The Crying Game

Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox film The Crying Game is a 1992 crime thriller film, written and directed by Neil Jordan, produced by Stephen Woolley and Nik Powell, and starring Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, Adrian Dunbar, Ralph Brown, and Forest Whitaker. The film explores themes of race, sex, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The film follows Fergus (Rea), a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Fergus develops a brief but meaningful connection with a black British soldier, Jody (Whitaker), who is being held prisoner by the group. Aware that he may be killed, Jody asks Fergus to find Jody's girlfriend, Dil (Davidson), and to check on her well-being in the event of his demise. After Jody's death, Fergus finds Dil, and the two develop an unexpected romantic relationship. Later, Fergus's IRA comrades threaten to harm Dil in an attempt to coerce Fergus into assassinating a judge. Fergus is prepared to commit the crime, but Dil restrains him to prevent him from doing so. Another IRA member, Jude (Richardson), enters Dil's apartment to retaliate, but Dil shoots her dead. Fergus takes the fall for the death of Jude and is imprisoned.

A critical and commercial success, The Crying Game won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Rea, Best Supporting Actor for Davidson, and Best Film Editing. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 26th-greatest British film of all time. The film is notable for a plot twist in which the transgenderTemplate:Efn identity of the character Dil is revealed through a nude scene.

Plot

At a rural fairground in Northern Ireland, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit kidnaps Jody, a Black British soldier whom a female member of the unit, Jude, had lured to the secluded area by promising sex. The unit intends on holding Jody in exchange for the release of an imprisoned IRA member; if the prisoner is not released within three days, they plan on summarily executing Jody. Fergus, a volunteer in the unit, is assigned to stand guard over Jody, and the two began to bond, with Jody relating the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog to Fergus. Aware that he may not survive, Jody asks Fergus to find his girlfriend Dil and check on her well-being. When the captors' deadline passes without their demands being met, Fergus is ordered to take Jody into the woods to kill him. However, instead of shooting him, Fergus chases Jody when he attempts to escape. As Jody flees, he runs into a road and is struck and killed by an incoming Alvis Saracen.

The British Army attacks the IRA unit, and Fergus manages to escape, believing his companions to have died in the attack. He flees to London, assuming the alias "Jimmy" and finding work as a day labourer. A few months later, Fergus finds Dil at a hair salon, where Jody had told him that she worked as a stylist. He follows her to a bar, and they flirt using the barman, Col, as an intermediary. They develop a relationship, and Fergus gradually falls in love with her. As Fergus and Dil are about to become intimate, she undresses, and Fergus sees Dil's male genitalia. Fergus, initially repulsed, accidentally hits Dil in the face and leaves her apartment. After some reflection, he apologizes to Dil in a note, and they reconcile. Around the same time, Jude reappears and coerces Fergus into helping with an assassination plot against a British judge, using the threat of harm to Dil to ensure his cooperation. To protect Dil, Fergus disguises her in Jody's old cricket uniform. The night before the planned assassination, Fergus stays at Dil’s apartment and confesses his role in Jody's death. An intoxicated Dil does not appear to fully comprehend his words.

In the morning, Dil restrains Fergus with stockings, preventing him from participating in the assassination. The IRA unit's leader manages to shoot the judge, but is shot and killed by the judge's bodyguards. Jude, seeking revenge, enters Dil's flat with a gun. Dil manages to overpower Jude and shoots her dead after learning of her involvement in Jody's death. Dil then points the gun at Fergus, but spares him, stating that Jody would not want him killed. Dil becomes suicidal. Fergus, now freed from his restraints, prevents Dil from killing herself and allows her to escape. He wipes Dil's fingerprints from the gun and takes the blame for Jude's murder. Months later, Dil visits Fergus in prison and asks why he took the fall for her. He responds, "As a man once said, it's in my nature," and begins to recount the story of the Scorpion and the Frog.

Production

Neil Jordan first drafted the screenplay in the mid-1980s under the title The Soldier's Wife, but shelved the project after a similar film was released. A 1931 short story by Frank O'Connor called Guests of the Nation, in which IRA soldiers develop a bond with their English captives, whom they are ultimately forced to kill,<ref name="conversation">Template:Cite videoTemplate:Cbignore</ref> partly inspired the story.

Jordan sought to begin production of the film in the early 1990s, but found it difficult to secure financing,<ref name="conversation" /> as the script's controversial themes and his recent string of box office flops discouraged potential investors. Several funding offers from the United States fell through because the funders wanted Jordan to cast a woman to play the role of Dil, believing that it would be impossible to find an androgynous male actor who could pass as female.<ref name="Watkins2017">Template:Cite news</ref> Derek Jarman eventually referred Jordan to Jaye Davidson,<ref name="Watkins2017" /> who was completely new to acting and was spotted by a casting agent while attending a premiere party for Jarman's film Edward II.<ref name="conversation" /> Rea later said, "'If Jaye hadn't been a completely convincing woman, my character would have looked stupid'".<ref name="auto5">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The film went into production with an inadequate patchwork of funding, leading to a stressful and unstable filming process. The producers constantly searched for small amounts of money to keep the production going, and the unreliable pay left crew members disgruntled. Costume designer Sandy Powell had an extremely small budget to work with and ended up having to lend Davidson some of her own clothes to wear in the film, as the two happened to be the same size.<ref name="conversation" />

The film was known as The Soldier's Wife for much of its production, but Stanley Kubrick, a friend of Jordan, counselled against the title, which he said would lead audiences to expect a war film. The opening sequence was shot in Laytown, County Meath, Ireland, and the rest in London and Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire, England.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> The bulk of the film's London scenes were shot in the East End, specifically Hoxton and Spitalfields.<ref name="Oliver Lunn">Template:Cite news</ref> Dil's flat is in a building facing onto Hoxton Square, with the exterior of the Metro on nearby Coronet Street. Fergus's flat and Dil's hair salon are both in Spitalfields. Chesham Street in Belgravia was the location for the assassination of the judge, with the now-defunct Lowndes Arms pub just around the corner.<ref name="Oliver Lunn"/>

The Crying Game includes full-frontal nudity on Davidson's part.<ref name="vulture">Template:Cite web</ref>

Release

The Crying Game was shown at festivals in Italy, the United States and Canada in September 1992. It was originally released in Ireland and the UK in October 1992, failing at the box office. Director Neil Jordan later attributed this failure to the film's heavily political undertone, and particularly to its sympathetic portrayal of an IRA fighter. The film's depiction of the bombing of a pub in London was specifically mentioned as having turned the English press against the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Failed verification

The Crying Game became notable for a plot twist in which a nude scene reveals that the character Dil is transgender.<ref name="vulture" /><ref>Multiple sources:

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The then-fledgling film studio Miramax Films decided to promote the film in the U.S., where it became a sleeper hit. A memorable advertising campaign generated intense public curiosity by asking audiences not to reveal the film's plot twist regarding Dil's gender identity.<ref name="auto5"/> Those surveyed by CinemaScore on opening night gave the film a grade of "B" on a scale of A+ to F.<ref name="CinemaScore">Template:Cite web</ref> Jordan believed the film's success in the U.S. was a result of American audiences' unfamiliarity with the British–Irish politics depicted in the film. Jordan also believed that American audiences flocked to the film for what he called "the sexual politics".Template:Cn

The film earned critical acclaim and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Actor (Rea), Best Supporting Actor (Davidson) and Best Director. Writer-director Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film went on to find success around the world, and it was re-released in Britain and Ireland.Template:Cn

Critical reception

The Crying Game received worldwide acclaim from critics. The film has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 73 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. The consensus states, "The Crying Game is famous for its shocking twist, but this thoughtful, haunting mystery grips the viewer from start to finish."<ref>Template:Rotten-tomatoes</ref> On the review aggregator website Metacritic the film has a score of 90 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Roger Ebert awarded the film a rating of four out of four stars, describing it in his review as one that "involves us deeply in the story, and then it reveals that the story is really about something else altogether" and named it "one of the best films of 1992".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Richard Corliss, in Time magazine, stated: "And the secret? Only the meanest critic would give that away, at least initially." He alluded to the film's secret by means of an acrostic, forming the sentence "she is a he" from the first letter- "initial(ly)"- of each paragraph.<ref>Corliss, Richard. "Queuing For The Crying Game" Template:Webarchive, Time, 25 January 1993.</ref>

Much has been written about The Crying Game's discussion of race, nationality, and sexuality. Theorist and author Jack Halberstam argued that the viewer's placement in Fergus's point of view regarding Dil being transgender reinforces societal norms rather than challenging them.<ref>Halberstam, Judith (2005), In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, New York: New York University Press, p. 81. Template:ISBN.</ref>

David Cronenberg stated that he was disappointed by M. Butterfly's reception and felt that it was overshadowed by The Crying Game.Template:Sfn He said that the films paralleled each other as both were transsexual, transracial, and transcultural. He was critical of The Crying Game stating that the film "copped out" and that "the Stephen Rea character should have killed the black soldier" as it "would have made the movie so much more powerful because his guilt would have been so much greater".Template:Sfn

The Crying Game was placed on over 50 critics' ten-best lists in 1992, based on a poll of 106 film critics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The February 2020 issue of New York Magazine lists The Crying Game as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Box office

The film grossed £2 million ($3 million) in the United Kingdom.<ref name="screen">Template:Cite news</ref> In the United States and Canada it was more successful, grossing $62.5 million, becoming Miramax's highest grossing film in that market at the time and, based on Screen InternationalTemplate:'s definition of a British film, the second-highest grossing British film in the United States at the time.<ref name="screen"/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Based on its US gross, it was the most successful film of the year on a cost to US gross basis.<ref name=returns/> It grossed a total of $71 million worldwide.<ref name=returns/>

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the film, The Crying Game: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, released on 23 February 1993, was produced by Anne Dudley and Pet Shop Boys. Boy George scored his first hit since 1987 with his recording of the title song – a song that had been a hit in the 1960s for British singer Dave Berry. The closing rendition of Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" was performed by American singer Lyle Lovett.Template:Cn Template:Music ratings

1. "The Crying Game" – Boy George
2. "When a Man Loves a Woman" – Percy Sledge
3. "Live for Today" (Orchestral) – Cicero and Sylvia Mason-James
4. "Let the Music Play" – Carroll Thompson (credited as Carol Thompson)
5. "White Cliffs of Dover" – The Blue Jays
6. "Live for Today" (Gospel) – David Cicero
7. "The Crying Game" – Dave Berry
8. "Stand by Your Man" – Lyle Lovett
9. "The Soldier's Wife"*
10. "It's in my Nature"*
11. "March to the Execution"*
12. "I'm Thinking of You"*
13. "Dies Irae"*
14. "The Transformation"*
15. "The Assassination"*
16. "The Soldier's Tale"*

*Orchestral tracks composed by Anne Dudley and performed by the Pro Arte Orchestra of London.

See also

• Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
• List of films featuring the Irish Republican Army
• List of transgender characters in film and television
• List of transgender-related topics
• BFI Top 100 British films

Works cited

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External links

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