Boy A

submitted my idea for Project10tothe100s (@ Google) and watched Boy A today and boy (pun intended), was it a good film. it was heart-wrenching, thought-inducing melodramatic and very relevant to what I'm studying now, to Sociology and society, specifically Spoiled Identity of ex-convicts..

The Gist of the Movie
The story goes from how Jack, an ex-murderer (who committed a crime when he was an adolescent), is semmingly given a new lease of life with his release from prison. With the help of Terry, his mentor/counsellor, and a new identity that they granted him, he was able to see the "world" after 14 years (I think) in jail, get a job, a girlfriend, experience love/care and in a twist of fate, even be a hero - saving someone's life!!

However, there were signs stating that there are more to come. Newspapers had reported that an ex-murderer (Jack) has been released. The report was written not only because of its newsworthiness, but presumingly, to ask the people to beware of an ex-murderer who has been released as well..

To continue, Jack fell in love with his girlfriend and felt compelled to tell her about his true identity because he felt bad, hiding the truth from her. but Terry advised him otherwise because doing so would well, complicate things (society may not accept!) and it doesn't get "complicated-er"!! there's a bounty posted on the Internet for Jack!! (OMG). Gosh. so kua zhang.

and just when everything kind of seems "all too good to be true" for Jack, shittier things happen.
He got a call saying his services as a deliveryman was no longer needed. there was no explanation given, so he sensed something was amiss, so he called his good friend, who questioned him whether "it was true", that he is "not who he says he is". and so Jack admits, and his friend actually have the audacity to ask where Jack's girlfriend is and whether he hurt her (common lorh!) because she has been MIA.. walau. POOR JACK!

after that, Jack made several phone calls to Terry but it didn't go through, so he left the house and found the media outside, waiting to hound him. In a desperate attempt (omg I feel lyk I'm writing a compo or something, HAHA!), he escaped from the media through climbing from the roof to the back exit. He then took a train to as far as it would take him.. and in his life's most desolute moments, ended his own life (I presume).. =( cos in one way or another, everyone Jack knew abandoned him or questioned him (I guess it was because of he lied about his identity). it seems like he had no future. It was so sad because it was obvious what a nice and mellow guy he was and is. he just had the wrong company and environment! It seems so unfair.

Anyway, here are some extracts that I highlighted in red that pretty much sums up my thoughts and admiration for Boy A's cinematography/works.

Admiration for the way it was filmed- its cinematography. Brilliance I would say!
From http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/08/08/boy_a_considers_crime_and_consequences/
Boy A" is visually stunning. The interplay of light and shadow through the use of diffusion filters and silhouette gave me chills. The dramatic manipulation of white light is a seemingly simple device but cuts to the bone.

Ironic scene I identified
** Spoiler Alert!
Before Jack's desolate last moments (I presumed he committed suicide by jumping off cos he was perched on top of a railing of the sea and he was crying), a Kind Old Woman who awoken the sleeping Jack (after he fleed his home and boarded a train to as far as it would take him) said:
"You're at the end of the line, sir, this train doesn't go any further"
~ hidden meaning- given the situation, he really has reached the end of his life for everyone seemed to abandon him. he was fired, his SUPER nice and fatherly mentor/counsellor Terry MIA-ed, his friends questioned him and made no attempt to care for him, his girlfriend (who ignored his calls, tho he met her before he *I presumed* committed suicide)

Boy A is about a quite different sort of criminal, a victim of fate rather than a dynamo of ego and will. By coincidence this film, which is fictional, also takes place in Manchester. A twenty-four-year-old man, now called Jack Burridge, is trying to start his life again--really for the first time--after a fourteen-year prison term. Through much of the story we know he is an ex-con, and we are led to think that, as a boy, he stole cars and went for joyrides. Yet we eventually learn that when he was nine he was involved in a much more serious crime. When we see it, we shiver at how easily a child could slip into it. (Boy A is what he was called during the trial.)

Scene I cried
It was the scene where before he fleed his house, he took an envelope. It was from the little girl he saved and it was a drawing she drew of him depicted as an angel. She had thought he is an angel when he saved her (SO SWEET!) He opened it before he "died".. the ironic thing is he was deemed a hero a period ago and then a murderer (though it's the past) next. the sad thing was that society overlooked the part that he has turned over a new leaf? Common lah, if he didn't would he even bother saving the little girl? Anyway, here's what the little girl drew that accompanied the drawing:

To Jack Burridge
Thanks for saving me
This is your halo
This is your wings
This is the knife
I thought you're an angel

Other film references: Lion for Lambs/Dead Men Walking

Other adolescent crimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23oxnard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakakibara_Seito

My thoughts towards this film
1) MAN! SOCIETY IS RETARDED SOMETIMES! Society gave him a fresh start (he was allowed a new identity and he chose Jack), but ironically, it wasn't really a FULL second chance cos people are just so not acceptive towards ex-murderers.. they just pushed him to his desolate.

2) Jack's childhood is afterall, one of tragedy and neglect, sending bullies to abuse him and a bad companion to lead him astray, and making his ultimate victim insulting and unsympathetic. ww.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2008/07/boy_a_weighs_issue_of_how_much.html

• I think the crime he committed was really retarded and TOTALLY unnecessary. It was also damn silly. his friend is in a way, really psycho! what he needs is anger management!!


• I felt that Jack could've not participated in the crime though. You can see it in his face that he knew it was wrong. but he went ahead (that was a bad personal choice!!) to be a partner in it.


• I think society/the people you choose to hang out with, really shapes you. It's just how inclined you are towards the influence, and how much of that you take in.
  For me, I do sometimes speak/act like the people I hang out with.


• I think the environment shapes an individual as well. There are just some common characteristics of criminals such as: being abused in a young age, the prevelance of violence in their lives, abandonment, etc etc. However, I do not deny there are people, despite being not exposed to this, commit crimes. It's like how I believe in God (the good), I must also believe in the other (the bad).
  

Speaking of which, I support the Yellow Ribbon Project! haha.. really liked the ad of the guy with the tattoed back with a post-it pasted there (think it writes Criminal/Convict or whatever) and he's trying damn hard to take it out. It shows how hard it is to get a label pasted on your back and wow, it talk about the underlying meanings that pictures can show =)