'Scum II' this aint....!

Somewhat surprisingly, the salaciously named 'Borstal Boy' is neither a companion volume to 'Scum' nor gay porn, but rather a film covering the early life of Irish Poet and Playwright, Brendan Behan.

Depending on your expectations of what it might bring, it will either delight or bore you rigid as it unfolds as a slow moving, rather sentimental and glossy re-telling of Behan's earliest years at Her Majesty's pleasure.

Brendan (played convincingly by Shawn Hatosy) is a 16 year old IRA sympathizer who has been caught plotting to carry out a terrorist attack in Liverpool during the war years. When he arrives at the Borstal, his experience is very different than in films like 'Scum'. The reform school is actually run by a sympathetic, well-meaning warden (played by Michael York who looks great for his advanced years) and Brendan finds himself enjoying the regime and is soon making some friends. One friendship in particular takes centre stage; his friendship with a young gay sailor (Danny Dyer), as Brendan begins to come to terms with his own deeply subjugated homosexuality.
The central tension sits around the notion that a young Irish boy, filled with hatred for the English, finds himself living with the enemy - and discovering a different world than he had imagined. Even the daughter of the Warden turns out to be a very good friend, encouraging him to what he can to better his life.

It's all relatively tastefully done, though there is a modest amount of bad language and some sexual references too.

The film gently lollops along and there is little that creates any intrinsic dramatic tension. I found myself waiting for something significant or awful to happen, though nothing ever really did. In fact, the film has a rather warm and positive ending which may please some viewers.



Behan's biggest fans may enjoy the movie though it will give very little away about the man - or what caused him to drink himself to death by his early forties. Though a reverent film, it's not a particularly deep one.

It may be worth mentioning that despite its flaws, the quality of the performances here were very good indeed, possibly rescuing a mediocre film from the bargain bins and repeated outings late at night on Channel 5.



PICTURE and AUDIO
I got a nasty looking DVD-R to review so it's difficult to pass comment on the finished disc. The picture quality looked fine though had a 'soft' look that may have been deliberate (this is a romantic nostalgic tale after all) or may have been the result of a less than perfect transfer. The stereo soundtrack was perfectly good with a sympathetic score. Dialogue was clear throughout.