"Cutting Edge"
Boys Alone (2002)

Director:

Kim Flitcroft

TV Series:

"Cutting Edge" (1990)

Original Air Date:

30 May 2002

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

In this documentary a group of boys is "isolated" for five days in a fully equipped house, with food...

Plot Keywords:

Bully | Degeneration | Juvenile Delinquency | Children | Non Fiction

Cast

Alex
Daniel
George
Luke
Mark
Michael
Paul
Robert
Sam
Sandra Scott
Sim

Runtime:

48 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Channel 4 Television Corporation

This is a hoot! ... a must-see for any prospective parent of boys.

A group of ten 11 and 12 year old boys are placed in a beautiful brick home in Hartfordshire, England for one week, virtually unsupervised. The goal is to explore exactly what the just-prepubescent natural instincts for boys will do when left alone, devoid completely of 24/7 parental control and other adult guidance.

I must say that when my two children were growing up I was a very harried single parent (a dad) who more enjoyed my daughter's Girl Scout meetings than my son's Boy Scout meetings, as the former was always pleasant, self-controlled, neat and relatively quiet...but the latter was always...ALWAYS cacophonous, boisterous, with things being broken, chairs put upon tables to then stand on, everything made to be messy and basically nutty.

Well, Boys Alone takes my experiences with groups of growing boys to another level. Besides virtually destroying the inner sides of that handsome home, kitchen, family, dining, bed and bathrooms, they run amok and damage the outside and the yard as well. With all the sublime maliciousness seemingly exuding from within their very genetic structure, these preteen human-terminators (ala Arnold Schwarzenneger) tend to firmly establish what nature has been trying to tell humanity all along...males are designed to be hunter-gatherers and just because he is confined within the artificial turf of 'civilization' doesn't belie his true underpinnings.

So if you are into horror movies, sci-fi with lots of destruction, gory phantasms, creatures from the black lagoon or Night of the Living Dead type situations...then by all means, you'll thoroughly enjoy this psychological thriller. It was made for you.

But if you are the type to avoid human interaction where thievery, personal property annihilation and violence is the norm...may I suggest a good Shirley Temple movie, like 'Heidi'.

My overall feelings were best exhibited to my children as I first viewed this docudrama...I laughed until I had tears in my eyes and found it hard to take in the next breath of air. And I prayed to God my thanks that beautiful brick two-story wasn't my home.