Boys Don’t Cry

Boys Don’t Cry was directed by Kimberly Peirce and was released on 22 October 1999 in the United States. It was also released in other parts of the world, including Australia on 25 October 1999, and Japan on 12 January 2000. The film deals with the story of Brandon Teena a transgender man who is brutally raped and murdered by two men who find out he is transgender.

Boys Don’t Cry is a movie about Brandon Teena (born Teena Brandon), a young transgendered man in Nebraska. The film tells the story of how he deceived his friends and family into believing he was a woman named Tammy Rae to avoid detection by locals who routinely attacked any woman they suspected to be transgendered. The town bullies are led by John Lotter, as well as Tom Nissen with his girlfriend Lana Abernathy. The film also follows the events leading up to Brandon’s murder, including his relationships with other transgendered men and his encounter with Lotter.

In the film, Brandon struggles to negotiate gender identity issues in a time when embracing one’s true identity was not considered gender-neutral. During pre-production, director Peirce and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black were inspired by the real story of the unknown murder victim of Tawana Brawley, a black transgender woman. “They were looking at this story as an example of this hideous racism that goes on with transgender individuals.” Another significant similarity is that Teena Brandon was not “well known” in her own community before she was murdered. The film was also inspired by the murder of Matthew Shepard during which his killers also claimed they thought Shepard was gay and not transgender. Peirce said, “I’m looking at the Brandon Teena story as a kind of spiritual sister to the Matthew Shepard story.”

The movie ends with a text saying that Brandon’s killers were convicted of second-degree murder. Yet, according to the original court case, Tom Nissen (played by Peter Sarsgaard) was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and John Lotter (played by Aaron Eckhart) “was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder, with a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years due to his use of a deadly weapon.

The main character in this movie is Teena Brandon (Brandon Teena) who is transgender. Teena is portrayed by Hilary Swank, who won the Academy Award for her performance. Teena’s story resonated with Peirce because she felt that people were too focused on sexual identity and gender politics.

The movie was also based on the real-life story of Brandon Teena, who was brutally raped and murdered by two men in Nebraska. The film follows the events leading up to his murder, including his relationships with other transgendered men and encounters with John Lotter (played by Aaron Eckhart), Tom Nissen (Peter Sarsgaard), and Lana Abernathy (Ambyr Childers).

Other key characters in this movie are Lana Abernathy (played by Ambyr Childers) who had a crush on Brandon from the beginning, and Tom Nissen (Peter Sarsgaard), who is obsessed with Lana and also a closeted transgendered man.

Harry Dean Stanton, who plays the role of Harry, is best known for his roles in Big Lebowski and Paris, Texas. The character of Harry is also based on an uncle of Peirce’s named Harry Dean Long. In November 1998, Peirce saw him at a Dallas Stars hockey game at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. She began talking to the 81-year-old actor and asked him whether he would be interested in playing Harry. Stanton said yes, and became interested in the role after reading the script.

Peter Sarsgaard plays John Lotter. He said of his character, “John is making this decision that he knows is wrong. But he thinks that’s what loving Lana would require of him.” To prepare for playing John, Sarsgaard read as many as he could on transgenders and took a course on transgender issues at The Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture. Faunder also received an award nomination for an Academy Award for her performance as Lana Abernathy (Ambyr Childers).

The main theme in the movie, Boys Don’t Cry, is the struggle to be seen as a man and not as a “sissy” or woman. The movie also deals with the pressure people feel to conform. This theme is universal, but in this particular context, it speaks directly to many transgender people who face prejudice and abuse at home, in school, and on the street. Boys are supposed to be tough, strong, and brave — not cry over things that don’t matter. If they do cry they should never show weakness by reaching out for help or saying any words like “I’m sorry.” These are all misconceptions that we learn at such an early age — children go through their lives being conditioned for these ideas because society tells them so.

Throughout the movie, Brandon (Hilary Swank) was sexually harassed, beaten, abused, and tormented by just about everyone in his life. He went through a lot of emotional pain. He had to deal with this by himself because nobody helped him. Even when he confided in his mother about the abuse she didn’t take any action to try and protect him or comfort him. Instead of listening to her son’s cries for help she stood there and watched as he was beaten up by Bob Pigeon (Peter Sarsgaard). We see Brandon wearing makeup and dresses but after he turns 18 he starts dressing like a man again; we never see him presenting as feminine again in the movie.

The theme of identity and acceptance is also evident in this movie. In the movie, Brandon feels like a man trapped in a woman’s body. He doesn’t identify as a woman but he does want to be accepted as a man, which we see in the beginning when he cuts off his hair to appear more inconspicuous.

In this way, Brandon and Lana’s situation is similar to that of transgender people today. Like Brandon, most transgender persons feel like they have been born into the wrong body. They experience feelings of anger and frustration with their assigned sex at birth, particularly while they are still young and trying to fit in socially with their same-sex peers — those who share their biological sex — or adults who identify them by their biological sex. Other issues such as gender, courage, empowerment, manipulation, and unconditional love are also themes.

Social Issues: The movie deals with issues of gender and the pressures people feel to conform to the ideas of gender roles. In particular, transgender issues are brought up in this movie; Brandon was asked by his mother why he felt like a boy when she knew he liked to dress like a girl. Brandon and Lana feel that society is against them; they try to live their lives as both a man and a woman but still within these norms or societal rules. People perceive transgenders to be in the wrong body because they transition from the body they were assigned at birth. They are usually perceived as “gay,” “different,” or “damaged.” An extreme example is any person who leaves the body they were born with (transgender) and then dies, the family will have to bury them as a man. This shows how society perceives transgender people.

In this film, Brandon and Lana were on their way to Los Angeles when they had an accident and are taken to a hospital in Texas. They are going to go by bus but Lana tells Brandon that she wants to go by train so she can get there sooner, but Brandon doesn’t want to because he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s trans, so they end up getting in an argument just before they ride off.