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Boys Don't Cry (film)
Encyclopedia
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce
and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena
, a transgender man
played by Hilary Swank
, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë Sevigny
, and is beaten, raped and murdered by his male acquaintances after they discover he is anatomically female. The picture explores the themes of freedom, courage, identity and empowerment. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
and was released theatrically in October 1999.
After reading about the murder of Brandon Teena while in college, Peirce intently researched the case—as well as Teena's life—and worked on a screenplay for the film for almost five years. All She Wanted, the 1993 book about the case written by Aphrodite Jones, inspired Peirce, but she chose to focus the story on the relationship between Teena and his girlfriend Lana Tisdel. Many actors campaigned for the lead over the course of three years; the then unknown Swank was cast because her personality seemed similar to Teena's. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny
, Peter Sarsgaard
, Brendan Sexton III
, Alicia Goranson
, Jeanetta Arnette
, and Matt McGrath
. The majority of characters were based on real-life people, while some were composites
. Shooting lasted from October until November 1998 and filming took place in various locations throughout Texas
.
Boys Don't Cry premiered at the New York Film Festival
on October 8, 1999 to overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics. Praise was generally focused on the two lead performances by Swank and Sevigny. The film received a limited nationwide release on October 22, 1999, and performed moderately well at the North American box office. At the 72nd Academy Awards
in 2000, Swank was awarded an Oscar for Best Actress
, while Sevigny was nominated for Best Supporting Actress
. The film has been cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999, initially being assigned an NC-17 rating, later modified to an R rating. The release of the film was concurrent with the murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard
, which sparked additional public interest. The film was named after the song of the same name
by The Cure
, and a cover version of the song appears in the film.
(Hilary Swank
) is a young female-to-male non-operative transgender
man, whose birth name was Teena Renae Brandon. When Brandon is discovered to be anatomically female by the brother of a woman he once dated, he becomes the target of physical threats. Not long after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin's trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska
where he cultivates friendships with ex-convicts John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard
) and Tom Nissen (Brendan Sexton III
), and their friends Candace (Alicia Goranson
) and Lana Tisdel (Chloë Sevigny
). Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is unaware of his biological sex and troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis
, where Brandon will manage Lana in a karaoke career.
Brandon is detained for charges that arose prior to his relocation and placed in the women’s section of the Falls City prison. Lana bails Brandon out. After Lana asks why Brandon was in a woman’s prison, Brandon lies to her, saying he was born a hermaphrodite
and will soon receive a sex change
. Lana declares her love for Brandon, "no matter what (s)he is." Tom and John become suspicious after they read a newspaper article about Brandon that refers to him by his birth name, Teena Brandon. Tom and John force Brandon to remove his pants, revealing his genitalia. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes and turns away. After this confrontation Tom and John chase Brandon to an isolated location, where they beat and rape him. Afterward, they take Brandon to Nissen's house. Though injured, Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Having been threatened by his assailants and told not to report the attack to the police, a distressed Brandon is nonetheless convinced by Lana to file a report.
One evening, John and Tom get drunk, and decide to kill Brandon. Despite Lana's attempts to stop them, John and Tom drive to Candace's remote house where they find Brandon, who has been hiding in a shed on Candace's property. John shoots Brandon under the chin, and Tom shoots Candace in the head while Lana fights them and screams for them to stop. John stabs Brandon's lifeless body and Tom attempts to shoot Lana, but is stopped by John. John and Tom flee the scene, while Lana lies with Brandon's dead body.
The next morning, Lana wakes up on Brandon's dead body. Her mother arrives and takes an emotionally wrenched Lana away from the scene. The film ends with Lana leaving Falls City while a letter Brandon wrote her is read in a voice-over.
who was raped and murdered by two male acquaintances in December 1993, when he was 21. Kimberly Peirce, at the time a Columbia University
film student, became interested in the case after reading a 1994 Village Voice
article by Donna Minkowitz
. Peirce became engrossed in Teena's life and death and recalls; "the minute I read about Brandon, I fell in love. With the intensity of his desire to turn himself into a boy, the fact that he did it with no role models. The leap of imagination that this person took was completely overwhelming to me." The sensational publicity and coverage generated by the case prolonged her interest. Peirce stated she looked beyond the brutality of the case and instead viewed the positive aspects of Teena's life as hopeful and full of goodwill. She admired Teena's "audacity", compassion, free spirit, and passionate "generosity" toward women.
Peirce wanted to tell the story from Teena's perspective. She felt there was an inspirational, tragic story behind the ordeal that was different from the one presented to the public. Peirce wanted to use the film as an opportunity to present Teena's search for freedom rather than capitalize on his sexual identity crisis. She was familiar with Teena's desire to cross-dress: "I started looking at all the other coverage and a great deal of it was sensational. People were focusing on the spectacle of a girl who had passed as a boy because that is so unfamiliar to so many people. Where to me, I knew girls who had passed as boys, so Brandon was not some weird person to me. Brandon was a very familiar person." Peirce was influenced by the public perception of the case, believing the American public were generally misinformed: "People were also focusing on the crime without giving it much emotional understanding and I think that's really dangerous, especially with this culture of violence that we live in." Peirce began working on a concept for the film and gave it the working title
Take It Like a Man.
The project drew interest from various production bodies. Diane Keaton
's production company showed interest in the screenplay in the mid 1990s, with Drew Barrymore
an early candidate to star. Initially the film was to be largely based on Aphrodite Jones
' 1993 true crime
book All She Wanted, which told the story of Teena's final few weeks alive. Rather than focusing on Teena's early life and background, the screenplay was subsequently modified closer to Peirce's vision, which focused the majority of the film on the relationship between Teena and girlfriend Lana Tisdel and the events that led to Teena's murder. Peirce felt there was a "great love story" at the center of the case. In order to fund the writing and development of the feature, Peirce worked as a paralegal
on a midnight shift and as a 35mm film projectionist, and received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant. The project attracted the attention of producer Christine Vachon
, who had seen Peirce's short film she had made for her thesis in 1995. Peirce co-wrote the screenplay with Andy Bienen. They worked together for a year and a half on the final drafts and made sure they didn't "mythologize" Brandon; the aim was to keep him as human as possible.
Prior to filming, Peirce conducted extensive research into the case which lasted almost five-and-a-half years. She immersed herself in the extensive information available about the murder, including trial transcripts. She met Lana Tisdel at a convenience store and subsequently interviewed her at her home. Peirce also interviewed Tisdel's mother. She also interviewed Teena's family and friends, but was unable to interview Teena's mother or any of his biological family. Much factual information was incorporated into Boys Don't Cry, including Nissen being an arsonist, and the games of chicken and joy riding that were a common pastime of the real Lotter, Nissen, and Teena.
community, looking mainly for masculine lesbian women for the role of Brandon Teena. The LGBT community was highly interested in the project because of all the publicity the murder had received. High profile actors were not sent to auditions at the request of their agents because of the stigma associated with the role. The project was almost abandoned because Peirce was not satisfied with most of the people who auditioned. In 1996, after a hundred actresses had been considered and rejected, a then relatively unknown Hilary Swank
sent a videotape to Peirce and was signed on to the project. During her audition, Swank, who was 22 at the time, presented Peirce with a lie about her age. Swank claimed that, like Brandon, she was also 21 years of age. When Peirce later confronted her about the lies, Swank responded, "But that's what Brandon would do." Swank's anonymity as an actress persuaded Peirce to cast her; Peirce said that she did not want a "known actor" to portray Teena.
Swank underwent significant preparation for the role by dressing and living as a man for at least a month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages
and putting socks down the front of her pants in much the same way as Brandon Teena had done. Her masquerade became particularly convincing. Swank's neighbors believed the "young man" coming and going from her home was Swank's visiting brother. She reduced her body fat to seven percent to accentuate her facial structure and refused to let the cast and crew see her out of costume. Swank earned only $75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, culminating in a total of $3,000. Her earnings were so low that she did not earn enough to qualify for health insurance
.
Peirce had envisioned only two actors for the role of Lana Tisdel: a young Jodie Foster
and Chloë Sevigny
, who had prior credits in mostly independent films. Peirce had decided to cast Sevigny based on her impressive performance in The Last Days of Disco
(1998). Sevigny had auditioned for the role of Brandon, but Peirce decided that Sevigny would be suited playing Tisdel. Sevigny dyed her hair red for the role to match the real Lana's strawberry blonde hair. Peirce later said: "Chloë just surrendered to the part. She watched videos of Lana. She just became her very naturally. She's not one of those Hollywood actresses who diets and gets plastic surgery. You never catch her acting". Peter Sarsgaard
plays John Lotter, Lana's charismatic former boyfriend and the man responsible for Teena's rape and murder. Sarsgaard was one of the first choices for the role. He later commented that he wanted his character to be "likable, sympathetic even", because he wanted the audience "to understand why they would hang out with me. If my character wasn't necessarily likable, I wanted him to be charismatic enough that you weren't going to have a dull time if you were with him." In another interview, Sarsgaard said he felt "empowered" by playing Lotter. Peirce cast Alicia Goranson
, known for playing Becky on the sitcom Roseanne, as Candace because of her likeness to Lisa Lambert, who was 24 when she was shot by John Lotter. Like Sevigny, Goranson had initially auditioned for the lead role.
on a $2 million budget. Boys Don't Cry was primarily filmed in Greenville, Texas
, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Most of the actual incidents took place in Nebraska
, but the Texas locations were chosen due to budget constraints. Peirce incorporated filming techniques that gave the audience an opportunity to delve into Brandon's perspective, his imagination, and the way he perceived things. "The work was informing me about how I wanted to represent it. I wanted the audience to enter deeply into this place, this character, so they could entertain these contradictions in Brandon's own mind and would not think she was crazy, would not think she was lying, but would see her as more deeply human." Peirce took inspiration from other true crime films, including Terrence Malick
's Badlands
(1973) and Richard Brooks
In Cold Blood
(1967), while drawing inspiration from the story of Pinocchio
. Peirce chose to not show how Brandon looked before he began cross-dressing, so the audience could perceive Brandon the way he perceived himself—as a male.
Boys Don't Cry featured various scenes which required emotional and physical intensity and thus were allocated extended periods of filming. The bumper-skiing scene took six hours to shoot and ended up being filmed at sunset, which resulted in a blue sky in the background. A flood gave the cast and crew a "mud bath" and resulted in some of the filming equipment being stuck in mud. Radio wires in some of the scenes conflicted with the sound production. Swank required a stunt double for the scene in which she falls off the back of a truck. Teena's rape scene was given an extended filming time, and Sexton, who portrayed the attacker, walked away in tears afterward. Swank also found portraying her character daunting and felt the need to "keep a distance" from the fact that the event actually occurred. When scenes became difficult, Swank requested the company of her husband on set.
Initially, the restricted budget gave Boys Don't Cry a mere ten weeks of filming. When Fox Searchlight purchased the film in 1998 and IFC Films
agreed to distribute
it, the project gained an additional twenty-two weeks for filming. At the request of producer Christine Varchon, the extended filming time was allocated to scenes that provide further detail into Brandon's sex change surgery
, including a look at his frustrations, fear, and financial issues resulting from his inability to hold a job.
, but chose to pursue a career in film making instead. She incorporated photographic techniques during the filming of Boys Don't Cry— including the use of time-lapse photography when displaying the dimly lit Nebraska landscape and inherited stylistic influence from avant garde photographer Man Ray
, who Peirce has cited as an inspiration on her work. Peirce was assisted by cinematographer Jim Denault. The visual style is often dark, saturated, and raw, depicting the harsh Midwestern United States in a "withdrawn", dark and understated light to give a "surreal" effect. Peirce shot Boys Don't Cry in flat spherical format on 35 mm film using Kodak Vision film stock. The film was shot on Panavision
cameras and C-Series lenses. For the violent, emotionally charged scenes (such as the scene in which Brandon is stripped), Peirce used a hand-held camera
to provide maximum flexibility in composing shots without being too shaky, which might detract from the character's face, surroundings, and expression.
Many scenes were shot at night to give a muted palete. However, there is a significant use of color and brightness in certain scenes, such as both scenes featuring Brandon and Lana making love. Peirce drew storyboards frequently, however threw many out in the process. She also watched several of her favorite films and broke down certain scenes that she had liked. In addition, she took a significant portion of visual inspiration from older films, including Raging Bull (1980) and Bonnie and Clyde
(1967). Peirce opened the film with a shot of Brandon traveling down the highway, as seen from the character's imaginative or dream perspective, similar to the beginning of Raging Bull. Peirce also used the same shots in the opening roller rink
scene (where Brandon pursues his first relationship with a young girl) that were used in The Wizard of Oz
(1939) when Dorothy first left her house and entered the land of Oz. The scene consists of a three shot sequence meant to symbolize a metaphoric "entrance to manhood" for Brandon. Some scenes were given a prolonged shooting sequence to induce a hallucinatory
feeling. An example is the sequence in which Lana has an orgasm, followed by a shot of her, Brandon, Candace, and Kate driving in a car against the backdrop of the city skyline.
Peirce drew inspiration from the filming style of John Cassavetes
and the early work of Martin Scorsese
, and incorporated neo-realism techniques in filming. When a character expresses a dream or hopeful assertion about their dead-end existence, Peirce cuts to an "eerily lit" dream landscape, which one critic observed was "almost David Lynch
-like in its beauty, dotted with simple elements like water towers, naked trees and low ceilings of clouds." Time lapse photography is used in several sequences, most significantly in the scene where Brandon and Lana discuss plans to tell the family that she has "seen him in the full-flesh", and when Lana is seen driving on the highway after Brandon's murder, before the credits appear.
and Nina Persson
of The Cardigans
composed an instrumental version of Restless Heart
's 1988 country-pop hit "The Bluest Eyes in Texas
". A variation of the song was used as the film's "love theme" and score, while the actual song appeared during a karaoke
scene, sung by Sevigny and at the end of the film. The title of the film is taken from the song of the same name
by British rock
band The Cure
. An American cover of the song plays in the background in two scenes: when Lana bails Brandon out of jail, and the scene in which the two make love in the car, where it is heard at a low volume in the background. The soundtrack was released on November 23, 1999, by record label Koch Records
.
"The Bluest Eyes in Texas" was played when Hilary Swank
went onstage to receive her Academy Award for Best Actress
in 2000.
Romeo and Juliet
or the story of Bonnie and Clyde. Some critics regarded the film as being a "romantic tragedy" occurring in a working class
American setting. Roger Ebert
supported this view, calling the film a "Romeo and Juliet set in a Nebraska
trailer park
". In trailers, the film was marketed as a non-fictional tale about "hope, fear and the courage that it takes to be yourself". This summarization strengthens the academic view that the film is about the search for freedom and identity in a society where diversity is rarely accepted. The question of identity (particularly Brandon's) is alluded to frequently in Boys Don't Cry and the line "who are you?" is even uttered at one point in the film by Lana to Brandon. Peirce proposes this as the main question of the film. Janet Maslin stated the film was about accepting identity, which in turn means accepting the fate predisposed for that identity. Critics like Paula Nechak have called the film a "bold cautionary tale", with references to the pressure of conformity and acceptance, and some critics even cite parallels to Ang Lee
's Brokeback Mountain
(2005). Nachak regarded the film as a negative, dismal depiction of Midwestern America: "[Peirce's film has] captured the mystique and eerie loneliness" and "isolation of the Midwest, with its dusty desolation and nowhere-to-go frustration that propels people to violence and despair." Some critics noted that the film was about the illusions produced by love or a strong relationship: "Romance is built on illusion, and when we love someone, we love the illusion they have created for us", Roger Ebert noted.
Critics and academics have attributed Boys Don't Crys success to the fact that it ostensibly argued for tolerance of sexual diversity by depicting a relationship between two unlikely people. The film's significance has been linked to its portrayal of a same-sex relationship
without any reference to the history of the gay civil rights movement
. This emphasizes the tragic aspect of the love story, which led many commentators to compare Brandon and Lana's relationship and subsequent drama to classic and modern romances like Romeo and Juliet, often using the term star-crossed lovers. Freedom is an obvious and dominant theme in Boys Don't Cry. Brandon was in search of a place to be himself, having been ostracized and judged by nearly everyone who discovered his biological sex. Critics have called the film a "sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame", describing Brandon—heroic and fatally flawed—as this spirit who was murdered when angry townspeople discovered who he really was.
Maslin saw Boys Don't Cry as a tale of a trapped small town character's search for life beyond their rural existence and the high price they pay for their view of the "American dream
". Brandon yearns for the freedom of a new life, and Lana, who sees Brandon as an escape from her small town life, gains the ability to make the leap of faith. At one point in the film, Lana even discusses running away to Memphis with the intentions of starting a new life as a karaoke singer with Brandon as her manager. Most of the characters lead a dull and meaningless existence in a desolate small town. Many of them drink at the local bar and abuse recreational drugs to pass the time. Christine Vachon stated that "It's about these guys whose world is so tenuous and so fragile that they can't stand to have any of their beliefs shattered", in regards to John and Tom's views about their life and Brandon's aspirations. Along with other turn-of-the-millennium films such as Fight Club
(1999), In the Company of Men
(1997), American Psycho
(2000) and American Beauty
(1999), critics suggest Boys Don't Cry "raises the broader, widely explored issue of masculinity in crisis". In addition, some scholars and authors have regarded the film as an exploration on "social problems", along with Patty Jenkins
's Monster (2004).
on October 8, 1999, to critical acclaim. It was shown at the Reel Affirmations International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in early October where it received acclamation. The following week, the film premiered in Canada
at the Toronto International Film Festival
(TIFF) to further praise. Boys Don't Cry was given a special screening at the Sundance Film Festival
. The film received a limited release
theatrically on October 22, 1999, in the United States, where it was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
, a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, that specializes in independent films. The film grossed $73,720 in its opening week, followed by an additional $237,504 by October 17, 1999. By December 5, the film had grossed in excess of $2 million. By May 2000, the film had a United States total gross of $12 million.
The film won a variety of awards, with the majority of wins going to Swank for her performance. Swank won a Best Actress Oscar
while Sevigny received a nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress
. From the Hollywood Foreign Press, the film received two Golden Globe nominations in the same two categories (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress) for Swank and Sevigny, with one win (Best Actress). Swank and Sevigny received Best Actress Awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award. The film won three awards at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards: Best Actress (Swank), Best Supporting Actress (Sevigny), and Best Director (Peirce). Swank and Sevigny won Satellite Awards for their performances, while the film itself was nominated in two other categories: Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director. It was named one of the best films of the year by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
. Boys Don't Cry's release was concurrent with the murder of a homosexual teenager, Matthew Shepard
, who was killed on October 12, 1998, almost a year before the film's premiere. The murder sparked additional public interest in hate crime
legislation in America and in Brandon Teena, and aided public interest in Boys Don't Cry.
.
Boys Don't Cry became one of the most applauded films of the year. Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
was particularly enthusiastic in his review: he called it "one of the best films of the year", and listed it as one of his five best films of 1999, stating "this could have been a clinical movie of the week, but instead it's a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame". Janet Maslin of The New York Times
said the film was "stunning", and gave it four out of four stars. Maslin observed that "unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope". She ended up calling Boys Don't Cry "the best film of the year". Kenneth Turan
of The Los Angeles Times praised the lack of romanticization and dramatization of the characters and reported that "Peirce and Bienen and the expert cast engage us in the actuality of these rootless, hopeless, stoned-out lives without sentimentalizing or romanticizing them" and said that "Boys Don't Cry is an exceptional—and exceptionally disturbing film", while Mike Clarke of USA Today
commended Peirce's depth of knowledge of the case and the subject matter: "Peirce seems to have researched her subject with grad-school-thesis intensity". Online film reviewer James Berardinelli
gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising the performances of Swank and Sevigny as the film's greatest success and likening the intensity of the film to that of a train wreck. Berardinelli stated that Swank "gives the performance of her career" and that "Sevigny's performance is more conventional than Swank's, but no less effective. She provides the counterbalance to the tide of hatred that drowns the last act of the film." Emanuel Levy
of Variety Magazine called the acting "flawless" and acknowledged that the "stunningly accomplished" and "candid" film could be "seen as a Rebel Without a Cause
for these culturally diverse and complex times, with the two misfit girls enacting a version of the James Dean
—Natalie Wood
romance with utmost conviction, searching, like their '50s counterparts, for love, self-worth and a place to call home." Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post
noted that the performances are of such "luminous humanity that they break your heart". Premiere voted Swank's performance as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
called Swank a "revelation" and noted that "by the end, her Brandon/Teena is beyond male or female. It's as if we were simply glimpsing the character's soul, in all its yearning and conflicted beauty".
The film was not without detractors, with most backlash focusing primarily on the adult themed subject matter. Elizabeth L. Bland of Time Magazine was one of the film's negative reviewers, claiming that "the film lets down the material. It's too cool: all attitude, no sizzle". Peter Rainer of New York Magazine gave an unfavorable comparison to Rebel Without a Cause (1954), calling it a "transgendered" version. In 2007, Premiere
voted the film one of the "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".
On November 30, 2010, it was announced that the film will be released Blu-ray on February 16, 2011 by 20th Century Fox Entertainment in conjunction with Fox Pathe Europa. Exact technical specifications and exclusive special features are currently unknown.
and a skanky snake". Tisdel claimed that the film falsely portrayed that she continued the relationship with Teena after she discovered Teena was anatomically and chromosomally female. She settled her lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed sum. Swank received criticism from the family of Brandon Teena for her repeated use of the male gender pronoun "he" in her Oscar acceptance speech. Teena's mother, JoAnn Brandon, argued that her son's transgenderism was a defense mechanism that was developed in response to childhood sexual abuse, rather than being an expression of Teena's gendered sense of self: "She pretended she was a man so no other man could touch her." Swank later apologized, but many transgender activists asserted that she was correct in referring to Teena as a man, as this was the gender in which Teena preferred to live and act.
Along with the portrayal of the actual ordeal and the people involved, the film garnered significant controversy for its graphic rape scene. Initially assigned an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, the content was strongly toned down for the US release, where the film was rated R. Peirce was interviewed for the 2005 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated
about the trouble the film had with the MPAA, particularly the censoring of the sex scenes. The double rape caused significant problems with the MPAA and had to be trimmed to avoid the NC-17 rating. The European version is more explicit, particularly with the first rape. Peirce displayed anger over the fact the MPAA wanted the sex scene between Brandon and Lana removed but were satisfied with the overall brutality and violence in the murder scene.
Kimberly Peirce
Kimberly Peirce is an American feature film director, notable for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry . Her second feature, Stop-Loss, was released by Paramount Pictures in 2008.- Early life and career :...
and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena
Brandon Teena
Brandon Teena was an American trans man who was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. His life and death were the subject of the Academy Award-winning 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, which was based on the documentary film The Brandon Teena Story.-Life:Teena was born Teena Renae Brandon in Lincoln,...
, a transgender man
Trans man
A trans man, transman, trans guy, or FTM is a transgender or transsexual man: a person who was assigned female at birth, but who identifies as male....
played by Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
, and is beaten, raped and murdered by his male acquaintances after they discover he is anatomically female. The picture explores the themes of freedom, courage, identity and empowerment. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight Pictures, established in 1998, is a film division of Fox Filmed Entertainment alongside the larger Fox studio 20th Century Fox...
and was released theatrically in October 1999.
After reading about the murder of Brandon Teena while in college, Peirce intently researched the case—as well as Teena's life—and worked on a screenplay for the film for almost five years. All She Wanted, the 1993 book about the case written by Aphrodite Jones, inspired Peirce, but she chose to focus the story on the relationship between Teena and his girlfriend Lana Tisdel. Many actors campaigned for the lead over the course of three years; the then unknown Swank was cast because her personality seemed similar to Teena's. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
, Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
, Brendan Sexton III
Brendan Sexton III
Brendan Eugene Sexton III is an American actor.-Career:Born in Staten Island, New York, Sexton made his film debut in Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse playing the troubled bully Brandon McCarthy, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award...
, Alicia Goranson
Alicia Goranson
Alicia Linda Goranson , better known as Lecy Goranson, is an American actress. At age 14, she was cast in the role of Becky Conner in the television sitcom Roseanne, which debuted to great success in 1988....
, Jeanetta Arnette
Jeanetta Arnette
Jeannetta Arnette is an American actress known for her television role as Miss Meara on the situation comedy Head of the Class. She has also appeared in numerous films and guest-starring roles on television...
, and Matt McGrath
Matt McGrath (actor)
Matt McGrath is an American actor.McGrath's film appearances include roles in The Notorious Bettie Page, Boys Don't Cry, The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy, and The Impostors. On television, McGrath has appeared in episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Now and Again, and New York...
. The majority of characters were based on real-life people, while some were composites
Composite character
A composite character is a character composed of two or more individuals, appearing in a fictional or non-fictional work. Two fictional characters are often combined into one upon adaptation of a work from one medium to another, as in the film adaptation of a novel...
. Shooting lasted from October until November 1998 and filming took place in various locations throughout Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Boys Don't Cry premiered at the New York Film Festival
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival has been a major film festival since it began in 1963 in New York. The films are selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center...
on October 8, 1999 to overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics. Praise was generally focused on the two lead performances by Swank and Sevigny. The film received a limited nationwide release on October 22, 1999, and performed moderately well at the North American box office. At the 72nd Academy Awards
72nd Academy Awards
The 72nd Academy Awards ceremony took place at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, and was Billy Crystal's seventh time hosting the Awards. The ceremony attracted 46.53 million viewers, an audience 3.7% bigger than the previous ceremony.The Academy Awards ceremony was dominated by two films...
in 2000, Swank was awarded an Oscar for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, while Sevigny was nominated for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
. The film has been cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999, initially being assigned an NC-17 rating, later modified to an R rating. The release of the film was concurrent with the murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998...
, which sparked additional public interest. The film was named after the song of the same name
Boys Don't Cry (song)
"Boys Don't Cry" was the second single to be released by The Cure, released in June 1979. It was released in the UK as a stand-alone single, and was included as the title track on Boys Don't Cry, the American equivalent to Three Imaginary Boys....
by The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
, and a cover version of the song appears in the film.
Plot
Brandon TeenaBrandon Teena
Brandon Teena was an American trans man who was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. His life and death were the subject of the Academy Award-winning 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, which was based on the documentary film The Brandon Teena Story.-Life:Teena was born Teena Renae Brandon in Lincoln,...
(Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
) is a young female-to-male non-operative transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
man, whose birth name was Teena Renae Brandon. When Brandon is discovered to be anatomically female by the brother of a woman he once dated, he becomes the target of physical threats. Not long after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin's trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska
Falls City, Nebraska
Falls City is a city in Richardson County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 4,671 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Richardson County.-Geography:Falls City is located at ....
where he cultivates friendships with ex-convicts John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
) and Tom Nissen (Brendan Sexton III
Brendan Sexton III
Brendan Eugene Sexton III is an American actor.-Career:Born in Staten Island, New York, Sexton made his film debut in Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse playing the troubled bully Brandon McCarthy, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award...
), and their friends Candace (Alicia Goranson
Alicia Goranson
Alicia Linda Goranson , better known as Lecy Goranson, is an American actress. At age 14, she was cast in the role of Becky Conner in the television sitcom Roseanne, which debuted to great success in 1988....
) and Lana Tisdel (Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
). Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is unaware of his biological sex and troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, where Brandon will manage Lana in a karaoke career.
Brandon is detained for charges that arose prior to his relocation and placed in the women’s section of the Falls City prison. Lana bails Brandon out. After Lana asks why Brandon was in a woman’s prison, Brandon lies to her, saying he was born a hermaphrodite
Hermaphrodite
In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...
and will soon receive a sex change
Sex change
Sex change is a term often used for gender reassignment therapy, that is, all medical procedures transgendered people can have, or specifically to sexual reassignment surgery, which usually refers to genitalia surgery only...
. Lana declares her love for Brandon, "no matter what (s)he is." Tom and John become suspicious after they read a newspaper article about Brandon that refers to him by his birth name, Teena Brandon. Tom and John force Brandon to remove his pants, revealing his genitalia. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes and turns away. After this confrontation Tom and John chase Brandon to an isolated location, where they beat and rape him. Afterward, they take Brandon to Nissen's house. Though injured, Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Having been threatened by his assailants and told not to report the attack to the police, a distressed Brandon is nonetheless convinced by Lana to file a report.
One evening, John and Tom get drunk, and decide to kill Brandon. Despite Lana's attempts to stop them, John and Tom drive to Candace's remote house where they find Brandon, who has been hiding in a shed on Candace's property. John shoots Brandon under the chin, and Tom shoots Candace in the head while Lana fights them and screams for them to stop. John stabs Brandon's lifeless body and Tom attempts to shoot Lana, but is stopped by John. John and Tom flee the scene, while Lana lies with Brandon's dead body.
The next morning, Lana wakes up on Brandon's dead body. Her mother arrives and takes an emotionally wrenched Lana away from the scene. The film ends with Lana leaving Falls City while a letter Brandon wrote her is read in a voice-over.
Background
Brandon Teena was a trans manTrans man
A trans man, transman, trans guy, or FTM is a transgender or transsexual man: a person who was assigned female at birth, but who identifies as male....
who was raped and murdered by two male acquaintances in December 1993, when he was 21. Kimberly Peirce, at the time a Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
film student, became interested in the case after reading a 1994 Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
article by Donna Minkowitz
Donna Minkowitz
Donna Minkowitz is a writer and journalist from Brooklyn, New York, United States. She is an advocate for gay and lesbian rights and has written extensively on the subject for publications such as The Village Voice , New York Magazine, The Advocate, Ms. magazine, The Nation and Salon.com.She is...
. Peirce became engrossed in Teena's life and death and recalls; "the minute I read about Brandon, I fell in love. With the intensity of his desire to turn himself into a boy, the fact that he did it with no role models. The leap of imagination that this person took was completely overwhelming to me." The sensational publicity and coverage generated by the case prolonged her interest. Peirce stated she looked beyond the brutality of the case and instead viewed the positive aspects of Teena's life as hopeful and full of goodwill. She admired Teena's "audacity", compassion, free spirit, and passionate "generosity" toward women.
Peirce wanted to tell the story from Teena's perspective. She felt there was an inspirational, tragic story behind the ordeal that was different from the one presented to the public. Peirce wanted to use the film as an opportunity to present Teena's search for freedom rather than capitalize on his sexual identity crisis. She was familiar with Teena's desire to cross-dress: "I started looking at all the other coverage and a great deal of it was sensational. People were focusing on the spectacle of a girl who had passed as a boy because that is so unfamiliar to so many people. Where to me, I knew girls who had passed as boys, so Brandon was not some weird person to me. Brandon was a very familiar person." Peirce was influenced by the public perception of the case, believing the American public were generally misinformed: "People were also focusing on the crime without giving it much emotional understanding and I think that's really dangerous, especially with this culture of violence that we live in." Peirce began working on a concept for the film and gave it the working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
Take It Like a Man.
The project drew interest from various production bodies. Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
's production company showed interest in the screenplay in the mid 1990s, with Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
an early candidate to star. Initially the film was to be largely based on Aphrodite Jones
Aphrodite Jones
Aphrodite Jones is an American reporter, author, and cable TV host of the series, True Crime with Aphrodite Jones, which airs on Investigation Discovery...
' 1993 true crime
True crime
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
book All She Wanted, which told the story of Teena's final few weeks alive. Rather than focusing on Teena's early life and background, the screenplay was subsequently modified closer to Peirce's vision, which focused the majority of the film on the relationship between Teena and girlfriend Lana Tisdel and the events that led to Teena's murder. Peirce felt there was a "great love story" at the center of the case. In order to fund the writing and development of the feature, Peirce worked as a paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
on a midnight shift and as a 35mm film projectionist, and received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant. The project attracted the attention of producer Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector and daughter of noted photographer John Vachon....
, who had seen Peirce's short film she had made for her thesis in 1995. Peirce co-wrote the screenplay with Andy Bienen. They worked together for a year and a half on the final drafts and made sure they didn't "mythologize" Brandon; the aim was to keep him as human as possible.
Prior to filming, Peirce conducted extensive research into the case which lasted almost five-and-a-half years. She immersed herself in the extensive information available about the murder, including trial transcripts. She met Lana Tisdel at a convenience store and subsequently interviewed her at her home. Peirce also interviewed Tisdel's mother. She also interviewed Teena's family and friends, but was unable to interview Teena's mother or any of his biological family. Much factual information was incorporated into Boys Don't Cry, including Nissen being an arsonist, and the games of chicken and joy riding that were a common pastime of the real Lotter, Nissen, and Teena.
Casting
The filmmakers retained the names of most of the real-life protagonists. Several supporting characters were given different names, including Candace's character, who in real life was named Lisa Lambert. The casting process for Boys Don't Cry was extensive and lasted for almost four years. Peirce scouted the LGBTLGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community, looking mainly for masculine lesbian women for the role of Brandon Teena. The LGBT community was highly interested in the project because of all the publicity the murder had received. High profile actors were not sent to auditions at the request of their agents because of the stigma associated with the role. The project was almost abandoned because Peirce was not satisfied with most of the people who auditioned. In 1996, after a hundred actresses had been considered and rejected, a then relatively unknown Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
sent a videotape to Peirce and was signed on to the project. During her audition, Swank, who was 22 at the time, presented Peirce with a lie about her age. Swank claimed that, like Brandon, she was also 21 years of age. When Peirce later confronted her about the lies, Swank responded, "But that's what Brandon would do." Swank's anonymity as an actress persuaded Peirce to cast her; Peirce said that she did not want a "known actor" to portray Teena.
Breast binding
Breast binding is the material used in, or the act of flattening breasts by the use of constrictive materials.Common binding materials include cloth strips, elastic or non-elastic bandage, use of purpose-built undergarments or simple layering of shirts, from tight to loose.-Motivation:There are...
and putting socks down the front of her pants in much the same way as Brandon Teena had done. Her masquerade became particularly convincing. Swank's neighbors believed the "young man" coming and going from her home was Swank's visiting brother. She reduced her body fat to seven percent to accentuate her facial structure and refused to let the cast and crew see her out of costume. Swank earned only $75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, culminating in a total of $3,000. Her earnings were so low that she did not earn enough to qualify for health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
.
Peirce had envisioned only two actors for the role of Lana Tisdel: a young Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
and Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
, who had prior credits in mostly independent films. Peirce had decided to cast Sevigny based on her impressive performance in The Last Days of Disco
The Last Days of Disco
The Last Days of Disco is a 1998 sardonic comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman and loosely based on his travels and experiences in various nightclubs in Manhattan, including Studio 54. The film concerns a group of Ivy League and Hampshire graduates falling in and out of love in...
(1998). Sevigny had auditioned for the role of Brandon, but Peirce decided that Sevigny would be suited playing Tisdel. Sevigny dyed her hair red for the role to match the real Lana's strawberry blonde hair. Peirce later said: "Chloë just surrendered to the part. She watched videos of Lana. She just became her very naturally. She's not one of those Hollywood actresses who diets and gets plastic surgery. You never catch her acting". Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
plays John Lotter, Lana's charismatic former boyfriend and the man responsible for Teena's rape and murder. Sarsgaard was one of the first choices for the role. He later commented that he wanted his character to be "likable, sympathetic even", because he wanted the audience "to understand why they would hang out with me. If my character wasn't necessarily likable, I wanted him to be charismatic enough that you weren't going to have a dull time if you were with him." In another interview, Sarsgaard said he felt "empowered" by playing Lotter. Peirce cast Alicia Goranson
Alicia Goranson
Alicia Linda Goranson , better known as Lecy Goranson, is an American actress. At age 14, she was cast in the role of Becky Conner in the television sitcom Roseanne, which debuted to great success in 1988....
, known for playing Becky on the sitcom Roseanne, as Candace because of her likeness to Lisa Lambert, who was 24 when she was shot by John Lotter. Like Sevigny, Goranson had initially auditioned for the lead role.
Principal photography
Principal photography for Boys Don't Cry lasted from October 19 to November 24, 1998. The small budget dictated some of the filming decisions, including omitting incidents to speed up the overall pacing. Timing constraints put limits on what could be achieved with the narrative. The film portrays a double murder, when in actuality a third male, Phillip DeVine, was killed at the scene. At the time he was dating Lana Tisdel's sister. Peirce produced the film independentlyIndependent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
on a $2 million budget. Boys Don't Cry was primarily filmed in Greenville, Texas
Greenville, Texas
Greenville is the county seat, and the largest city, of Hunt County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,557....
, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Most of the actual incidents took place in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, but the Texas locations were chosen due to budget constraints. Peirce incorporated filming techniques that gave the audience an opportunity to delve into Brandon's perspective, his imagination, and the way he perceived things. "The work was informing me about how I wanted to represent it. I wanted the audience to enter deeply into this place, this character, so they could entertain these contradictions in Brandon's own mind and would not think she was crazy, would not think she was lying, but would see her as more deeply human." Peirce took inspiration from other true crime films, including Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....
's Badlands
Badlands
A badlands is a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. They are often...
(1973) and Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and occasional film producer.-Early life and career:...
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by Truman Capote.In Cold Blood may also refer to:* In Cold Blood , a 1967 film and 1996 miniseries, both based on the book* In Cold Blood...
(1967), while drawing inspiration from the story of Pinocchio
Pinocchio
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...
. Peirce chose to not show how Brandon looked before he began cross-dressing, so the audience could perceive Brandon the way he perceived himself—as a male.
Boys Don't Cry featured various scenes which required emotional and physical intensity and thus were allocated extended periods of filming. The bumper-skiing scene took six hours to shoot and ended up being filmed at sunset, which resulted in a blue sky in the background. A flood gave the cast and crew a "mud bath" and resulted in some of the filming equipment being stuck in mud. Radio wires in some of the scenes conflicted with the sound production. Swank required a stunt double for the scene in which she falls off the back of a truck. Teena's rape scene was given an extended filming time, and Sexton, who portrayed the attacker, walked away in tears afterward. Swank also found portraying her character daunting and felt the need to "keep a distance" from the fact that the event actually occurred. When scenes became difficult, Swank requested the company of her husband on set.
Initially, the restricted budget gave Boys Don't Cry a mere ten weeks of filming. When Fox Searchlight purchased the film in 1998 and IFC Films
IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....
agreed to distribute
Film distribution
The distribution of a film is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor...
it, the project gained an additional twenty-two weeks for filming. At the request of producer Christine Varchon, the extended filming time was allocated to scenes that provide further detail into Brandon's sex change surgery
Sex reassignment surgery (female-to-male)
Sex reassignment surgery from female to male includes a variety of surgical procedures for transsexual men that alter female anatomical traits to provide physical traits more appropriate to the trans man's male identity and functioning....
, including a look at his frustrations, fear, and financial issues resulting from his inability to hold a job.
Cinematography
Peirce had originally sought a career in photographyPhotography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, but chose to pursue a career in film making instead. She incorporated photographic techniques during the filming of Boys Don't Cry— including the use of time-lapse photography when displaying the dimly lit Nebraska landscape and inherited stylistic influence from avant garde photographer Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
, who Peirce has cited as an inspiration on her work. Peirce was assisted by cinematographer Jim Denault. The visual style is often dark, saturated, and raw, depicting the harsh Midwestern United States in a "withdrawn", dark and understated light to give a "surreal" effect. Peirce shot Boys Don't Cry in flat spherical format on 35 mm film using Kodak Vision film stock. The film was shot on Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
cameras and C-Series lenses. For the violent, emotionally charged scenes (such as the scene in which Brandon is stripped), Peirce used a hand-held camera
Hand-held camera
Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conveniently sized for travel and because they allow...
to provide maximum flexibility in composing shots without being too shaky, which might detract from the character's face, surroundings, and expression.
Many scenes were shot at night to give a muted palete. However, there is a significant use of color and brightness in certain scenes, such as both scenes featuring Brandon and Lana making love. Peirce drew storyboards frequently, however threw many out in the process. She also watched several of her favorite films and broke down certain scenes that she had liked. In addition, she took a significant portion of visual inspiration from older films, including Raging Bull (1980) and Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934...
(1967). Peirce opened the film with a shot of Brandon traveling down the highway, as seen from the character's imaginative or dream perspective, similar to the beginning of Raging Bull. Peirce also used the same shots in the opening roller rink
Roller rink
A roller rink is a hard surface used for roller skating or inline skating. This includes roller hockey, speed skating, and recreational skating...
scene (where Brandon pursues his first relationship with a young girl) that were used in The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
(1939) when Dorothy first left her house and entered the land of Oz. The scene consists of a three shot sequence meant to symbolize a metaphoric "entrance to manhood" for Brandon. Some scenes were given a prolonged shooting sequence to induce a hallucinatory
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
feeling. An example is the sequence in which Lana has an orgasm, followed by a shot of her, Brandon, Candace, and Kate driving in a car against the backdrop of the city skyline.
Peirce drew inspiration from the filming style of John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
and the early work of Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, and incorporated neo-realism techniques in filming. When a character expresses a dream or hopeful assertion about their dead-end existence, Peirce cuts to an "eerily lit" dream landscape, which one critic observed was "almost David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
-like in its beauty, dotted with simple elements like water towers, naked trees and low ceilings of clouds." Time lapse photography is used in several sequences, most significantly in the scene where Brandon and Lana discuss plans to tell the family that she has "seen him in the full-flesh", and when Lana is seen driving on the highway after Brandon's murder, before the credits appear.
Music
Nathan LarsonNathan Larson
Nathan Larson is an American film composer, musician, and author. Larson's debut novel The Dewey Decimal System was released by Akashic Books in April 2011....
and Nina Persson
Nina Persson
is the lead singer and lyricist for the Swedish pop group The Cardigans. She has also worked as a solo artist, releasing two albums as A Camp and appearing on the tribute album to Serge Gainsbourg entitled Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited...
of The Cardigans
The Cardigans
The Cardigans are a Swedish rock band formed in the town of Jönköping in October 1992.Their debut album Emmerdale gave them a solid base in their home country and enjoyed some success abroad, especially in Japan. It was not until their second album Life that an international reputation was secured...
composed an instrumental version of Restless Heart
Restless Heart
Restless Heart is an American country music band established in 1984. The band's original members were John Dittrich , Paul Gregg , Dave Innis , Greg Jennings , and Verlon Thompson...
's 1988 country-pop hit "The Bluest Eyes in Texas
The Bluest Eyes in Texas
"The Bluest Eyes in Texas" is the title of a song written by Tim DuBois, Dave Robbins and Van Stephenson, and recorded by American country music group, Restless Heart. It was released in May 1988 as the lead single from their album Big Dreams in a Small Town. It hit #1 on Billboard's Hot Country...
". A variation of the song was used as the film's "love theme" and score, while the actual song appeared during a karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
scene, sung by Sevigny and at the end of the film. The title of the film is taken from the song of the same name
Boys Don't Cry (song)
"Boys Don't Cry" was the second single to be released by The Cure, released in June 1979. It was released in the UK as a stand-alone single, and was included as the title track on Boys Don't Cry, the American equivalent to Three Imaginary Boys....
by British rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
. An American cover of the song plays in the background in two scenes: when Lana bails Brandon out of jail, and the scene in which the two make love in the car, where it is heard at a low volume in the background. The soundtrack was released on November 23, 1999, by record label Koch Records
Koch Records
E1 Music , the primary subsidiary of E1 Entertainment LP, is the largest independent record label in the United States. It is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name E1 Universal...
.
"The Bluest Eyes in Texas" was played when Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
went onstage to receive her Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
in 2000.
Themes
Boys Don't Cry has been regarded academically as a thematically rich love story between two ill-fated lovers, not unlike Shakespeare'sWilliam Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
or the story of Bonnie and Clyde. Some critics regarded the film as being a "romantic tragedy" occurring in a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
American setting. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
supported this view, calling the film a "Romeo and Juliet set in a Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
trailer park
Trailer park
A trailer park is a semi-permanent or permanent area for mobile homes or travel trailers. The main reasons for living in such trailer parks are the often lower cost compared to other housing, and the ability to move to a new area more quickly and easily, for example when changing jobs to another...
". In trailers, the film was marketed as a non-fictional tale about "hope, fear and the courage that it takes to be yourself". This summarization strengthens the academic view that the film is about the search for freedom and identity in a society where diversity is rarely accepted. The question of identity (particularly Brandon's) is alluded to frequently in Boys Don't Cry and the line "who are you?" is even uttered at one point in the film by Lana to Brandon. Peirce proposes this as the main question of the film. Janet Maslin stated the film was about accepting identity, which in turn means accepting the fate predisposed for that identity. Critics like Paula Nechak have called the film a "bold cautionary tale", with references to the pressure of conformity and acceptance, and some critics even cite parallels to Ang Lee
Ang Lee
Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain , for which he won an Academy...
's Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
(2005). Nachak regarded the film as a negative, dismal depiction of Midwestern America: "[Peirce's film has] captured the mystique and eerie loneliness" and "isolation of the Midwest, with its dusty desolation and nowhere-to-go frustration that propels people to violence and despair." Some critics noted that the film was about the illusions produced by love or a strong relationship: "Romance is built on illusion, and when we love someone, we love the illusion they have created for us", Roger Ebert noted.
Critics and academics have attributed Boys Don't Crys success to the fact that it ostensibly argued for tolerance of sexual diversity by depicting a relationship between two unlikely people. The film's significance has been linked to its portrayal of a same-sex relationship
Same-sex relationship
A same-sex relationship is a relationship between two persons of the same sex and can take many forms, from romantic and sexual, to non-romantic close relationships. The term is mainly associated with gay and lesbian people...
without any reference to the history of the gay civil rights movement
LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...
. This emphasizes the tragic aspect of the love story, which led many commentators to compare Brandon and Lana's relationship and subsequent drama to classic and modern romances like Romeo and Juliet, often using the term star-crossed lovers. Freedom is an obvious and dominant theme in Boys Don't Cry. Brandon was in search of a place to be himself, having been ostracized and judged by nearly everyone who discovered his biological sex. Critics have called the film a "sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame", describing Brandon—heroic and fatally flawed—as this spirit who was murdered when angry townspeople discovered who he really was.
Maslin saw Boys Don't Cry as a tale of a trapped small town character's search for life beyond their rural existence and the high price they pay for their view of the "American dream
American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
". Brandon yearns for the freedom of a new life, and Lana, who sees Brandon as an escape from her small town life, gains the ability to make the leap of faith. At one point in the film, Lana even discusses running away to Memphis with the intentions of starting a new life as a karaoke singer with Brandon as her manager. Most of the characters lead a dull and meaningless existence in a desolate small town. Many of them drink at the local bar and abuse recreational drugs to pass the time. Christine Vachon stated that "It's about these guys whose world is so tenuous and so fragile that they can't stand to have any of their beliefs shattered", in regards to John and Tom's views about their life and Brandon's aspirations. Along with other turn-of-the-millennium films such as Fight Club
Fight Club (film)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
(1999), In the Company of Men
In the Company of Men
In the Company of Men is a 1997 Canadian/American black comedy written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Aaron Eckhart, Matt Malloy, and Stacy Edwards...
(1997), American Psycho
American Psycho (film)
American Psycho is a 2000 cult thriller film directed by Mary Harron based on Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the same name. Though predominantly a psycho thriller, the film also blends elements of horror, satire, and black comedy...
(2000) and American Beauty
American Beauty (film)
American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged magazine writer who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela...
(1999), critics suggest Boys Don't Cry "raises the broader, widely explored issue of masculinity in crisis". In addition, some scholars and authors have regarded the film as an exploration on "social problems", along with Patty Jenkins
Patty Jenkins
Patricia Lea "Patty" Jenkins is an American film director and writer. She grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and attended the AFI Conservatory. She graduated from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1993. The most famous film she has directed to date is Monster, a docudrama about...
's Monster (2004).
Release
Boys Don't Cry premiered at the New York Film FestivalNew York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival has been a major film festival since it began in 1963 in New York. The films are selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center...
on October 8, 1999, to critical acclaim. It was shown at the Reel Affirmations International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in early October where it received acclamation. The following week, the film premiered in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
(TIFF) to further praise. Boys Don't Cry was given a special screening at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. The film received a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
theatrically on October 22, 1999, in the United States, where it was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight Pictures, established in 1998, is a film division of Fox Filmed Entertainment alongside the larger Fox studio 20th Century Fox...
, a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, that specializes in independent films. The film grossed $73,720 in its opening week, followed by an additional $237,504 by October 17, 1999. By December 5, the film had grossed in excess of $2 million. By May 2000, the film had a United States total gross of $12 million.
The film won a variety of awards, with the majority of wins going to Swank for her performance. Swank won a Best Actress Oscar
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
while Sevigny received a nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
. From the Hollywood Foreign Press, the film received two Golden Globe nominations in the same two categories (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress) for Swank and Sevigny, with one win (Best Actress). Swank and Sevigny received Best Actress Awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award. The film won three awards at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards: Best Actress (Swank), Best Supporting Actress (Sevigny), and Best Director (Peirce). Swank and Sevigny won Satellite Awards for their performances, while the film itself was nominated in two other categories: Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director. It was named one of the best films of the year by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
. Boys Don't Cry's release was concurrent with the murder of a homosexual teenager, Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998...
, who was killed on October 12, 1998, almost a year before the film's premiere. The murder sparked additional public interest in hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
legislation in America and in Brandon Teena, and aided public interest in Boys Don't Cry.
Critical reception
Boys Don't Cry received a highly favorable critical reception in 1999, with many critics declaring it one of the best films of the year. Some critics called the film one of the most "sensational independent movies" in years. One reviewer said the film was a "critical knockout". The performances of Swank and Sevigny were picked out as some of the film's strongest elements, with many critics declaring Swank's performance to be "one of the greatest" in recent years. Swank was considered an immediate favourite to win Best Actress at various film awards, including the 72nd Academy Awards72nd Academy Awards
The 72nd Academy Awards ceremony took place at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, and was Billy Crystal's seventh time hosting the Awards. The ceremony attracted 46.53 million viewers, an audience 3.7% bigger than the previous ceremony.The Academy Awards ceremony was dominated by two films...
.
Boys Don't Cry became one of the most applauded films of the year. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
was particularly enthusiastic in his review: he called it "one of the best films of the year", and listed it as one of his five best films of 1999, stating "this could have been a clinical movie of the week, but instead it's a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame". Janet Maslin of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said the film was "stunning", and gave it four out of four stars. Maslin observed that "unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope". She ended up calling Boys Don't Cry "the best film of the year". Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
of The Los Angeles Times praised the lack of romanticization and dramatization of the characters and reported that "Peirce and Bienen and the expert cast engage us in the actuality of these rootless, hopeless, stoned-out lives without sentimentalizing or romanticizing them" and said that "Boys Don't Cry is an exceptional—and exceptionally disturbing film", while Mike Clarke of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
commended Peirce's depth of knowledge of the case and the subject matter: "Peirce seems to have researched her subject with grad-school-thesis intensity". Online film reviewer James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising the performances of Swank and Sevigny as the film's greatest success and likening the intensity of the film to that of a train wreck. Berardinelli stated that Swank "gives the performance of her career" and that "Sevigny's performance is more conventional than Swank's, but no less effective. She provides the counterbalance to the tide of hatred that drowns the last act of the film." Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy is an American film critic and professor.-Life:Emanuel Levy began his studies at Tel Aviv University, where he received B.A. in sociology, anthropology and political science. He did graduate work in sociology, film, and culture studies at Columbia University, where he earned a Ph.D...
of Variety Magazine called the acting "flawless" and acknowledged that the "stunningly accomplished" and "candid" film could be "seen as a Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
for these culturally diverse and complex times, with the two misfit girls enacting a version of the James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
—Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
romance with utmost conviction, searching, like their '50s counterparts, for love, self-worth and a place to call home." Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
noted that the performances are of such "luminous humanity that they break your heart". Premiere voted Swank's performance as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
called Swank a "revelation" and noted that "by the end, her Brandon/Teena is beyond male or female. It's as if we were simply glimpsing the character's soul, in all its yearning and conflicted beauty".
The film was not without detractors, with most backlash focusing primarily on the adult themed subject matter. Elizabeth L. Bland of Time Magazine was one of the film's negative reviewers, claiming that "the film lets down the material. It's too cool: all attitude, no sizzle". Peter Rainer of New York Magazine gave an unfavorable comparison to Rebel Without a Cause (1954), calling it a "transgendered" version. In 2007, Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
voted the film one of the "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".
Awards and nominations
The film won 43 awards and was nominated for 27 other awards. The majority of these nominations and wins were presented for Swank and Sevigny's performances.| Category — Recipient(s) |
|
|---|---|
| Academy Awards Academy Awards An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers... |
Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... — Hilary Swank |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) — Hilary Swank Best Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) — Chloë Sevigny |
| National Board of Review | Breakthrough Performance (Female) — Hilary Swank Outstanding Directorial Debut — Kimberly Peirce |
| Satellite Awards Satellite Awards The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama... |
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Hilary Swank Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role — Chloë Sevigny |
| Category — Nominee(s) |
|
| Academy Awards Academy Awards An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers... |
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... — Chloë Sevigny |
| Satellite Awards Satellite Awards The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama... |
Best Picture — Boys Don't Cry Best Director — Kimberly Peirce |
Home media
A DVD version of Boys Don't Cry was released in April 2000 in the United States and Canada. In addition, the film was released on VHS in March 2000. The DVD contained an assortment of special features, including a commentary by Kimberly Peirce and a behind-the-scenes featurette, featuring interviews from Peirce, Swank and Sevigny. This same edition was re-released with different packaging in 2006 and again in 2009, once again with different cover art.On November 30, 2010, it was announced that the film will be released Blu-ray on February 16, 2011 by 20th Century Fox Entertainment in conjunction with Fox Pathe Europa. Exact technical specifications and exclusive special features are currently unknown.
Controversy
The accuracy of the film was disputed by real-life people involved in the murder. Lana Tisdel sued the film's producers for "invasion of privacy" and the unauthorized use of her name and likeness prior to the film's theatrical release. She claimed that the film depicted her as "lazy, white trashWhite trash
White trash is an American English pejorative term referring to poor white people in the United States, suggesting lower social class and degraded living standards...
and a skanky snake". Tisdel claimed that the film falsely portrayed that she continued the relationship with Teena after she discovered Teena was anatomically and chromosomally female. She settled her lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed sum. Swank received criticism from the family of Brandon Teena for her repeated use of the male gender pronoun "he" in her Oscar acceptance speech. Teena's mother, JoAnn Brandon, argued that her son's transgenderism was a defense mechanism that was developed in response to childhood sexual abuse, rather than being an expression of Teena's gendered sense of self: "She pretended she was a man so no other man could touch her." Swank later apologized, but many transgender activists asserted that she was correct in referring to Teena as a man, as this was the gender in which Teena preferred to live and act.
Along with the portrayal of the actual ordeal and the people involved, the film garnered significant controversy for its graphic rape scene. Initially assigned an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, the content was strongly toned down for the US release, where the film was rated R. Peirce was interviewed for the 2005 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
This Film is Not Yet Rated is a 2006 independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was released limited on...
about the trouble the film had with the MPAA, particularly the censoring of the sex scenes. The double rape caused significant problems with the MPAA and had to be trimmed to avoid the NC-17 rating. The European version is more explicit, particularly with the first rape. Peirce displayed anger over the fact the MPAA wanted the sex scene between Brandon and Lana removed but were satisfied with the overall brutality and violence in the murder scene.
See also
- Transgender in film and televisionTransgender in film and televisionThis article lists many films whose primary character are transgender. It also includes films of note who have a secondary transgender character.-Film and video:...
- New Queer CinemaNew Queer CinemaNew Queer Cinema is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s...
- Gender identity disorderGender identity disorderGender identity disorder is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe persons who experience significant gender dysphoria . It describes the symptoms related to transsexualism, as well as less severe manifestations of gender dysphoria...
- A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo StoryA Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo StoryA Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story is a 2006 LGBT biography television film directed by award-winning director Agnieszka Holland and aired on Lifetime Television. The story documents the real life of Gwen Araujo, born Edward Araujo, Jr., a transgender teenager who was murdered after it was...
– A similar film detailing the transgender-related murder of Gwen AraujoGwen AraujoGwen Amber Rose Araujo , born Edward Araujo, Jr., an American teenage pre-operative transgender woman, was murdered in Newark, California, in October 2002. She was killed by four men, with two of whom she had been sexually intimate, who beat and strangled her after discovering she was transgender...
.