After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, an unexpected random encounter with a former guard gives them a chance for revenge.
As children, Lorenzo Carcaterra - Shakes to his friends - Michael Sullivan, Tommy Marcano, and John Reilly were inseparable. They grew up in Hell's Kitchen, a far from perfect neighborhood, one filled as Shakes says with scams and shake downs, but one where the rules were known and easily understood by its residents. The one adult who they admired was Father Bobby Carelli, who understood them as kids more than most adults and more than he himself would like to admit. In 1967, their lives would change forever when a typical teenage prank went wrong which led to the four of them being sentenced to various terms at Wilkinson Home for Boys, a reformatory. There, they were physically, emotionally and sexually abused primarily by Sean Nokes, the predatory lead guard of their cell block, and fellow guards Ralph Ferguson, Henry Addison, and Adam Styler, although there were other decent figures of authority at the home, including a few other guards. Their time at the home affected the four, ...Written by
Huggo
Jay-Z sampled the line, "You boys are soft like bread" for his song "Streets Is Watching" from his 1997 album, "In My Lifetime: Vol. 1". See more »
Goofs
When Shakes meets adult Carol at her apartment and they go inside, Carol unlaces and takes off her ankle boots. When she and Shakes are on her back patio shortly after she has the boots back on and fully laced. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Lorenzo:
This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood. This is my story and that of the only three friends in my life that truely mattered. Two of them were killers who never made it past the age of 30. The other's a non-practicing attorney living with the pain of his past - too afraid to let it go, never confronting its horror. I'm the only one who can speak for them, and the children we were.
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Hurdy Gurdy Man
Performed by Donovan
Written by Donovan (as Donovan Leitch)
Courtesy of Epic Records and EMI Records UK
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing and EMI Special Markets UK See more »
A classic. The story is complex and very sophisticated. The cast is sheer brilliant and hardly to surpass. Here we get first-class entertainment in combination with suspense and a variety of themes that are fairly well known to anyone, just as revenge, justice, murder, abuse, atonement etc. The kids do a fine job, really. They add tremendous depth to the deeds and to the behave of the grown ups. Their genuine and sure-handed performances grant the movie a considerable amount of emotional recognition and chain anyone who soaks up and identifies with the storyline and the characters. The very end closes the circle and makes us aware of how quickly our lives can fall apart. Thrilling and suspense is guaranteed. Very recommendable.
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A classic. The story is complex and very sophisticated. The cast is sheer brilliant and hardly to surpass. Here we get first-class entertainment in combination with suspense and a variety of themes that are fairly well known to anyone, just as revenge, justice, murder, abuse, atonement etc. The kids do a fine job, really. They add tremendous depth to the deeds and to the behave of the grown ups. Their genuine and sure-handed performances grant the movie a considerable amount of emotional recognition and chain anyone who soaks up and identifies with the storyline and the characters. The very end closes the circle and makes us aware of how quickly our lives can fall apart. Thrilling and suspense is guaranteed. Very recommendable.