Boys don't cry

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Movie
German title Boys don't cry
Original title Boys don't cry
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1999
length approx. 114 minutes
Age rating FSK / JMK 16
Rod
Director Kimberly Peirce
script Kimberly Peirce,
Andy Bees
production John Hart ,
Eva Kolodner ,
Jeffrey Sharp ,
Christine Vachon
music Nathan Larson
camera Jim Denault
cut Tracy Granger ,
Lee Percy
occupation

Boys Do not Cry is an American film drama , the story of the murder and Brandon Teena , a young trans man , is. It was directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written with Andy Bees .

After reading about the criminal case during her studies, Peirce conducted extensive research for a script that she ended up working on for almost five years. In 1995 she had already made a short film on the subject with the same title as a thesis. The script for the feature film was created directly from the archive material of the 1998 documentary The Brandon Teena Story , which eventually became her debut film.

She put her greatest efforts into the search for a suitable leading actor to portray Brandon Teena. This casting process lasted three years, during which she auditioned trans men and lesbian women for the role, before she finally cast Hilary Swank for the character. It was only with Hilary Swank that Peirce is said to have been able to implement the material satisfactorily and credibly.

Filming took place in Dallas , Texas , from October to November 1998 . The low budget did not allow filming on the original locations in Nebraska .

Boys Don't Cry caused quite a stir at the time. Within a few years he had over 65 nominations, including many critics and film festival awards, of which he was able to win more than 40, mainly for the actresses Hilary Swank and Chloë Sevigny , but also for the director herself. Well-known musicians such as Ric Ocasek , front man by The Cars , Buffy Sainte-Marie and Robert Smith of The Cure contributed songs. Hilary Swank won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2000 and the Best Actress Drama Award at the Golden Globe Awards for the film . The film was her first career highlight.

action

Brandon Teena (born Teena Renae Brandon) drives at excessive speed on a dusty highway through the night, overtakes a car and is followed by a police car. Only after this dreamlike sequence is a short opening credits with the names of the main actors.

“Teena” lets his cousin Lonny cut her hair short in the trailer and then meets for the first time as a boy for a romantic date with a girl in a skate disco . He introduces himself to him as Billy and the date finally ends, while he finally accompanies the girl back home with a kiss.

Some time later, "Teena", who now lives as a boy, fled from the angry brothers of one of his former lovers who discovered his trans identity in the trailer of his cousin, with whom he was previously staying. While he is rather amused by the anger of his pursuers, Lonny, who is himself homosexual , loses his patience due to his constant airs, accuses him of pretending to be a boy to unsuspecting girls and encourages him to instead openly be a lesbian to confess. "Teena" denies being a lesbian, however, and is finally thrown out of Lonny's apartment because he owes him money on top of that.

In a bar he tries to drown his grief and meets a young woman named Candace, a single mother of a son, whom he finally introduces as Brandon. Shortly thereafter, Brandon gets involved in a brawl, as a result of which he meets Candace's companion John and Tom. Together with the three of them, he spontaneously sets off from his home town of Lincoln to Falls City that same evening .

The next morning, Brandon wakes up in Candace's house hungover. From there he calls his cousin Lonny and asks him to be allowed to stay with him again, as he has an important court date ahead of him due to his petty crime and he has to be back in Lincoln in time. Lonny finally gives in , on the condition that he behave better after Brandon shared his fears about hormone therapy as a preliminary preparation for a final sex reassignment surgery . Brandon has Candace, who works in a bar, organize a ride for the evening. While he is waiting for this, he meets John and Tom again and gets to know their other acquaintances, John's sister Kate and Lana, during a karaoke performance. Being drawn to Lana, Brandon spontaneously lets the opportunity slip by to return to Lincoln and joins the gang on the way to a party.

After a tour of the night, Brandon comes back to Candace. When trying to fall asleep, however, his menstruation sets in and, forced by necessity, he takes Candace's car to a gas station, where he steals appropriate hygiene articles. While doing so, he runs into Lana, who is drunk, whom he buys beer with a fake driver's license and accompanies her home. After they first put Lana's mother Linda to bed together, he takes care of the dazed Lana, puts her to bed as well and secretly gives her a ring that he had stolen for her at the gas station.

The following day, Brandon gets to know his youngest acquaintances better and becomes an accepted member of the clique that usually gathers at Linda's house, and becomes closer friends with John and Tom. They turn out to be two ex-convicts, for whom Linda is a kind of surrogate mother, especially for John, who, like Brandon, feels drawn to her daughter Lana. Lana's former crush on John during his prison stay has long since vanished and, to his displeasure, she only regards him as a friend.

Meanwhile, Brandon continues to keep his transsexuality to himself, going beyond mere protection from the discovery of this fact and telling his new friends a number of fabricated stories about his past and family. In the evening of the same day, Lana and Brandon get closer again in the garden of their house. Lana seems to reciprocate Brandon's feelings, but their togetherness is interrupted. Lana and her friend Kate have to go to the late shift and the gang drives them in Candace's car. On the way to work, a group of young women provoked the clique at a street crossing to a street race by calling them white trash (“wall people”). As a result, however, a patrol car becomes aware of them, which is why John urges the driver Brandon to drive from the country road into the dusty fields next to it in order to escape the police. This fails and the clique is subjected to an identity check. Due to a malfunctioning police computer, Brandon's forged driver's license, luckily, cannot be checked on site, so Lana spontaneously vouches for Brandon and gives the police her address. After he is gone, John suddenly has a tantrum, blames Brandon seriously and throws him and everyone except Lana out of the car to drive her to work alone. He only lets his sister Kate get on again beforehand.

The next day at Candace's house, Brandon wants to go back to Lincoln and receives an unexpected visit from Lana. It comes to their first kiss. Nonetheless, Brandon returns to Lincoln to face the court date, but promises Lana to come back. Brandon finds refuge again with his angry cousin, who nonetheless warns him of the homophobia of the residents of Falls City . The next day, Brandon is sitting in Lincoln's express court (bond system) awaiting trial. Due to his sometimes considerable offenses, such as a car theft (grand theft auto), he is afraid of ending up in prison and at the last moment evades the situation.

He returns to Falls City, where he surprises Lana at work at night. The two retreat to a field where they eventually become intimate with each other. The two of them have heterosexual intercourse, which Brandon presumably, as previously indicated, secretly carries out with a dildo . Nonetheless, Lana seems to have initial doubts about Brandon's identity. Some time later, Brandon celebrates his 21st birthday with Candace and Kate at Lana and her mother Linda, where the two now openly appear as a couple and are accepted. At the same time, John and Tom turn up again, who in the meantime were also in Lincoln to steal cars there. When John is alone with Lana, he takes the opportunity and reveals to her that he still has feelings for her. However, Lana rejects him and he grudgingly accepts that she is now with Brandon. In doing so, he does not fail to make it clear to Brandon that he is still the "master" of the house.

Brandon, who now lives with Lana and her mother, now works under the name Brandon Teena in Falls City and wants to build a new life for himself. Shortly thereafter, he is served a letter from the Falls City Traffic Court for his speeding during a road race. When he shows up at the court to pay his fine with his first salary, he is arrested. His false identity in the form of a forged driver's license has been exposed and he is being jailed for his offenses in Lincoln. Meanwhile, Candace becomes aware of his legal identity through a check that Brandon took from her without being asked to pay his bail in Lincoln and which he filled in with his real name and expresses her suspicion to Lana and Kate. Lana then looks for Brandon in custody and is irritated to find that he is housed in the women's wing, which is why she confronts him. Instead of telling her and admitting that he is biologically a woman, he claims to be ashamed to be a hermaphrodite . However, Lana assures him that she doesn't mind and pays bail for his release.

Meanwhile, John and Tom become aware of the unsettled Candace, from whom they can finally elicit their suspicion that Brandon is actually a woman. Meanwhile, Lana and Brandon get intimate again, but Brandon refuses to let Lana touch him intimately and take off his pants. He claims to have corrective surgery performed on his genitals first. Meanwhile, John and Tom have gone to Lana's mother with Candace and Kate. The two men enter Lana's room and rummage through Brandon's belongings, eventually finding a dildo and literature on gender reassignment, among other things. Shortly thereafter, Lana and finally Brandon arrive. Brandon is confronted with his made-up stories by the women, whereupon John and Tom vehemently urge him to admit to being a woman and Lana ask if she is a lesbian while she tries desperately to defend Brandon.

Lana denies that Brandon is biologically female, and John allows her to verify, claiming to trust what she said afterwards. Brandon and Lana then retreat to their room. Lana trusts Brandon's statement that he is intersex so she refuses to see his genitals, and assures the terrified Brandon that she would lie for him. So Lana finally announces to the assembled group that Brandon is a "real" man, but none of those present believe her. John and Tom suddenly kidnap Brandon into the bathroom, tear his pants down violently and with fierce resistance, reveal his female genitals and force Lana to look at them. John and Tom are then thrown out of the house by Lana's mother and they are threatened with the police because of this escalation. After a cut, Brandon, who was clearly battered, is found the next day at the police station in an interview in which he describes the attack in the bathroom to the Sheriff of Falls City. In the further course of this scene it is revealed that Brandon left Lana's house ashamed after the attack and was intercepted by John and Tom, dragged into their car and dragged away. In a remote, lonely factory site, they finally beat him up and brutally raped him. They then warned him under the threat of death not to tell anyone about it, and took him back to Tom's home, where he finally escaped from a bathroom window and escaped to Lana and her mother, who then called the police.

The sheriff, who seems to be suspicious of Brandon's transsexuality and who has doubts about the truth of his story, is extremely insensitive and in the further course of the questioning Brandon finally speaks openly for the first time that he is biologically a woman and himself in a "sexual identity crisis".

Finally, after they are reconciled, Brandon finds accommodation with Candace. In the garden of her house he burns all the photos he has of his friends with her at night. He only keeps one of Lana. Meanwhile, Lana's mother confronts John and Tom with Brandon's allegations of rape, but lets herself be quickly and willingly put off by the argument that Brandon had only lied so far and even asks them to "fix the matter". Then John and Tom get a call from the police, telling them that they have been summoned for interrogation. However, they do not come into custody, which angrily makes them search for Brandon.

Meanwhile, Lana finds Brandon with Candace, who is sleeping in a hut on their property. The two speak out and Brandon apologizes to Lana for lying to her so often. They then become intimate and have timid intercourse. Brandon then asks Lana if she would leave Falls City and go to Lincoln with him. Lana enthusiastically agrees and they go to Lana home to pack their things. Shortly before leaving, however, Lana begins to hesitate - Brandon now appears girlish to her for the first time after open sexual intercourse, and so she asks him tacitly to give her some time. This shows understanding and indicates to go back to Lincoln first. At the same time, John unexpectedly enters the house and asks Linda about Brandon's whereabouts. After she sees that he has a gun, she finally tells him that he's with Candace. Lana, who overheard this conversation, tries to stop John, but John cannot be stopped. He puts Lana in his car and drives her and Tom to Candace's while they announce that they are now "looking after a few lesbians."

When they arrive at Candace, they search their house, but when they start threatening Candace and her two year old son, Brandon turns himself in. To Lana's horror, he has not yet returned to Lincoln, but first came back to Candace. Lana asks John to spare him, but then he shoots Brandon in the head. Apparently shocked by his deed and the bloodbath that had caused him, he then drops his gun, whereupon Tom picks it up, shoots Candace pleading for the life of her son in the face and finally stabs Brandon with a knife.

Then John and Tom flee, leaving Lana and Candace's son behind. John prevents Tom from also shooting Lana, while Lana collapses crying next to the dead Brandon who is lying on the ground.

The next morning Lana's mother finds the disturbed Lana sitting next to his corpse with a letter from Brandon's jacket pocket in her hands. A farewell letter that Brandon wrote shortly before he wanted to leave for Lincoln, in which he tells Lana that he really wants to travel to Memphis, a place they long for, and that he will wait for her there.

Finally, you see Lana driving a car on the highways through the night. A text overlay informs the viewer that John Lotter has been convicted of murder and is currently waiting for the execution of the death penalty . Marvin Thomas Nissen (Tom) agreed to work with the prosecutor, testified against John and was sentenced to multiple life imprisonment. Lana Tisdel gave birth to a daughter a few years later and is now back in Falls City.

One last fade-in before the credits reminds of Brandon: Brandon Teena (Teena Brandon) (1972-1993) .

Real backgrounds and differences to the film

Unlike in the film, Marvin Thomas Nissen (Tom) rather than John Lotter is said to have been the driving force behind the murder, while in the film the focus is largely on John's jealousy and the love triangle between him, Lana and Brandon.

The then responsible Sheriff of Falls City , Charles Laux later testified that although he believed Brandon had been abducted and beaten by John Lotter and Marvin Nissen, he admitted that he did not believe in the rape. He had already made the acquaintance of Brandon's previous arrest and, because of his petty crime, considered him a windy, implausible character. He also admitted that he disliked his transsexuality. Furthermore, the fact that Lotter and Nissen raped someone who is a woman but pretends to be a man did not make sense to him. In the course of the rape allegation, Nissen was ridiculed for being gay in his circle of friends. A circumstance that should have annoyed him the most. Sheriff Laux was later sentenced to a fine of $ 17,360 after the rape allegations, in spite of clear evidence, for not having taken Lotter and Nissen into custody immediately. His questioning of Brandons in the film is based on a tape recording made at the time. The content is shortened in the film, reproduced true to the original.

Unlike in the film, the assault on Brandon took place in the winter, on Christmas Eve, during a party at John Lotter's house, followed by the kidnapping and rape. The murders took place a few days later on New Year's Eve. At that time there was already snow in Nebraska. Due to the tight shooting time and the weather conditions in Texas, this time of the year could not be shown in the film. Unlike in the film, Lotter and Nissen spent several days looking for Brandon, and even turned up at his mother's in Lincoln .

After the rape, Brandon Teena sought refuge with the single mother Lisa Lambert in Humboldt , where the African American Phillip DeVine happened to be staying at the same time , both of whom were ultimately murdered as witnesses to the crime. DeVine was the boyfriend of Lana's sister, Leslie Tisdel, who also doesn't appear in the film. Nissen's cousin Sarah Nissen later raised accusations of racism against the filmmakers due to his absence from the film. They explained that DeVines, about whose family there was little information, did not appear in the film because there were difficulties with personal rights and also the time limit due to the main plot. As a result of a lawsuit from Lisa Lambert's father, the character Candace, based on her, was invented, as was the character Lonny, Brandon's cousin, so as not to have to portray his mother and sister. In addition, the introduction of a new character at the end of the film might have caused irritation and diverted the focus away from the main characters, since there was no connection to the clique in the film and DeVine was more of a chance victim. A shot that John fired when leaving the house in the film after he had let off Brandon again and prevented Tom from shooting Lana often causes further irritation in this context. This shot was meant to be symbolic of Phillip DeVine, who was also murdered. The entire film project was accompanied by other, sometimes considerable, legal difficulties, mainly due to the violation of personal rights.

Likewise, the real Lana Tisdel and her mother Linda Tisdel spoke out against the film. Linda Tisdel contradicted her portrayal of him film, which assigns her complicity in the murders. After all, this Brandon even asked to go to the police about the rape. Lana Tisdel also denied having had sexual intercourse with Brandon and felt that the portrayal of her family's living conditions in the film was misrepresented and denigrated as " White Trash ". Lana Tisdel settled her lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed amount.

synchronization

The German dubbing took place at K2 Productions Ltd. held in Berlin. Joachim Kunzendorf wrote the dialogue book and directed the dialogue.

role actor Voice actor
Brandon Teena Hilary Swank Sandra Schwittau
Lana Tisdel Chloë Sevigny Bettina White
John Lotter Peter Sarsgaard Dietmar miracle
Tom Nissen Brendan Sexton III Björn Schalla
Candace Alicia Goranson Katja Primel
Lana's mother Jeannetta Arnette Marianne Gross

Awards

  • 2000: Oscar for Hilary Swank for Best Actress
  • 2000: Golden Globe for Hilary Swank for Best Actress

In the same year Chloë Sevigny was nominated for both the Oscar and the Golden Globe, each in the category of best supporting actress, but could not win any of the prizes.

literature

  • Friedemann Pfäfflin: Man or woman, who knows exactly? Boys don't cry. In: Stephan Doering, Heidi Möller (eds.): Frankenstein and Belle de Jour. 30 movie characters and their mental disorders. Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-76879-1 , pp. 336–343.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ filmmakermagazine.com Interview with Kimberly Peirce, September 22, 2015, (English) https://filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/fall1999/boys.php/
  2. ↑ charlierose.com Interview with Kimberly Peirce and Hilary Swank, November 5, 1999 (English) https://charlierose.com/videos/8836
  3. ↑ 20th Century Fox, Boys Don't Cry, audio commentary by Kimberly Peirce
  4. ↑ ABC's 20/20 Downtown - Brandon Teena, February 2000
  5. ↑ 20th Century Fox, Boys Don't Cry, audio commentary by Kimberly Peirce
  6. ↑ Boys Don't Cry. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on March 15, 2018 .