Brendan Behan is a young Irish that understands the consequences of his actions when it's too late. Carrying explosives for the IRA, Brendan is apprehended during the first sequences of Peter Sheridan's film.
Here there is clearly a disruption between the boy's wishes and his actions. For undisclosed reasons he has perpetrated a most dire action against the integrity of the United Kingdom. Or he has had such a purpose, anyway. How far can one go when insurgence seems to be the only way out? In a troubled time, in a troubled Ireland, Brendan Behan risks everything and he fails.
He is arrested and sent to Borstal, to become yet another Borstal boy in a most peculiar penitentiary facility. Deprived of his liberty, he treats Charlie Milwall with hostility, although later he will develop an intense friendship with this young inmate.
Behan is blinded by ideology. After all ideology is nothing more than a social construction which pertains many ambits of society. One could talk about the heterosexual normative as an ideology so strongly rooted that seems impossible to vanquish. In this case, the most obvious ideological weight comes from the ties Brendan has with the Irish Republic Army.
Authors as diverse as Daniel Bell and Albert Camus have written about the end of ideologies. Ideology can blind people and will always be influential in the way they see the world, regardless of the positive or negative outcome of this process, ideology is a perception of the world that leaves as strong a mark as one's own body or personal history. It's then logical that Brendan struggles to be faithful to the IRA's ideology failing over and over again.
Ideology also blinds Brendan when it comes to his true feelings. He tries to convince himself that he loves the warden's daughter. That is why at first he angrily repels Charlie's harmless advances. But then, very slowly, he starts to give in. They share one precious intimate moment before some prisoners attempt to abuse the warden's daughter. As a result Brendan has mere seconds to decide who he should protect. Must he embrace the norm, id est, heterosexuality or could he accept the forbidden, id est, homosexuality? Once again he denies his true self, and in doing so, he forever condemns Charlie to oblivion. Just as in the beginning of the film, Brendan will fully understand the consequence of his decision only when it's too late to change it. When he realizes there is nothing left to do, he truly opens his eyes. Ideology has fallen apart: his allegiance to the IRA is over, as well as his relationship with the warden's daughter. Brendan is at last, literally and metaphorically, free.
Here there is clearly a disruption between the boy's wishes and his actions. For undisclosed reasons he has perpetrated a most dire action against the integrity of the United Kingdom. Or he has had such a purpose, anyway. How far can one go when insurgence seems to be the only way out? In a troubled time, in a troubled Ireland, Brendan Behan risks everything and he fails.
He is arrested and sent to Borstal, to become yet another Borstal boy in a most peculiar penitentiary facility. Deprived of his liberty, he treats Charlie Milwall with hostility, although later he will develop an intense friendship with this young inmate.
Behan is blinded by ideology. After all ideology is nothing more than a social construction which pertains many ambits of society. One could talk about the heterosexual normative as an ideology so strongly rooted that seems impossible to vanquish. In this case, the most obvious ideological weight comes from the ties Brendan has with the Irish Republic Army.
Authors as diverse as Daniel Bell and Albert Camus have written about the end of ideologies. Ideology can blind people and will always be influential in the way they see the world, regardless of the positive or negative outcome of this process, ideology is a perception of the world that leaves as strong a mark as one's own body or personal history. It's then logical that Brendan struggles to be faithful to the IRA's ideology failing over and over again.
Ideology also blinds Brendan when it comes to his true feelings. He tries to convince himself that he loves the warden's daughter. That is why at first he angrily repels Charlie's harmless advances. But then, very slowly, he starts to give in. They share one precious intimate moment before some prisoners attempt to abuse the warden's daughter. As a result Brendan has mere seconds to decide who he should protect. Must he embrace the norm, id est, heterosexuality or could he accept the forbidden, id est, homosexuality? Once again he denies his true self, and in doing so, he forever condemns Charlie to oblivion. Just as in the beginning of the film, Brendan will fully understand the consequence of his decision only when it's too late to change it. When he realizes there is nothing left to do, he truly opens his eyes. Ideology has fallen apart: his allegiance to the IRA is over, as well as his relationship with the warden's daughter. Brendan is at last, literally and metaphorically, free.