Borstal Boy

2001

1h 31m

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

YOUR RATING

Rate

POPULARITY

Play trailer

2 Videos

5 Images

Drama

Brendan Behan, a sixteen year-old IRA foot soldier, is going on a bombing mission from Ireland to Liverpool during the second world war. His mission is thwarted when he is apprehended, charged and imprisoned in Borstal, a reform institution for young offenders in East Anglia, England.

Directors

Peter Sheridan

Writers

Peter Sheridan(writer by)

Brendan Behan(author by)

Nye Heron(writer by)

Stars

Shawn Hatosy

Danny Dyer

Robin Laing

See production, box office & company info

Videos2

Trailer
Watch Borstal Boy - Trailer.mp4
Trailer
Watch BORSTAL BOY Official Film Trailer

Photos5

Top cast

Brendan Behan

Charlie Milwall

Jock

Verreker

Liz Joyce

Mac

Dale

Customs man

Manning

Holmes

Landlady

Whitbread

Alex

Joyce

Chief Dixon

James

Albert

Jerzy

Directors

Peter Sheridan

Writers

Peter Sheridan(writer by)

Brendan Behan(author by)

Nye Heron(writer by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

7/10

When Brendan Behan (Shawn Hatosy) arrives in Liverpool with a bag full of explosives amidst WWII, he's promptly caught and sent to a youth detention facility in Norfolk. It's run by a fair and open-minded warden (Michael York) who advises his inmates to behave themselves and all will be fine. That's easier said than done, though, as this confirmed Irish republican is not going to naturally fit in with his cohorts. One exception might be navy man Charlie Milwall (Danny Dyer) with whom he becomes quite thick. What now ensues combines a frequently toxic mix of politics, bullying and fluid sexuality with their determination to escape and a degree of humanity and some dark, wartime, humour as the coming-of-age genre takes on a different, less predictable, direction. There are gay undertones, but they are not laboured as the story depicts a broader group of lads who are lost, abandoned by family and society and rudderless - and an engaging rapport between Hatosy and Dyer emerges helping to illustrate that not everyone here knows what the war is for or, indeed, is fighting the same one. It's gritty and the dialogue is honest and ripe without becoming overwhelmingly aggressive or repetitive and by the close these two men came across as decent and honourable. Worth a watch.

Geronimo196722 Jan, 2025