The Boys

Clip 1: ‘Lousy, no-good bludgers’

Taken from the feature The Boys (1998)

Original title classification MA – this clip chosen to be PG

Curator’s clip description

Brett (David Wenham) provokes a fight with Jackie (Jeanette Cronin), Glenn’s girlfriend, as the police arrive at the front door. Sandra (Lynette Curran) tries to jolly her son along, then defends him against the cops. Michelle (Toni Collette) and Glenn (John Polson) try to stay out of the argument.

Curator’s notes

The film is shot and directed on a very specific plan. The scenes in the house are generally given a deep focus, to allow us to see down corridors and to establish a strong sense of close proximity. Much of the drama in the house is shot with hand-held camera, the characters partly obscured by corners, to give a sense of lack of privacy and conversations overheard. The overall effect is extremely claustrophobic, and very oppressive.

Paul Byrnes, curator

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

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This clip shows tension mounting in the Sprague family as they gather at lunch to welcome Brett (David Wenham) home from prison. Brett goads his brother’s girlfriend Jackie (Jeanette Cronin) until she retaliates, revealing some as yet unspoken truths about him and setting herself apart from the family. This scene is interrupted by the arrival of the police, who have come to question Brett. His mother (Lynette Curran) attempts to defend Brett until he appears and responds sullenly to the police officer’s demand that he stick to the conditions of his parole in future.

Educational value points

In this clip the family members are framed to indicate the status of the protagonists at the family gathering. Throughout the opening scene Jackie’s outsider status is evidenced by her continued isolation in shot, which is broken infrequently only when Nola (Anna Lise Phillips) appears on the edge of the frame. This, when contrasted against the family members who consistently share the same frame, links Jackie and Nola as outsiders.

The camera’s position in the opening scenes places the viewer behind Jackie, encouraging the viewer to empathise with her. During their argument over the table the camera is placed so that Brett is consistently viewed from either Jackie’s point of view or from over her shoulder. This adds to the portrayal of Brett as a domineering bully and increases audience identification with Jackie who, although initially fearful, forcefully challenges him.

Deep-focus photography is used to create the oppressive atmosphere of the Sprague family home. The technique enables the areas in front of and behind the subject to be kept in focus, allowing multiple actions to be staged within one frame. Used here it reveals in a compact way the dominant and submissive relationships that exist within the family, such as that between Brett and Glen. This in turn informs the tense and claustrophobic nature of the scene.

The absence of a music soundtrack coupled with the sparse naturalistic soundscape is designed to heighten the tense, emotion-charged dialogue. The fraught dynamics between various characters in this clip are exposed in the absence of the distractions often provided by music and layered sound effects. Here the focus is on the subtle performances of the actors.

Mounting tension is conveyed by the dialogue, by what is unsaid in the silences and by the lingering shots of the characters’ faces, particularly those of the protagonists, Brett and Jackie. The escalation of their angry interchange into a potentially violent situation is underlined by Sandra’s constant nervous and apologetic chatter and the gloomy and sullen silences of the other family members and friends.

The final scene, in which the camera is positioned to present the action from the point of view of the police officers, provides another perspective on Brett as he responds to their questions concerning his parole conditions. Lurking behind his mother, Brett answers the police officers’ questions with sneering contempt. The arrogant bully of the previous scenes in the insular world of the family is constrained in this interchange with the law.