comparison to Rebel Without a Cause (1954), calling it a "transgendered" version.[56] In 2007, Premiere voted the film one of the "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".[66]
The real Lana Tisdel declared her dislike for the film, claiming, among others, that Brandon never proposed to her, and in fact, when Tisdel discovered the truth about Brandon's gender, she ended the relationship on the spot and left Brandon. She did not like the way she herself was portrayed, and has said that this film is the "second murder of Brandon Teena".
Awards and nominations[edit]
The film won 43 awards and was nominated for 27 other awards. The majority of these nominations and wins were presented for Swank and Sevigny's performances.
 
Category — Recipient(s)


Academy Awards
Best Actress — Hilary Swank

Golden Globe Awards
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) — Hilary Swank

National Board of Review
Breakthrough Performance (Female) — Hilary Swank
 Outstanding Directorial Debut — Kimberly Peirce

Satellite Awards
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Hilary Swank
 Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role — Chloë Sevigny

GLAAD Media Awards
GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Limited Release — Boys Don't Cry

 
Category — Nominee(s)


Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actress — Chloë Sevigny

Golden Globe Awards
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Motion Picture) — Chloë Sevigny

Satellite Awards
Best Picture — Boys Don't Cry
 Best Director — Kimberly Peirce

Home media[edit]
A DVD version of Boys Don't Cry was released in April 2000 in the United States and Canada. In addition, the film was released on VHS in March 2000. The DVD contained an assortment of special features, including a commentary by Kimberly Peirce and a behind-the-scenes featurette, featuring interviews from Peirce, Swank and Sevigny. This same edition was re-released with different packaging in 2006 and again in 2009, once again with different cover art.
The film was released on Blu-ray on February 16, 2011 by 20th Century Fox Entertainment in conjunction with Fox Pathé Europa.[67] Exact technical specifications and exclusive special features are identical to the previous North American DVD release, with the exception of improved high definition picture quality.
Controversy[edit]
The accuracy of the film was disputed by real-life people involved in the murder. Lana Tisdel sued the film's producers for "invasion of privacy" and the unauthorized use of her name and likeness prior to the film's theatrical release. She claimed that the film depicted her as "lazy, white trash and a skanky snake". Tisdel claimed that the film falsely portrayed that she continued the relationship with Teena after she discovered Teena was anatomically and chromosomally female. She settled her lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed sum.[68][69] Swank received criticism from the family of Brandon Teena for her repeated use of the male gender pronoun "he" in her Oscar acceptance speech. Teena's mother, JoAnn Brandon, argued that her child's transgenderism was a defense mechanism that was developed in response to childhood sexual abuse, rather than being an expression of Teena's gendered sense of self: "She pretended she was a man so no other man could touch her."[70][71] Swank later apologized, but many transgender activists asserted that she was correct in referring to Teena as a man, as this was the gender in which Teena preferred to live and act.
Along with the portrayal of the actual ordeal and the people involved, the film garnered significant controversy for its graphic rape scene.[72] Initially assigned an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, the content was strongly toned down for the US release, where the film was rated R. Peirce was interviewed for the 2005 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated about the trouble the film had with the MPAA, particularly the censoring of the sex scenes.[73] The double rape caused significant problems with the MPAA and had to be trimmed to avoid the NC-17 rating.[74] The European version is more explicit, particularly with the first rape. Peirce displayed anger over the fact the MPAA wanted the sex scene between Brandon and Lana removed but was satisfied with the overall brutality and violence in the murder scene.[73]
See also[edit]
Transgender in film and television
New Queer Cinema
Gender identity disorder
A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story – A similar film detailing the transgender-related murder of Gwen Araujo.


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References[edit]
Notes
1.Jump up ^ Brandon Teena was never his legal name; it is uncertain the extent to which this name was used prior to his death. It is the name most commonly used by the press and other media. Other names may include his legal name, as well as "Billy Brenson" and "Teena Ray".
2.Jump up ^ In the Boys Don't Cry commentary contained on the 2000 and 2009 DVD release of the film, director Kimberly Peirce states that she admired the way Brandon behaved towards women, especially the good will and generosity he showed them.
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry". www.rogerebert.com. October 22, 1999. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
2.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry". The New York Times. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
3.Jump up ^ "A Transforming Role: For 'Boys Don't Cry', Hilary Swank Plumbed a Different Gender", The Dallas Morning News, October 23, 1999: 11
4.Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=gWIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65
5.Jump up ^ Death of a Deceiver from January 1995 edition of Playboy
6.Jump up ^ JoAnn Brandon v John Lotter (8th Cir. August 28, 1998). Case Law Text
7.Jump up ^ Howey, Noelle (March 22, 2000), "Boys Do Cry", Mother Jones (Foundation For National Progress), retrieved October 7, 2010
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Peirce, Kimberly (2000), Boys Don't Cry DVD commentary, Fox Searchlight Pictures
9.Jump up ^ "Why Filmmaker Had to Create 'Boys Don't Cry'", San Jose Mercury News, November 19, 1999: 8
10.^ Jump up to: a b Meyer, Andrea (October 1, 1999), "NYFF '99: No Tears for First-timer Kimberly Peirce, Director of "Boys Don't Cry"", indieWire, retrieved October 7, 2010
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Sragow, Michael (March 9, 2000), "The Secret Behind "Boys Don't Cry"", Salon.com, retrieved October 7, 2010
12.^ Jump up to: a b c d Allen, Jamie (October 22, 1999), "'Boys Don't Cry' Filmmaker Saw Past Violence to Love", CNN, retrieved October 7, 2010
13.Jump up ^ "Another 'Boy's' Suit is Settled", The Hollywood Reporter (subscription required) (e5 Global Media), March 16, 2000
14.Jump up ^ Seiler, Andy (October 28, 1999), "Many Crying Foul Over Brandon Movie", USA Today: 03.D
15.Jump up ^ Hart, Hugh (June 28, 2009), "'Reel Truth' Gets to the Bottom off Indies", San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved October 7, 2010
16.Jump up ^ Cholodenko, Lisa (September 1999), "Femme Fatals: Kimberly Peirce's Midwestern Tragedy Boys Don't Cry", Filmmaker Magazine 8
17.Jump up ^ Vaughan, Robert (April 21, 2000). "'Boys' Director Keeps Looking into Girl's Life". Boston Herald. p. 8.
18.^ Jump up to: a b Loos, Ted (October 3, 1999), "A Role Within a Role: A Girl Who Became a Boy", The New York Times, retrieved October 7, 2010
19.Jump up ^ Summer, Jane (March 10, 2000), "Cast as an Unknown in 'Boys,'Swank's Big News Now", The Dallas Morning News, retrieved September 16, 2010
20.Jump up ^ "Oscar Rematch". Toronto Star. February 27, 2005. p. C.03. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
21.^ Jump up to: a b Werner, Erica (March 29, 2000), "Swank's Hard Work Pays Off", Philippine Daily Inquirer (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc.), retrieved October 7, 2010
22.Jump up ^ "Swank Risks Health For Roles", PR-inside.com (World Entertainment News Network), December 20, 2006, retrieved October 7, 2010
23.Jump up ^ Dawson, Angela (January 2, 2007), "The Write Stuff", The Detroit News, retrieved June 1, 2007
24.Jump up ^ "Jamie Bell's Life Story Put on Screen", The Guardian (London), July 17, 2001, retrieved October 7, 2010
25.Jump up ^ "Cashing In". The Chicago Tribune. February 30, 2003. Check date values in: |date= (help);
26.Jump up ^ Leung, Rebecca (March 2, 2005), "Hilary Swank: Oscar Gold", CBS News, retrieved October 7, 2010
27.Jump up ^ Sevigny, Chloë (2009). The Last Days of Disco (DVD). The Criterion Collection.
28.^ Jump up to: a b Miller, Francesca (2000), "Kimberly Peirce, the Director of Boys Don't Cry", Gay Today
29.Jump up ^ Kennedy, Dana (March 12, 2000), "Oscar Films/First Timers: Who Says You Have to Struggle to Be a Star?", The New York Times, retrieved October 7, 2010
30.Jump up ^ Gilbey, Ryan (February 16, 2008), "Chloë's World", The Guardian (London), retrieved October 7, 2010
31.Jump up ^ Olsen, Mark (March 1, 2001), "Peter Sarsgaard", Interview: 160–163
32.Jump up ^ Wilson, Carmody (March 4, 2010), "Artfully Creepy", The Herald (Glasgow), retrieved October 7, 2010
33.Jump up ^ Lou, Lumenick (January 16, 2000), "Film Fiction: When Real life and Reel Life Collide", New York Post, retrieved September 16, 2010
34.Jump up ^ Ramsland, Katherine, "Teen Brandon: Teena or Brandon?", TruTV Crime Library (TruTV): 2, retrieved October 7, 2010
35.Jump up ^ Ramsland, Katherine, "Teen Brandon: The Hunt for Brandon", TruTV Crime Library (TruTV): 2, retrieved October 7, 2010
36.Jump up ^ "3 Slayings end a story of deception", The Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee Journal), January 3, 1994, retrieved August 12, 2012
37.Jump up ^ "Woman Who Posed As a Man Is Found Slain With 2 Others", The New York Times, January 4, 1994, retrieved August 12, 2012
38.^ Jump up to: a b c Herz (2007), pp. 30–43
39.^ Jump up to: a b c Jim Denault
40.Jump up ^ Jenkins, Tamara (2001), "Kimberly Pierce", Index Magazine
41.^ Jump up to: a b Tatara, Paul (January 17, 2000), "Boys Dont Cry Tops 10 Best Films of 99", CNN Entertainment (Turner Broadcasting System), retrieved October 7, 2010
42.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry Film Review", Herald Journal (Logan, Utah: Pioneer Newspapers), April 21, 2000
43.Jump up ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (October 11, 1999), "Boys Don't Cry", Salon.com, retrieved October 7, 2010
44.Jump up ^ "Movie Review - Boys Don't Cry". The New York Times. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
45.Jump up ^ Siegel, Carol (2003), "Curing Boys Don't Cry", Genders (37), retrieved October 7, 2010
46.^ Jump up to: a b c Ebert, Roger (October 22, 1999), "Boys Don't Cry", Chicago Sun-Times, retrieved October 7, 2010
47.Jump up ^ Blessing (2005), pp. 78–80
48.^ Jump up to: a b c Maslin, Janet (October 1, 1999), "Boys Don't Cry — Film Festival Reviews; Sometimes Accepting an Identity Means Accepting a Fate, Too", The New York Times, retrieved October 7, 2010
49.^ Jump up to: a b Nechak, Paula (October 29, 1999), "Radically Disturbing, 'Boys Don't Cry' is a Bold Cautionary Tale", The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved November 27, 2010
50.Jump up ^ Halberstam (2005)
51.Jump up ^ 2004, p. 117
52.Jump up ^ Wood (2004), pp. 19–20
53.Jump up ^ "Nominees & Winners for the 72nd Academy Awards", Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), retrieved October 7, 2010
54.^ Jump up to: a b "Top Films of The Year (1930–...)". The National Board of Review. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
55.Jump up ^ "Matthew Shepard Foundation webpage". Matthew Shepard Foundation. Retrieved October 9, 2010.[dead link]
56.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Boys Don't Cry (1999)", Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved October 4, 2010
57.Jump up ^ Wilmington, Michael (December 19, 1999), "A Toast to 1999's Best Films", Chicago Tribune: 1, retrieved October 1, 2010
58.Jump up ^ "The Straight Story? A Year Filled With Good Pictures", The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 26, 1999: K5, retrieved October 1, 2010
59.Jump up ^ "Greatest Films of 1999", Filmsite.org (AMC), retrieved October 1, 2010
60.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry". Rolling Stone online. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
61.Jump up ^ Turan, Kenneth (October 22, 1999), "'Boys Don't Cry': Devastating Price of Daring to Be Different", Los Angeles Times, retrieved October 7, 2010
62.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry: A Film Review", Reel Reviews, retrieved December 2, 2010
63.Jump up ^ Levy, Emanuel (September 1, 1999), "Boys Don't Cry Review", Variety, retrieved October 7, 2010
64.Jump up ^ "The 100 Greatest Performances of All Time: 100 – 75", Premiere, December 3, 2008, retrieved October 7, 2010
65.Jump up ^ Gleiberman, Owen (October 15, 1999), "Boys Don't Cry (1999)", Entertainment Weekly, retrieved October 7, 2010
66.Jump up ^ Kenny, Glenn (March 15, 2007), "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies Ever Made: 24. Boys Don't Cry (1999)", Premiere, retrieved October 7, 2010
67.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry on Blu-ray". Retrieved December 2, 2010.
68.Jump up ^ "Brandon Film Lawsuit Settled", Chicago Sun-Times, March 11, 2000: 18
69.Jump up ^ Hawker, Philippa (March 1, 2002), "Seeing Doubles", The Age (Melbourne), retrieved October 7, 2010
70.Jump up ^ Angulo, Sandra P. (March 29, 2000), "Head Banger", Entertainment Weekly, retrieved November 21, 2010
71.Jump up ^ "Soar Throat Cited for Houston's Oscar No-Show", Philadelphia Inquirer, March 29, 2000, retrieved November 21, 2010
72.Jump up ^ Peirce, Kimberly (March 28, 2000), "Brandon Goes to Hollywood", The Advocate: 44–46
73.^ Jump up to: a b Dick, Kirby (director) (2006). This Film Is Not Yet Rated (Motion picture DVD). IFC Films.
74.Jump up ^ "Reasons for Movie Ratings (CARA)", Filmratings.com (Motion Picture Association of America), retrieved October 7, 2010
Bibliography
Blessing, Kimberly Ann; Tudico, Paul J. (2005), Movies and the Meaning of Life: Philosophers Take on Hollywood, Chicago: Open Court Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8126-9575-5
Moss and Zeavin, Donald and Lynne (2001), The Real Thing? Some Thoughts on 'Boys Don't Cry'. In Gabbard, Glen O. Psychoanalysis and Film. International Journal of Psychoanalysis Key Paper Series., Karnac Books, ISBN 978-1-85575-275-7
Halberstam, Judith (2005), In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, New York City: NYU Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-3585-5
Wood, Jason (2004), 100 American Independent Films, BFI Film Guides, ISBN 978-1-84457-005-8
Herz, Kathrin (2007), The Pressure to Conform to the "correct" Gender in 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'Brokeback Mountain', GRIN Verlag, ISBN 978-3-638-87308-6
External links[edit]
Official website
Boys Don't Cry at the Internet Movie Database
Boys Don't Cry at AllMovie
Boys Don't Cry at Box Office Mojo
Boys Don't Cry at Rotten Tomatoes


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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_Don%27t_Cry_(film)









Boys Don't Cry (film)
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Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry movie.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Kimberly Peirce
Produced by
Christine Vachon
Eva Kolodner
Written by
Kimberly Peirce
 Andy Bienen
Starring
Hilary Swank
Chloë Sevigny
Peter Sarsgaard
Brendan Sexton III
Alicia Goranson
Jeanetta Arnette
Matt McGrath
Music by
Nathan Larson
Cinematography
Jim Denault
Edited by
Tracy Granger
Distributed by
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Release dates

October 8, 1999


Running time
 118 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$2 million
Box office
$11,540,607
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a trans man played in the film by Hilary Swank, who is beaten, raped and murdered by his male acquaintances after they discover he is anatomically female. The picture explores the themes of freedom, courage, identity and empowerment. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures and was released theatrically in October 1999.
After reading about the murder of Brandon Teena while in college, Peirce intently researched the case—as well as Teena's life—and worked on a screenplay for the film for almost five years. All She Wanted, the 1996 book about the case written by Aphrodite Jones, inspired Peirce, but she chose to focus the story on the relationship between Brandon and his girlfriend Lana Tisdel. Many actors campaigned for the lead over the course of three years; a then unknown Swank was cast because her personality seemed similar to Teena's. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alicia Goranson, Jeanetta Arnette, and Matt McGrath. The majority of characters were based on real-life people, while some were composites. Shooting lasted from October until November 1998 and filming took place in the area of Dallas, Texas.
Boys Don't Cry premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 8, 1999 to overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics and was widely cited as one of the best films of the year.[1][2] Praise was specifically focused on the two lead performances by Swank and Sevigny. The film received a limited nationwide release on October 22, 1999, and performed moderately well at the North American box office. At the 72nd Academy Awards in 2000, Swank was awarded an Oscar for Best Actress, while Sevigny was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film has been cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999, initially being assigned an NC-17 rating, later modified to an R rating. The release of the film was concurrent with the murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard, which sparked additional public interest.[3] The film was named after the song of the same name by The Cure, and a cover version of the song appears in the film.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Background
3.2 Casting
3.3 Filming 3.3.1 Principal photography
3.4 Cinematography
3.5 Music
4 Themes
5 Release 5.1 Critical reception
5.2 Awards and nominations
5.3 Home media
6 Controversy
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) is a young female-to-male non-operative transgender man, whose birth name was Teena Renae Brandon.[4] When Brandon is discovered to be anatomically female by the brother of a former girlfriend, he becomes the target of physical threats. Not long after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin's trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska, where he cultivates friendships with ex-convicts John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom Nissen (Brendan Sexton III), and their friends Candace (Alicia Goranson) and Lana Tisdel (Chloë Sevigny). Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is unaware of his biological sex and troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis, where Brandon will manage Lana in a karaoke career.
Brandon is detained for charges that arose prior to his relocation and placed in the women's section of the Falls City prison. Lana bails Brandon out. After Lana asks why Brandon was in a women's prison, Brandon lies to her, saying he was born a hermaphrodite and will soon receive a sex change. Lana declares her love for Brandon, "no matter what he is." Tom and John become suspicious after they read a newspaper article about Brandon that refers to him by his birth name, Teena Brandon. Tom and John force Brandon to remove his pants, revealing his genitals. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes and turns away. After this confrontation Tom and John drag Brandon into Lotter's car and drive out to an isolated location, where they violently beat and rape him. Afterward, they take Brandon to Nissen's house. Though injured, Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Having been threatened by his assailants and told not to report the attack to the police, a distressed Brandon is nonetheless convinced by Lana to file a report.
One evening, John and Tom get drunk, and decide to kill Brandon. Despite Lana's attempts to stop them, John and Tom drive to Candace's remote house where they find Brandon, who has been hiding in a shed on Candace's property. John shoots Brandon under the chin, and Tom shoots Candace in the head while Lana fights them and screams for them to stop. Tom stabs Brandon's lifeless body and then he attempts to shoot Lana, but is stopped by John. John and Tom flee the scene, while Lana lies with Brandon's dead body.
The next morning, Lana wakes up on Brandon's dead body. Her mother arrives and takes an emotionally wrenched Lana away from the scene. The film ends with Lana leaving Falls City while a letter Brandon wrote to her is read in a voice-over.
Cast[edit]
Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena
Chloë Sevigny as Lana Tisdel
Peter Sarsgaard as John Lotter
Brendan Sexton III as Tom Nissen
Lecy Goranson as Candace
Jeanetta Arnette as Lana's Mom
Matt McGrath as Lonny
Alison Folland as Kate
Libby Villari as the Nurse
Lou Perryman as Sheriff Charles B. Laux
Production[edit]
Background[edit]
Brandon Teena was a trans man who was raped and murdered by two male acquaintances in December 1993, when he was 21.[nb 1][5][6][7] Kimberly Peirce, at the time a Columbia University film student, became interested in the case after reading a 1994 Village Voice article by Donna Minkowitz.[8][9] Peirce became engrossed in Brandon's life and death and recalls, "the minute I read about Brandon, I fell in love. With the intensity of his desire to turn himself into a boy, the fact that he did it with no role models. The leap of imagination that this person took was completely overwhelming to me."[10] The sensational publicity and coverage generated by the case prolonged her interest.[8] Peirce stated she looked beyond the brutality of the case and instead viewed the positive aspects of Brandon's life as hopeful and full of goodwill. She admired Brandon's "audacity", compassion, free spirit, and passionate "generosity" toward women.[11][nb 2]
Peirce wanted to tell the story from Brandon's perspective. She felt there was an inspirational, tragic story behind the ordeal that was different from the one presented to the public. Peirce wanted to use the film as an opportunity to present Brandon's search for freedom rather than capitalize on his sexual identity crisis. She was familiar with Brandon's desire to wear men's clothing: "I started looking at all the other coverage and a great deal of it was sensational. People were focusing on the spectacle of a girl who had passed as a boy because that is so unfamiliar to so many people. Where to me, I knew girls who had passed as boys, so Brandon was not some weird person to me. Brandon was a very familiar person."[12] Peirce was influenced by the public perception of the case, believing the American public were generally misinformed: "People were also focusing on the crime without giving it much emotional understanding and I think that's really dangerous, especially with this culture of violence that we live in."[12] Peirce began working on a concept for the film and gave it the working title Take It Like a Man.
The project drew interest from various production bodies. Diane Keaton's production company showed interest in the screenplay in the mid-1990s, with Drew Barrymore an early candidate to star. Initially the film was to be largely based on Aphrodite Jones' 1996 true crime book All She Wanted, which told the story of Brandon's final few weeks alive.[13] Rather than focusing on Brandon's early life and background, the screenplay was subsequently modified closer to Peirce's vision, which focused the majority of the film on the relationship between Brandon and girlfriend Lana Tisdel[14] and the events that led to Brandon's murder. Peirce felt there was a "great love story" at the center of the case.[8] In order to fund the writing and development of the feature, Peirce worked as a paralegal on a midnight shift and as a 35mm film projectionist, and received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant.[15] The project attracted the attention of producer Christine Vachon, who had seen Peirce's short film she had made for her thesis in 1995.[10] Peirce co-wrote the screenplay with Andy Bienen. They worked together for a year and a half on the final drafts and made sure they didn't "mythologize" Brandon; the aim was to keep him as human as possible.
Prior to filming, Peirce conducted extensive research into the case which lasted almost five-and-a-half years.[16] She immersed herself in the extensive information available about the murder, including trial transcripts. She met Lana Tisdel at a convenience store and subsequently interviewed her at her home. Peirce also interviewed Tisdel's mother. She also interviewed Brandon's friends, but was unable to interview Brandon's mother or any of his biological family.[8][12] Much factual information was incorporated into Boys Don't Cry, including Nissen being an arsonist, and the games of chicken and joy riding that were a common pastime of the real Lotter, Nissen, and Brandon.
Casting[edit]



Hilary Swank had initially lied to Kimberly Peirce about her background. When confronted about the lies, Swank told Peirce "but that's what Brandon would do" and she was eventually cast in the film. To prepare for the role, Swank lived as a man for one month.
The filmmakers retained the names of most of the real-life protagonists. Several supporting characters were given different names, including Candace's character, who in real life was named Lisa Lambert. The casting process for Boys Don't Cry was extensive and lasted for almost four years.[17] Peirce scouted the LGBT community, looking mainly for masculine lesbian women for the role of Brandon Teena. The LGBT community was highly interested in the project because of all the publicity the murder had received.[8] High profile actors were not sent to auditions at the request of their agents because of the stigma associated with the role. The project was almost abandoned because Peirce was not satisfied with most of the people who auditioned.[18] In 1996, after a hundred actresses had been considered and rejected, a then relatively unknown Hilary Swank sent a videotape to Peirce and was signed on to the project.[8][19] During her audition, Swank, who was 22 at the time, presented Peirce with a lie about her age. Swank claimed that, like Brandon, she was also 21 years of age. When Peirce later confronted her about the lies, Swank responded, "But that's what Brandon would do."[20] Swank's anonymity as an actress persuaded Peirce to cast her; Peirce said that she did not want a "known actor" to portray Teena.[21]



Chloë Sevigny had initially sought after the role of Brandon Teena. Kimberly Peirce, however, believed she would be better suited playing Lana Tisdel.
Swank underwent significant preparation for the role by dressing and living as a man for at least a month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her pants in much the same way as Brandon Teena had done. Her masquerade became particularly convincing. Swank's neighbors believed the "young man" coming and going from her home was Swank's visiting brother. She reduced her body fat to seven percent to accentuate her facial structure and refused to let the cast and crew see her out of costume.[21][22] Swank earned only $75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, culminating in a total of $3,000.[23][24][25] Her earnings were so low that she did not earn enough to qualify for health insurance.[26]
Peirce had envisioned only two actors for the role of Lana Tisdel: a young Jodie Foster and Chloë Sevigny, who had prior credits in mostly independent films. Peirce had decided to cast Sevigny based on her impressive performance in The Last Days of Disco (1998).[27] Sevigny had auditioned for the role of Brandon,[28] but Peirce decided that Sevigny would be suited playing Tisdel.[29][30] Sevigny dyed her hair red for the role to match the real Lana's strawberry blonde hair. Peirce later said: "Chloë just surrendered to the part. She watched videos of Lana. She just became her very naturally. She's not one of those Hollywood actresses who diets and gets plastic surgery. You never catch her acting". Peter Sarsgaard plays John Lotter, Lana's charismatic former boyfriend and the man responsible for Teena's rape and murder. Sarsgaard was one of the first choices for the role. He later commented that he wanted his character to be "likable, sympathetic even", because he wanted the audience "to understand why they would hang out with me. If my character wasn't necessarily likable, I wanted him to be charismatic enough that you weren't going to have a dull time if you were with him."[31] In another interview, Sarsgaard said he felt "empowered" by playing Lotter.[32] Peirce cast Alicia Goranson, known for playing Becky on the sitcom Roseanne, as Candace because of her likeness to Lisa Lambert, who was 24 when she was shot by John Lotter.[8] Like Sevigny, Goranson had initially auditioned for the lead role.[28]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography[edit]
Principal photography for Boys Don't Cry lasted from October 19 to November 24, 1998. The small budget dictated some of the filming decisions, including omitting incidents to speed up the overall pacing. Timing constraints put limits on what could be achieved with the narrative.[8][33] The film portrays a double murder when in actuality a third person, Phillip DeVine, a black disabled man, was killed at the scene. At the time he had been dating Lana Tisdel's sister, Leslie Tisdel.[34][35] Peirce produced the film independently on a $2 million budget. Boys Don't Cry was primarily filmed in Greenville, Texas, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Most of the actual incidents took place in Nebraska,[36][37] but the Texas locations were chosen due to budget constraints.[8] Peirce incorporated filming techniques that gave the audience an opportunity to delve into Brandon's perspective, his imagination, and the way he perceived things. "The work was informing me about how I wanted to represent it. I wanted the audience to enter deeply into this place, this character, so they could entertain these contradictions in Brandon's own mind and would not think he was crazy, would not think he was lying, but would see him as more deeply human."[8][12] Peirce took inspiration from other true crime films, including In Cold Blood (1967), directed by Richard Brooks and the fictional love-on-the-run tale Badlands (1973), directed by Terrence Malick. She also drew some inspiration from the story of Pinocchio. Peirce chose to not show how Brandon looked before he began cross-dressing, so the audience could recognise Brandon the way he perceived himself—as a male.[38]
Boys Don't Cry featured various scenes which required emotional and physical intensity and thus were allocated extended periods of filming. The bumper-skiing scene was delayed when a police officer, just arriving at a shift change, required that a large lighting crane be moved from one side of the road to the other. The scenes took six hours to shoot and ended up being filmed at sunrise, which resulted in a blue sky in the background.[8] A flood gave the cast and crew a "mud bath" and resulted in some of the filming equipment being stuck in mud. Radio wires in some of the scenes conflicted with the sound production. Swank required a stunt double for the scene in which she falls off the back of a truck. Teena's rape scene was given an extended filming time, and Sexton, who portrayed the attacker, walked away in tears afterward.[8] Swank also found portraying her character daunting and felt the need to "keep a distance" from the fact that the event actually occurred. When scenes became difficult, Swank requested the company of her husband on set.[18]
Initially, the restricted budget gave Boys Don't Cry five weeks of filming (32 days). When Fox Searchlight purchased the film in 1998 and IFC Films agreed to distribute it, the project gained an additional day of photography the following Spring, the most significant part of which was the scene of Lana driving from the beginning of the film.[39]
Cinematography[edit]



 Peirce set up a sequence to make the viewer feel like they are walking with Brandon while on his date. The three-shot structure was inspired by a scene from The Wizard of Oz (1939). After a shot of the character; he walks through the door; the viewer sees the door opening; the character goes through the door; the viewer goes through the door.[8]
Peirce had originally sought a career in photography, but chose to pursue a career in film making instead, which gave her the ability to apply techniques she had learned into the film.[40] She described the mood she was trying to evoke as "artificial night" —a mirror to the characters' mental states which was, in many cases, influenced by the use of chemical stimulants.[clarification needed] Director of Photography Jim Denault showed her the work of photographer Jan Staller, whose long exposure night photography under artificial lighting inspired Denault to avoid using "moonlight" effects for most of the film. As a way to further incorporate the sense of artificial night, John Pirozzi, who had been doing some experiments with time-lapse photography using non-motion-controlled moving camera, was invited to create the striking transition shots seen throughout the film.[39]
The visual style is often dark, saturated, and raw, depicting the harsh Midwestern United States in a "withdrawn",[41] dark and understated light to give a "surreal" effect.[42] Denault shot Boys Don't Cry in flat spherical format on 35 mm film using Kodak Vision film stock. The film was shot with a Moviecam Compact camera and Carl Zeiss super speed lenses. For the violent, emotionally charged scenes (such as the scene in which Brandon is stripped), a hand-held camera was used to give a sense of subjectivity to the scene.[39]
Many scenes were shot at night to give a muted palete. However, there is a significant use of color and brightness in certain scenes, such as both scenes featuring Brandon and Lana making love. During a very compressed prep period Peirce and Denault talked through the whole script and drew storyboards for the major scenes, many of which are representative of how the scene was finally shot. She also watched several of her favorite films and broke down certain scenes that she had liked. In addition, she took a significant portion of visual inspiration from older films, including Raging Bull (1980) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Peirce opened the film with a shot of Brandon traveling down the highway, as seen from the character's imaginative or dream perspective, similar to the beginning of Raging Bull.[8] Peirce also used the same shots in the opening roller rink scene (where Brandon pursues his first relationship with a young girl) that were used in The Wizard of Oz (1939) when Dorothy first left her house and entered the land of Oz. The scene consists of a three shot sequence meant to symbolize a metaphoric "entrance to manhood" for Brandon. Some scenes were given a prolonged shooting sequence to induce a hallucinatory feeling. An example is the sequence in which Lana has an orgasm, followed by a shot of her, Brandon, Candace, and Kate driving in a car against the backdrop of the city skyline.
Peirce drew inspiration from the filming style of John Cassavetes and the early work of Martin Scorsese, and incorporated neo-realism techniques in filming.[11] When a character expresses a dream or hopeful assertion about their dead-end existence, Peirce cuts to an "eerily lit" dream landscape, which one critic observed was "almost David Lynch-like in its beauty, dotted with simple elements like water towers, naked trees and low ceilings of clouds."[43] Time lapse photography is used in several sequences, most significantly in the scene where Brandon and Lana discuss plans to tell the family that she has "seen him in the full-flesh", and when Lana is seen driving on the highway after Brandon's murder, before the credits appear.
Music[edit]
The Boys Don't Cry soundtrack features a compilation of country and rock music from the film. Nathan Larson and Nina Persson of The Cardigans composed an instrumental version of Restless Heart's 1988 country-pop hit "The Bluest Eyes in Texas". A variation of the song was used as the film's "love theme" and score,[8] while the actual song appeared during a karaoke scene, sung by Sevigny and at the end of the film. The title of the film is taken from the song of the same name by British rock band The Cure. An American cover of the song plays in the background in two scenes: when Lana bails Brandon out of jail, and the scene in which the two make love in the car, where it is heard at a low volume in the background. However, the song is not included on the released soundtrack. In addition, songs from Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Tuesday's Gone"), Paisley Underground band Opal ("She's A Diamond") and The Charlatans ("Codine Blues") also appear, as well as various covers. The soundtrack was released on November 23, 1999, by record label Koch Records.
"The Bluest Eyes in Texas" was played when Hilary Swank went onstage to receive her Academy Award for Best Actress in 2000.
Themes[edit]



Unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times[44]
Boys Don't Cry has been regarded academically as a thematically rich love story between two ill-fated lovers, not unlike Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet or the story of Bonnie and Clyde.[45] Some critics regarded the film as being a "romantic tragedy" occurring in a working class American setting. Roger Ebert supported this view, calling the film a "Romeo and Juliet set in a Nebraska trailer park".[46] In trailers, the film was marketed as a non-fictional tale about "hope, fear and the courage that it takes to be yourself". This summarization strengthens the academic view that the film is about the search for freedom and identity in a society where diversity is rarely accepted.[38] The question of identity (particularly Brandon's) is alluded to frequently in Boys Don't Cry and the line "who are you?" is even uttered at one point in the film by Lana to Brandon. Peirce proposes this as the main question of the film.[47] Janet Maslin stated the film was about accepting identity, which in turn means accepting the fate predisposed for that identity.[48] Critics like Paula Nechak have called the film a "bold cautionary tale",[49] with references to the pressure of conformity and acceptance, and some critics even cite parallels to Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005).[38] Nachak regarded the film as a negative, dismal depiction of Midwestern America: "[Peirce's film has] captured the mystique and eerie loneliness" and "isolation of the Midwest, with its dusty desolation and nowhere-to-go frustration that propels people to violence and despair."[49] Some critics noted that the film was about the illusions often produced by love or a strong relationship.
Critics and academics have attributed Boys Don't Cry's success to the fact that it ostensibly argued for tolerance of sexual diversity by depicting a relationship between two unlikely people. This tragic aspect of the love story led many commentators to compare Brandon and Lana's relationship and subsequent drama to classic and modern romances like Romeo and Juliet, often using the term star-crossed lovers.[50] Freedom is an obvious and dominant theme in Boys Don't Cry. Brandon was in search of a place to be himself, having been ostracized and judged by nearly everyone who discovered his biological sex. Critics have called the film a "sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame",[46] describing Brandon—heroic and fatally flawed—as this spirit who was murdered when angry townspeople discovered who he really was.
Maslin saw Boys Don't Cry as a tale of a trapped small town character's search for life beyond their rural existence and the high price they pay for their view of the "American dream".[48] Brandon yearns for the freedom of a new life, and Lana, who sees Brandon as an escape from her small town life, gains the ability to make the leap of faith. It is Brandon who provides Lana with the opportunity to escape. At one point in the film, Lana even discusses running away to Memphis with the intentions of starting a new life as a karaoke singer with Brandon as her manager. Most of the characters lead a dull and meaningless existence in a desolate small town. Many of them drink at the local bar and abuse recreational drugs to pass the time and block out their disappointing realities. Christine Vachon stated that "It's about these guys whose world is so tenuous and so fragile that they can't stand to have any of their beliefs shattered", in regards to John and Tom's views about their life, Brandon's aspirations and his biological sex. Along with other turn-of-the-millennium films such as Fight Club (1999), In the Company of Men (1997), American Psycho (2000) and American Beauty (1999), critics suggest Boys Don't Cry "raises the broader, widely explored issue of masculinity in crisis".[51] In addition, some scholars and authors have regarded the film as an exploration on "social problems", along with Patty Jenkins's Monster (2004).[52]
Release[edit]
Boys Don't Cry premiered in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 1999. It received its US premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 8, 1999, to critical acclaim. It was shown at the Reel Affirmations International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in early October to further praise. Boys Don't Cry was given a special screening at the Sundance Film Festival. The film received a limited release theatrically on October 22, 1999, in the United States, where it was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, that specializes in independent films. The film grossed $73,720 in its opening week, followed by an additional $237,504 by October 17, 1999. By December 5, the film had grossed in excess of $2 million. By May 2000, the film had a United States total gross of $12 million—more than threefold higher than its production budget. Internationally, the film was released on March 2, 2000 in Australia and April 7, 2000 in the United Kingdom.
The film won a variety of awards, with the majority of wins going to Swank for her performance. Swank won a Best Actress Oscar while Sevigny received a nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress.[53] From the Hollywood Foreign Press, the film received two Golden Globe nominations in the same two categories (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress) for Swank and Sevigny, with one win (Best Actress). Swank and Sevigny both received Best Actress Awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award. The film won three awards at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards: Best Actress (Swank), Best Supporting Actress (Sevigny), and Best Director (Peirce). Swank and Sevigny won Satellite Awards for their performances, while the film itself was nominated in two other categories: Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director. It was named one of the best films of the year by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.[54] Boys Don't Cry's release was concurrent with the murder of a homosexual teenager, Matthew Shepard, who was killed on October 12, 1998, almost a year before the film's premiere. The murder sparked additional public interest in hate crime legislation in America and in Brandon Teena, and aided public interest in Boys Don't Cry.[55]
Critical reception[edit]



"There may not be a better acted film this year. Every inch of the character exudes a male sensibility so powerfully, and at times so vulnerably, that Swank's performance crosses into a realm of veracity rare in any film acting.
Peter Stack of The San Francisco Chronicle[56]
Boys Don't Cry received a highly favorable critical reception in 1999, with many critics declaring it one of the best films of the year.[41][54][57][58][59] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% out of 75 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with the site consensus being that "Hilary Swank's acclaimed performance pays fitting tribute to the tragic life of Brandon Teena."[56] Some critics called the film one of the most "sensational independent movies" in years. One reviewer said the film was a "critical knockout".[11] The performances of Swank and Sevigny were picked out as some of the film's strongest elements, with many critics declaring Swank's performance to be "one of the greatest" in recent years. Swank was considered an immediate favourite to win Best Actress at various film awards, including the 72nd Academy Awards.



"Swank and Sevigny give performances that burn in the memory. Boys Don't Cry means to shake you, and does.
Rolling Stone magazine[60]
Boys Don't Cry became one of the most applauded films of the year. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was particularly enthusiastic in his review: he called it "one of the best films of the year", and listed it as one of his five best films of 1999, stating "this could have been a clinical movie of the week, but instead it's a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame".[46] Janet Maslin of The New York Times said the film was "stunning", and gave it four out of four stars. Maslin observed that "unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope".[48] She ended up calling Boys Don't Cry "the best film of the year". Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times praised the lack of romanticization and dramatization of the characters and reported that "Peirce and Bienen and the expert cast engage us in the actuality of these rootless, hopeless, stoned-out lives without sentimentalizing or romanticizing them" and said that "Boys Don't Cry is an exceptional—and exceptionally disturbing film",[61] while Mike Clarke of USA Today commended Peirce's depth of knowledge of the case and the subject matter: "Peirce seems to have researched her subject with grad-school-thesis intensity".[56] Online film reviewer James Berardinelli gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising the performances of Swank and Sevigny as the film's greatest success and likening the intensity of the film to that of a train wreck. Berardinelli stated that Swank "gives the performance of her career" and that "Sevigny's performance is more conventional than Swank's, but no less effective. She provides the counterbalance to the tide of hatred that drowns the last act of the film."[62] Emanuel Levy of Variety Magazine called the acting "flawless" and acknowledged that the "stunningly accomplished" and "candid" film could be "seen as a Rebel Without a Cause for these culturally diverse and complex times, with the two misfits enacting a version of the James Dean—Natalie Wood romance with utmost conviction, searching, like their '50s counterparts, for love, self-worth and a place to call home." Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post noted that the performances are of such "luminous humanity that they break your heart".[63] Premiere voted Swank's performance as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time".[64] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called Swank a "revelation" and noted that "by the end, her Brandon/Teena is beyond male or female. It's as if we were simply glimpsing the character's soul, in all its yearning and conflicted beauty".[65]
The film was not without detractors, with most backlash focusing primarily on the adult themed subject matter. Elizabeth L. Bland of Time magazine was one of the film's negative reviewers, claiming that "the film lets down the material. It's too cool: all attitude, no sizzle". Peter Rainer of New York Magazine gave an unfavorable comparison to Rebel Without a Cause (1954), calling it a "transgendered" version.[56] In 2007, Premiere voted the film one of the "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".[66]
The real Lana Tisdel declared her dislike for the film, claiming, among others, that Brandon never proposed to her, and in fact, when Tisdel discovered the truth about Brandon's gender, she ended the relationship on the spot and left Brandon. She did not like the way she herself was portrayed, and has said that this film is the "second murder of Brandon Teena".
Awards and nominations[edit]
The film won 43 awards and was nominated for 27 other awards. The majority of these nominations and wins were presented for Swank and Sevigny's performances.
 
Category — Recipient(s)


Academy Awards
Best Actress — Hilary Swank

Golden Globe Awards
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) — Hilary Swank

National Board of Review
Breakthrough Performance (Female) — Hilary Swank
 Outstanding Directorial Debut — Kimberly Peirce

Satellite Awards
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Hilary Swank
 Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role — Chloë Sevigny

GLAAD Media Awards
GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Limited Release — Boys Don't Cry

 
Category — Nominee(s)


Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actress — Chloë Sevigny

Golden Globe Awards
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Motion Picture) — Chloë Sevigny

Satellite Awards
Best Picture — Boys Don't Cry
 Best Director — Kimberly Peirce

Home media[edit]
A DVD version of Boys Don't Cry was released in April 2000 in the United States and Canada. In addition, the film was released on VHS in March 2000. The DVD contained an assortment of special features, including a commentary by Kimberly Peirce and a behind-the-scenes featurette, featuring interviews from Peirce, Swank and Sevigny. This same edition was re-released with different packaging in 2006 and again in 2009, once again with different cover art.
The film was released on Blu-ray on February 16, 2011 by 20th Century Fox Entertainment in conjunction with Fox Pathé Europa.[67] Exact technical specifications and exclusive special features are identical to the previous North American DVD release, with the exception of improved high definition picture quality.
Controversy[edit]
The accuracy of the film was disputed by real-life people involved in the murder. Lana Tisdel sued the film's producers for "invasion of privacy" and the unauthorized use of her name and likeness prior to the film's theatrical release. She claimed that the film depicted her as "lazy, white trash and a skanky snake". Tisdel claimed that the film falsely portrayed that she continued the relationship with Teena after she discovered Teena was anatomically and chromosomally female. She settled her lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed sum.[68][69] Swank received criticism from the family of Brandon Teena for her repeated use of the male gender pronoun "he" in her Oscar acceptance speech. Teena's mother, JoAnn Brandon, argued that her child's transgenderism was a defense mechanism that was developed in response to childhood sexual abuse, rather than being an expression of Teena's gendered sense of self: "She pretended she was a man so no other man could touch her."[70][71] Swank later apologized, but many transgender activists asserted that she was correct in referring to Teena as a man, as this was the gender in which Teena preferred to live and act.
Along with the portrayal of the actual ordeal and the people involved, the film garnered significant controversy for its graphic rape scene.[72] Initially assigned an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, the content was strongly toned down for the US release, where the film was rated R. Peirce was interviewed for the 2005 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated about the trouble the film had with the MPAA, particularly the censoring of the sex scenes.[73] The double rape caused significant problems with the MPAA and had to be trimmed to avoid the NC-17 rating.[74] The European version is more explicit, particularly with the first rape. Peirce displayed anger over the fact the MPAA wanted the sex scene between Brandon and Lana removed but was satisfied with the overall brutality and violence in the murder scene.[73]
See also[edit]
Transgender in film and television
New Queer Cinema
Gender identity disorder
A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story – A similar film detailing the transgender-related murder of Gwen Araujo.


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References[edit]
Notes
1.Jump up ^ Brandon Teena was never his legal name; it is uncertain the extent to which this name was used prior to his death. It is the name most commonly used by the press and other media. Other names may include his legal name, as well as "Billy Brenson" and "Teena Ray".
2.Jump up ^ In the Boys Don't Cry commentary contained on the 2000 and 2009 DVD release of the film, director Kimberly Peirce states that she admired the way Brandon behaved towards women, especially the good will and generosity he showed them.
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry". www.rogerebert.com. October 22, 1999. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
2.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry". The New York Times. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
3.Jump up ^ "A Transforming Role: For 'Boys Don't Cry', Hilary Swank Plumbed a Different Gender", The Dallas Morning News, October 23, 1999: 11
4.Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=gWIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65
5.Jump up ^ Death of a Deceiver from January 1995 edition of Playboy
6.Jump up ^ JoAnn Brandon v John Lotter (8th Cir. August 28, 1998). Case Law Text
7.Jump up ^ Howey, Noelle (March 22, 2000), "Boys Do Cry", Mother Jones (Foundation For National Progress), retrieved October 7, 2010
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Peirce, Kimberly (2000), Boys Don't Cry DVD commentary, Fox Searchlight Pictures
9.Jump up ^ "Why Filmmaker Had to Create 'Boys Don't Cry'", San Jose Mercury News, November 19, 1999: 8
10.^ Jump up to: a b Meyer, Andrea (October 1, 1999), "NYFF '99: No Tears for First-timer Kimberly Peirce, Director of "Boys Don't Cry"", indieWire, retrieved October 7, 2010
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Sragow, Michael (March 9, 2000), "The Secret Behind "Boys Don't Cry"", Salon.com, retrieved October 7, 2010
12.^ Jump up to: a b c d Allen, Jamie (October 22, 1999), "'Boys Don't Cry' Filmmaker Saw Past Violence to Love", CNN, retrieved October 7, 2010
13.Jump up ^ "Another 'Boy's' Suit is Settled", The Hollywood Reporter (subscription required) (e5 Global Media), March 16, 2000
14.Jump up ^ Seiler, Andy (October 28, 1999), "Many Crying Foul Over Brandon Movie", USA Today: 03.D
15.Jump up ^ Hart, Hugh (June 28, 2009), "'Reel Truth' Gets to the Bottom off Indies", San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved October 7, 2010
16.Jump up ^ Cholodenko, Lisa (September 1999), "Femme Fatals: Kimberly Peirce's Midwestern Tragedy Boys Don't Cry", Filmmaker Magazine 8
17.Jump up ^ Vaughan, Robert (April 21, 2000). "'Boys' Director Keeps Looking into Girl's Life". Boston Herald. p. 8.
18.^ Jump up to: a b Loos, Ted (October 3, 1999), "A Role Within a Role: A Girl Who Became a Boy", The New York Times, retrieved October 7, 2010
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47.Jump up ^ Blessing (2005), pp. 78–80
48.^ Jump up to: a b c Maslin, Janet (October 1, 1999), "Boys Don't Cry — Film Festival Reviews; Sometimes Accepting an Identity Means Accepting a Fate, Too", The New York Times, retrieved October 7, 2010
49.^ Jump up to: a b Nechak, Paula (October 29, 1999), "Radically Disturbing, 'Boys Don't Cry' is a Bold Cautionary Tale", The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved November 27, 2010
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66.Jump up ^ Kenny, Glenn (March 15, 2007), "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies Ever Made: 24. Boys Don't Cry (1999)", Premiere, retrieved October 7, 2010
67.Jump up ^ "Boys Don't Cry on Blu-ray". Retrieved December 2, 2010.
68.Jump up ^ "Brandon Film Lawsuit Settled", Chicago Sun-Times, March 11, 2000: 18
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70.Jump up ^ Angulo, Sandra P. (March 29, 2000), "Head Banger", Entertainment Weekly, retrieved November 21, 2010
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73.^ Jump up to: a b Dick, Kirby (director) (2006). This Film Is Not Yet Rated (Motion picture DVD). IFC Films.
74.Jump up ^ "Reasons for Movie Ratings (CARA)", Filmratings.com (Motion Picture Association of America), retrieved October 7, 2010
Bibliography
Blessing, Kimberly Ann; Tudico, Paul J. (2005), Movies and the Meaning of Life: Philosophers Take on Hollywood, Chicago: Open Court Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8126-9575-5
Moss and Zeavin, Donald and Lynne (2001), The Real Thing? Some Thoughts on 'Boys Don't Cry'. In Gabbard, Glen O. Psychoanalysis and Film. International Journal of Psychoanalysis Key Paper Series., Karnac Books, ISBN 978-1-85575-275-7
Halberstam, Judith (2005), In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, New York City: NYU Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-3585-5
Wood, Jason (2004), 100 American Independent Films, BFI Film Guides, ISBN 978-1-84457-005-8
Herz, Kathrin (2007), The Pressure to Conform to the "correct" Gender in 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'Brokeback Mountain', GRIN Verlag, ISBN 978-3-638-87308-6
External links[edit]
Official website
Boys Don't Cry at the Internet Movie Database
Boys Don't Cry at AllMovie
Boys Don't Cry at Box Office Mojo
Boys Don't Cry at Rotten Tomatoes


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