The Butcher Boy (1997 film)
| The Butcher Boy | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Neil Jordan |
| Produced by |
Redmond Morris Stephen Woolley |
| Screenplay by |
Patrick McCabe Neil Jordan |
| Based on |
The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Elliot Goldenthal |
| Cinematography | Adrian Biddle |
| Edited by | Tony Lawson |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
| Country | Ireland United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,963,654 |
The Butcher Boy is an 1997 Irish tragicomic drama film adapted to film by Neil Jordan and Patrick McCabe from McCabe's 1992 novel of the same name.
Set in the early 1960s, The Butcher Boy is about Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens), a 12-year-old boy who retreats into a violent fantasy world to escape the reality of his dysfunctional family; as his circumstances worsen, his sanity deteriorates and he begins acting out, with increasing brutality. The film won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival in 1998 and a Special Mention for Owens' "astonishing lead". It also won the European Film Award for Best Cinematographer for Adrian Biddle. The Butcher Boy is Neil Jordan's tenth feature film and Geffen Pictures' final production.
The film is set in Ireland in the early 1960s in the small town of Clones. Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens) is a 12-year-old boy whose imagination is fuelled by television - aliens, communists, the Atomic Age. When his mother (Aisling O'Sullivan) suffers a nervous breakdown and ultimately commits suicide, he is left in the care of his father (Stephen Rea), an emotionally distant and ill-tempered alcoholic. Francie spends most of his time with his best friend Joe Purcell (Alan Boyle) talking about "gangsters, cowboys and Indians, comic-book monsters and the early-1960s threat of nuclear annihilation." However, when Francie's growing conflict with another boy, Phillip Nugent (Andrew Fullerton), and his mother (Fiona Shaw) begins to go too far, he ends up at reform school. Here, he is molested by a priest (Milo O'Shea), and finds solace only in his fantasies about a foul-mouthed Virgin Mary (Sinéad O'Connor). He returns home to find Joe has outgrown him and befriended Phillip Nugent. Before long, his father has drunk himself to death. Faced with being left completely alone in the world, Francie loses his grip on reality and lashes out with uncontrollable brutality, which shocks his provincial hometown.
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