Touchstone and Beyond: "Boys"
Feature Presentation: Boys
Cast of Characters
- Winona Ryder as Patty
- Lukas Haas as John
- John C. Reilly as Officer Kellog Curry
- Skeet Ulrich as Bud
- Wiley Wiggins as John Phillips
Elevator Pitch
Patty is in trouble. On the run from the law, she is injured and unconscious after falling from a horse. John finds her and sneaks her into his room at his boarding school to recover. While John cares for Patty, his friends get jealous, and we soon learn why she is on the run.
The problem for John is twofold. He doesn’t want the future that is laid out for him and his relationship with Patty is complicated at best.
The Orson Welles Award of Brilliance
The landscape shots are quite nice.
The Alan Smithee Award of Anonymity
This movie is the result of a slasher attack in the editing room. It’s a cut and paste job of what the studio wanted compared to what the director envisaged and the only loser in this battle is the viewers. Disney was trying to make a half Dead Poets Society / Snow White and they failed miserably.
Boys is a mess. It’s tone changes throughout, the actors are all in a very different story from what the movie is thanks to the editing, and the audience is left wondering what is happening.
I enjoyed the animated Snow White, but the story itself does not translate well to live action, and while Boys is not a Snow White remake it still has more elements of the famed fairy tale than it would like.
Production Team
- Directed by Stacy Cochran
- Produced by Touchstone Pictures / Interscope Communications / Polygram Filmed Entertainment
- Written by Stacy Cochran / James Salter
- Release Date: May 10, 1996
- Domestic Box Office Gross: $516,349
I Know Their Name
Matt Malloy as the bartender. He is always recognizable, and I loved his work in the show Alaska Daily.
Deep Dive Behind the Scenes
- Reportedly, the film originally had an R rating, and after multiple times in the editing room, dubbing for language, and hacking at the scenes, the film finally gained a PG-13 rating. This did not sit well with star Winona Ryder. She refused to promote the film.
- Director Stacy Cochran stated that with the editing made by the studio that the film lost ‘much of the original intent and beauty . . . due to studio interference.’
- The original title of the movie was The Girl You Want. Ryder was also displeased by the title change.
- Edward Furlong was reportedly considered for the role of John Baker.
- The movie had an opening weekend gross of just over $270 thousand.
- The film only made it to 328 theatres during its run on the silver screen.
- The movie is based on the short story Twenty Minutes by James Salter.
Bill’s Spicy Take
Winona Ryder did nothing to help this film. She is not a compelling lead, and her work in Boys is just another example of why she needs a more captivating co-star to elevate her work.
Oscar Thoughts
(These rankings are awarded based on my love for Hitchcock films):
{Frenzy Award-Skip this Film, Torn Curtain Award-Desperate for Something to Watch, For the Birds-A Perfect Film for Any Device, Rear Window Award- You Must Watch This Film on a Big Screen because this film is cinema.}
Boys gets my Frenzy Award. This is a movie that if it were made today, would have been cancelled mid-production and forgotten. It’s not worth the time and there are better things to do, like going for a walk outside.
Coming Attractions
Next week a look back at the drama A Thousand Acres.