Text Title: ‘Boy’
Director: Taika Waititi
Text Type: Movie
Data watched: Term 3
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Brief plot overview
‘Boy’ directed by Taika Waititi is about a boy who lives in Waihau Bay in 1984. This boy, the protagonist, dreams about a heroic father who adventures around the world but when he comes home after 6 years of disappearing the father turns out to be a drunken idiot who is a leader of a gang. Then it carries on to evolve the relationship of the father and boy, also the Boys younger brother, Rooky. Also, the challenges they face.
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Characters you found interesting and why
A character I found interesting was Rooky, Boys younger brother. This is because he 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. “My mums dead, I killed her,” said Rooky. But also how he was quite a 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’s intention 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 affects the child mentally, meaning that they might believe that they killed their Mother, like Rooky. Also that it is stated that the 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 and Weirdo was his only friend in the film. Rooky asked Weirdo, “do you have any friends?” so Waititi probably made Rooky and Weirdo become friends because Rooky feels like he can connect with Weirdo more than anyone else as he feels different from other kids because of what he thinks he did to his mother. So it is inferring that Rooky thinks of himself as different and weird. I feel empathy for children in society, and Rooky, as it would be very hard to deal with this especially if the other parent isn’t there loving and supporting you. So I cannot relate to how Rooky feels and the difficulty of dealing with losing your mother at birth, as my Mum is still with me and is caring, loving person.
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Messages you took from the text(s) and why
A message that I took from the text was the importance of a role model. From the very beginning of the film, we realise the Boy’s father, Shogun, is absent. When he does return, he is only interested in uncovering money he had previously buried and not interested in his sons. As he only spends “quality time” with his son when is high. But Boy is unable to see this sadly and looks up to his father. It is the bridge scene where Boy is confronted by the truth that his father isn’t a role model, he is a selfish neglectful person who isn’t a role model that Boy needs as a father figure. A role model is a “person whose behaviour, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people” so this is shown that Shogun isn’t these things to his son which affects Boy and Rooky as a role model should be there to help shape how they behave in school, relationships, or when making difficult decisions. My role models are my caregivers, so my Mum and Dad. They support me unconditionally, like shogun should toward his son but does not, and are also there for me through hard times. This positively affected my childhood as I always had someone mature and loving to look up too. I believe as a child it is very important to have a role model as that person who you look up too shapes how your future will be. But with Boy, that fact that his mother passed away and his father is a selfish man, and also figuring who Shogun truly is thorough his realisation at the bridge scene, makes his childhood a very difficult time. Waititi’s intention to show how the importance of a role model effected Boy was to create awareness on how children do need someone they can admire and strive to be like but also show maturity in children, like Boy, to recognise that the person they look up to might be irresponsible and not a good role model, as Boy did in his realisation. In society, most children do have a role model, someone they look up to, and this helps them to figure out who they want to be when they grow up and if Boy didn’t have the realisation of who truly Shogun is, he would probably turn out like an absent, selfish father too. As he wouldn’t have anyone else learn right and wrong from.
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Challenges that characters had to deal with and your response to these
During the film, Boy had to deal with an accumulation of challenges resulting from his father coming home but the biggest challenge Boy had to face was the realisation of who his father is. At the start of the film Boy creates fantasies of who he makes out his father to be, for example, like when he believes his dad is a “deep-sea treasure diver”, a “captain of the rugby team” and “holds the record for punching the most people with one hand”. But sadly when his father does return home Boy falls into the trap of believing that his father is what he fantasies about and it isn’t till the bridge scene that he has a realisation of who truly the father is, not a role model. This was challenging for Boy as if it would be for anyone who has just realised that they have no parental figures as Boy figured out that his father was absent for most of his life. Because I look up to my father greatly, and he isn’t a selfish absent dad, I cannot relate to how Boy is feeling at that time. But I do feel empathy towards him as I would feel utterly broken if I found out the everything I believed was true suddenly wasn’t. So I feel grateful for my own life with a loving father. Waititi’s intention to create this challenge for Boy to overcome was to make it aware to the viewers that in the world today there are children with neglectful parents who don’t love them unconditionally, and it does affect those children now and in there futures. It is also emotionally harmful to those children with neglectful parents in society as they are not given the care, supervision, love and attention they need to grow up safely and happily.
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Discussion about the title of the text(s) and why it was appropriate
The title ‘Boy’ is appropriate from this film because I could infer that it would be about the protagonist which is a young boy, coincidentally named Boy. Which it was about but also about having a neglectful parent and the importance of having a role model to look up too, especially at Boy age. I think that it is appropriate with the context of the film and I believe that Waititi chooses a suitable title to represent this film, as it is directed towards Boy who the film follows and develop as a character throughout the film.
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Who would you recommend this/these stories to and why
If I were to recommend this film ‘Boy’, it would be to ages from 15 plus as there are some unsuitable aspects in the movie, for example like drugs and gangs. But also to people who need confronting to how life could be for some children, to show that we don’t all get the same childhood and there are some parents who neglect their children. Which has a huge impact on those children, as it shows with Boy and Rooky, with how Boy creates up fantasies to hide from the truth and how Rooky would be scarred for life for what he thinks he did to his mother. To recognise this in society, what was shown in the film and to find help for a child suffering from what Boy and Rooky were going through, would be what Taika Waititi intended to get across to the viewers.
LOW EXCELLENCE