Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)

Director:

Aisling Walsh

Writers:

Aisling Walsh (writer) &
Kevin Byron Murphy (writer) ...

Release Date:

22 August 2003 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Four walls. One faith. No identity.

Plot:

"Song for a Raggy Boy" is based on the true story of a single teacher's courage to stand up against an untouchable prefect's sadistic disciplinary regime and other abuse in a Catholic Reformatory and Industrial School in 1939 Ireland.

Plot Keywords:

Reformatory | Teacher | Abuse | Strap | Child Abuse

Awards:

14 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Aidan Quinn	...	William Franklin
Iain Glen	...	Brother John
Marc Warren	...	Brother Mac
Dudley Sutton	...	Brother Tom
Alan Devlin	...	Father Damian
Stuart Graham	...	Brother Whelan
John Travers	...	Liam Mercier 636
Chris Newman	...	Patrick Delaney 743
Andrew Simpson	...	Gerard Peters 458
Mark Butler	...	Downey 913
Bernard Manning	...	Rogers 855
Samuel Bright	...	Ryan 126
Robert Sheehan	...	O Reilly 58
Caoimhin 'Tojo' Barra Doherty	...	Murphy 338 (as Caoimhin 'Tojo' Barry Doherty)
Michael McGee	...	Lynch 76

Also Known As:

Drengene fra Skt. Judes (Denmark)
Los Ninos de San Judas (Spain: Catalan title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Ireland | UK | Denmark | Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Ireland:15PG

Filming Locations:

County Cork, Ireland

Company:

Fantastic Films

Overly simplistic history lesson of Roman Catholic atrocity

Another Roman-Catholic bashing film that comes hot on the heels of The Magdalene Sisters and in a very similar tone. Young adolescent boys that have got into trouble are incarcerated in a 1930s Irish Reformatory School. There they receive fascist style floggings and rape at the hands of the priests. All based on a true story and quite horrific to watch - one scene of two boys being flogged almost to death is remarkably similar to the same scene in Passion of Christ where 'Jesus' is tortured before crucifixion.

Whether the film makes any significant contribution is another matter. Even in an age when courts worldwide seem embattled over paedophile Roman Catholic priests, most people are now aware of the moral paucity of that religious order without ever questioning it. Forgiveness is handed out like a rosary, pointing to the good works the church does. Even a Michael Moore might have gone a little bit further and made some comment on what has been done to prevent similar abuses in the present day and the future, or raised awareness about other catastrophes waiting to happen. Or perhaps list in the closing credits some statistics, good and bad. Even Capturing the Friedmans puts forward a real moral dilemma inasmuch as the perpetrators of abuse are also people who have done much good. Song for a Raggy Boy does none of this and so, together with the rather cheesy clichés about the 'good teacher' standing up to the evil of the Roman Catholic Church, perhaps suggests to a sated audience that the horrors portrayed might be inspired by gratuitous or commercial interest rather than documentarian passion and the fight for human rights / goodness. The simplistic approach undermines what could have been a powerful statement. Failure to distinguish and contrast the Church hierarchy, its dominance, false sanctity and the way its main players are protected, on the one hand, with the decency of the many ordinary catholics on the other, may not only rob the film of its true potential but cause people to feel embittered at being lumped together in the same religion. That the Roman Catholic Church has been capable of so much evil through its history should not cause us to hate the millions of people born into that religion, just as we should not associate modern fundamentalist Islam (and its terrorist offspring) with the millions of loving Muslims. A fleeting reference to Catholic atrocity in the Spanish Civil War is again portrayed in black and white terms, without hard historical facts that could have been appended, or any context - leaving the viewer to either be aware of the politics and religious links to fascism or dismiss them as over-embroidery. Ultimately, films such as Raggy Boy need to go more accurately to the root of the psychological dynamics that allow such evil to flourish.