Fred Schepisi's film, 'The Devil's Playground' is an intimate portrait of Tom, a thirteen-year-old struggling in spirit and body with the constraints of living in a Catholic seminary. It is...
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Title: The Devil's Playground (1976)
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6 wins & 5 nominations.
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Charles McCallum | ... | Brother Sebastian |
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John Frawley | ... | Brother Celian |
| Arthur Dignam | ... | Brother Francine | |
| Nick Tate | ... | Brother Victor | |
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Peter Cox | ... | Brother James |
| Jonathan Hardy | ... | Brother Arnold | |
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Gerry Duggan | ... | Brother Hanrahan |
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Thomas Keneally | ... | Father Marshall |
| Sheila Florance | ... | Mrs.Sullivan | |
| Simon Burke | ... | Tom Allen | |
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John Diedrich | ... | Fitz |
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Alan Cinis | ... | Waite |
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Richard Morgan | ... | Smith |
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Rowan Currie | ... | Casey |
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Gary Pixton | ... | Tomkin |
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
Fred Schepisi's film, 'The Devil's Playground' is an intimate portrait of Tom, a thirteen-year-old struggling in spirit and body with the constraints of living in a Catholic seminary. It is also the story of the Brothers and how they cope with the demands of their faith. Written by hawkeye
Taglines:
Your body is your worst enemy See more »Genres:
DramaCertificate:
See all certifications »Parents Guide:
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Did You Know?
Trivia
Actor Nick Tate had to make his own way to Australia to shoot the film for his old friend Schepisi; he was currently living in the United Kingdom between shooting seasons of science-fiction series Space: 1999 (1975), in which he was a regular. See more »Connections
Featured in Sneak Previews: The Secret of NIMH/The Devil's Playground/Gregory's Girl/TRON (1982) See more »Frequently Asked Questions
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Details
Country:
AustraliaLanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
October 1979 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
The Devil's Playground See more »Edit
Box Office
Budget:
AUD300,000 (estimated)Company Credits
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Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
Color (Eastmancolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1Contribute to This Page
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Fred Schepisi's Australian drama from 1976 is a semi-autobiographical quite straightforward movie about the life and growing pains of both Fathers, Brothers and boys at a Roman Catholic boarding school, in 1953. Within Australia, it is considered amongst the top 50 films ever made there.
There are as many personal dilemmas and demons in the Brother's lives as there are in the boy's. Probably more. For someone who is not a Catholic, for me there's always the ever overpowering lecturing on sins of the flesh and such, particularly pertinent with pubescent boys, of course.
However, taking this aside and concentrating on the characters and the individual stories, these are solidly interesting and, thank goodness, the script is suitable for the 15 certificate, so there is no blushing at the natural use of grubby schoolboy banter.
There was also a slightly surprising amount of nudity, the strongest scene of which comes as a dream by one of the Brothers. The acting is uniformly very good, all natural, both boys and adults.
Radio Times said that The Devil's Playground 'takes us no further into the issue than a legion of others have before' and whilst I've far from seen them all, I'd have to agree.
Best bet buying the DVD is the Australian Cinema collection vol 1, a 12 film boxset and that is exactly where I got and saw my copy from.