‘Boy’ Initial Response

Write your response to the film using the following points:

Write a BRIEF plot overview.

‘Boy’ directed by Taika Waititi is about a boy who lives in Waihau Bay in 1984. This boy dreams about a heroic father who adventures around the world but when he comes home after 6 years of disappearing the farther turns out to be a drunken idiot who is a leader of a gang. Then is carries on to evolve the relationship of the father and boy also boys younger brother, Rooky. Also the challenges they face.

Discuss a character that you found interesting and describe why they stood out to you.

A character I found interesting was Rooky, Boys younger brother. This is because he really stood out to me, mostly because I felt sorry for him as he feels guilty for ‘killing’ his mother, as his mother died giving birth to him. But also how he was quite concealed and observant person who didn’t communicate (talk) a lot. Indicating Rooky as an introverted person, this also connects to how he imagines scenes that are happening in cartoon drawings, which I found very interesting and an effective way of showing how this little boy thinks. Also showing his emotions and how he is feeling through the different drawings. I think Taika Waititi intentions of having this character survive at birth but not the Mother, was to create awareness of how this happens in the real world. Showing that it effects the child mentally, meaning that they might believe that they killed their Mother, like Rooky. Also that it is stated that a death of a parent at a very young age can make them feel different from their peers. This is shown with Rooky with how he thinks he has superpowers and it is only shown that Boy was his only friend.

Write about a scene that stood out to you . Why?

A scene that stood out to me was the ending scene, where the father is in the grave site of his wife, and his kids come and sat beside him. This really left an impact on me because it really showed the father, Alamein, was tying towards the end and in the movie before this scene, it showed him standing outside the gravesite pacing about whether to go inside and visit his wife. Which this resulted with him deciding not to go in and walking away, so ending with him in the gravesite sitting beside the grave was very emotional and stood out. Also it put Alamein in a perspective not as an absent drunken father, but as a really lost and emotional person who probably regrets how he treated and left his children. When the children joined him it created a very emotional atmosphere for me as it show the character in a very vulnerable position..

What message do you think the director, Taika Waititi, was conveying in the text. Use an example to support your explanation.

A message that Taika Waititi was trying to convey in the movie was the complications of families and how some families do struggle. And also how some children have to take on so much responsibility from a very young age because of an absent father and past away mother, which connects to Boy.

Write about a cinematography technique that was of interest to you. Why was it effective/surprising/distracting…

A cinematography technique that was of interest to me was how Taika Waititi effectively displayed Rooky’s imaginary by displaying it as a stop-motion drawings on a sketch pad. From the start of the film, it is show that Rooky thought that he had superpowers, this is because of how his mother died at his birth, this causing Rooky to believe he has superpowers. So by using the sketches, Taika Waititi used Rooky’s imaginary of having superpowers to display what he is thinking on the sketchs to what is going is really going on in the scene in front of him. By using this cinematography technique it made me, as the audience, look at his perspective and what he thinks about whats happening. So Waititi’s intentions by making the audience experiencing Rooky world through drawings created an effect on how he was still childish

Give your reflection on the setting. Why do you think it was set in Waihau Bay in 1984? Write about how the director showcases the setting.

I think that Taika Waititi used the setting of Waihau Bay in 1984 really effectively and using the long shot of the beautiful environment to set the atmosphere of the film. Meaning….

Maturity from kids more than father. – Father is immature – boy starts to become like father throughout film