Song for a Raggy Boy (2003) - Walsh's adaptation of reforming a Catholic reformatory school is moving and well-acted

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Irish Movie of the Year

The limitation of color seems to imply something troubling on this sparse poster for Aisling Walsh's Song for a Raggy Boy

We are at an Irish Catholic reformatory school for troubled boys. The first teacher who does not arrive from the church is now hired, and he is immediately confronted with the tyranny of violence that rules the premises.

Song for a Raggy Boy is written by Kevin Byron Murphy and co-writer/director Aisling Walsh (Joyriders (1988)), adapting the same-titled 1991 autobiographical memoir by Patrick Galvin (The Death of Art O'Leary (1994)).
Aidan Quinn (The Eclipse (2009)) plays the outsider teacher, who begins a fight for radical change, which comes at a significant prize, and one is left to speculate whether his approach was the right one.
Song for a Raggy Boy is a highly sympathetic film about some of the dark sides to Catholicism. Good acting across the board elevates the sometimes banal presentation with moving results.
The story is told very properly; with explanatory (and grim) flashbacks from the Spanish Civil War and brutal scenes of violence. There is an overly sugared ending, but Song for a Raggy Boy is a distinguished effort for all involved nevertheless.

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2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch a 1 minute clip from the film here, with Spanish subtitles

Cost: Reportedly around 4.1 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 783k $
= Box office disaster (returned only around 0.19 times its cost)
[Song for a Raggy Boy premiered 19 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 100 minutes. Getting the project made took 4 years. Shooting took place in Ireland. The film reportedly made 751k $ (95.9 % of the total gross) in the UK, 31k $ in Italy and less than 1k $ in Belgium, the last market on the gross list, though it was released in more countries. The budget is known from a sheet from the Danish Film Institute, who supported the production. Walsh returned with 2 TV and a segment project before hitting theaters solo again with The Daisy Chain (2008). Quinn returned in Freedom: A History of Us (2003, TV-series documentary), Plainsong (2004, TV movie) and theatrically in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004); Iain Glen (The Iron Lady (2011)) in Spy Sorge (2003). 3,550 IMDb users have given Song for a Raggy Boy a 7.6/10 average rating.]

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