THE BUTCHER BOY

Ireland, 1997, 110 minutes, Colour.
Eamonn Owens, Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw, Sean Mc Ginley, Alan Boyle, Andrew Fullerton, Aisling O’ Sullivan, Niall Buggy, Ian Hart, Brendan Gleeson, Milo O’ Shea, Sinead O’ Connor, Gerard Mc Sorley.
Directed by Neil Jordan.

The Butcher Boy is based on a novel by Patrick Mc Cabe (who appears briefly in the film). Jordan went on to direct Breakfast on Pluto, also from a novel by Patrick Mc Cabe.

Both Mc Cabe and Jordan have a particular view on Ireland. They see it as a strange, mixed up society. The pervading influence of the Catholic Church is ever-present. The church, the priests, schools, devotions, processions, apparitions of Mary…

The film also shows Irish society, its traditions, the poverty, the drinking, the inherent madness and dysfunctional families. It also shows the church trying to do something for the young boys – but also it alludes to the sexual abuse which later was revealed to be more widespread than first thought.

The film focuses on a young boy, eerily played by Eamonn Owens. Everything is seen from his point of view – but with a voice-over from Francie Brady as an adult, about to be released from a mental institution. Stephen Rea portrays the drunken father but also does the voice-over of the older Francie. The other central character is Mrs Nugent, a busybody neighbour, protective of her young son, very much antipathetic to Francie Brady – but persecuted by him, ultimately butchered by him. The title refers to a popular song, to Francie’s working as a butcher, and to his final killing of Mrs Nugent.

Brendan Gleeson has a significant role as the priest in charge of a reform school. Milo O’ Shea is an ex-missionary who has sexual problems. The film alludes to the quiet handling of the scandals in those days. In fact, the film is set in the early 1960s, with the background of John F. Kennedy, nuclear fears, the Cuban missiles, a sense of the apocalyptic that the world might end – taken up very strongly by the Irish Catholics with their processions and their concern about the end of the world.

The film is also about friendship, Francie and his friend Joe, Joe becoming more estranged from Francie and eventually betraying him. This also, along with the suicide of his depressed mother, the death of his alcoholic father, makes Francie a cheerful but dangerous sociopath.

The themes are taken up with variations in Breakfast on Pluto.

1. An Irish portrait, the perspective of Patrick Mc Cabe and Neil Jordan? Irish society, family, upbringing, dysfunctional families, the church?

2. The title: the song, the literal working at the abattoirs, the meat, the butchering of Mrs Nugent? Dismembering her and burying her under the vegetables?

3. The Irish town, homes and streets, the public squares, the abattoirs, the church? The beautiful countryside, rivers, lakes, mountains? The scenes in Dublin? The Irish feel?

4. The range of songs, Mack the Knife during the credits, the singing of Oh, My Papa…? The butcher boy? The popular devotional hymns during the processions?

5. The early 1960s, J.F. Kennedy seen on the television, his speeches, the atomic bombs going off, the threats, the duck-and-cover exercises, the fear of the communists, Cuba, the sense of the apocalyptic and the end of the world?

6. Religion pervading Irish society, Irish Catholicism, the externals, the church, the jovial priests, the reform schools, the discipline, sexual abuse? Processions, devotions, apparitions? Superstitions?

7. The priest preaching the apparitions, Fatima, the message, apocalyptic? The hopes because of visions? Francie getting the idea, his own experience out in the fields, the apparitions real and imagined? Talking to the Virgin Mary, her reactions, her comments, the goldfish? His own reactions, deciding to change, his reforming, becoming an altar boy? The end and Mary’s reappearance to the adult Francie? Her final comments? Sinead O’ Connor as Mary, reverent and irreverent?

8. The voice-over of the older Francie? The visuals and his observations, the point of view of the child, the point of view of the adult, from a mental institution? The jargon, the observations?

9. Francie and his age, his depressed mother, her anxieties in the house, in the institution, contemplating killing herself, baking all the cakes, preparing for her brother’s visit, her death in the river, the funeral and Francie being late, disrupting it? The father, his work, drinking, the range of moods, his relationship with Alo, Alo’s visit, cheeriness, flirting, the father playing the trumpet? The father with Francie, his going up to the reform school after his mother’s death, later, praising his son, continuing to drink? His death and Francie keeping him in the house till discovered?

10. Francie and Joe, Joe as a friend, their age, sharing, mischief, tormenting Phillip Nugent, Francie and his antipathy towards Mrs Nugent, her comments about his family, about pigs? Wanting to get the tacks for her to pass through the street? Going into her house, eating and smashing the cakes, defecating? Phillip Nugent and Joe becoming friends? At school? Joe and Francie in the town, picking at the ice at the fountain, the cheerful priest? Mrs Nugent’s brothers and their bashing Francie? The blood pledge of loyalty with Joe? Joe changing, Francie and his going to Dublin, Joe and his change of heart, Joe resisting, trying to be friends, at the boarding school, friends with Phillip, Francie going to the school, causing the scene in the dormitory? The brothers and the bashing, Francie bashing them? The police? Joe denying that Francie was his friend?

11. Francie and his leaving the town, his time in Dublin, surviving, cheerful, buying the present for his mother, coming home, the funeral?

12. His being sent to the reform school, Father Bubbles and his administration, talking with Francie, tough behaviour, the discipline of the times? The hard work at the school, digging the peat? Francie and the sermon about the apparitions, his change, the visions, his serving on the altar, becoming a good example? Being manipulative, Father Bubbles believing him?

13. The missionary priest, his background, enthusiasm about the missions, wanting Francie to tell him the stories, the close proximity, touching him, the sexual behaviour? His being taken away? Father Bubbles and his speech to Francie, the cover?

14. Francie at home, by himself, his dead father, his going to work, the abattoirs? The police and the brothers bashing Francie? Francie working at the butcher’s?

15. Mrs Nugent, the atmosphere of the procession, the butcher wanting to go, Francie and the time for himself? The elaborate details of the procession, everybody in the town, the two ladies who gossiped in the shop when Francie went shopping, the shopkeeper, Our Lady, the statue, the end of the world? Irish superstition?

16. Francie, grown up, in the asylum, the possibility of his going out, the psychiatrist with him, talking, the apparition of Mary and her final words? What hope had Francie to resume life normally in a normal world?