Boys Don't Cry (film)

Boys Don't Cry is a U.S. drama film about the story and murder of Brandon Teena, a young trans man. It was directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written with Andy Bees.

After reading about the criminal case during her studies, Peirce did extensive research for a screenplay, which she eventually worked on for almost five years. In 1995, she had already made a short film on the subject with the same title as her thesis. The script for the feature film came directly from the archival footage of the 1998 documentary The Brandon Teena Story, which eventually became her debut feature.

She put her greatest efforts into the search for a suitable leading actor to embody Brandon Teena. This casting process lasted three years, in which she also targeted transmen and lesbian women for the role auditioned, before she finally cast Hilary Swank for the character. Only with Hilary Swank Peirce is said to have seen himself in a position to implement the material satisfactorily and credibly.

Filming took place from October to November 1998 in Dallas, Texas. The low budget did not allow filming at the original locations in Nebraska.

Boys Don't Cry caused quite a stir at the time. Within a few years, it had over 65 nominations, including many critics' and film festival awards, of which it won more than 40, mainly for the actresses Hilary Swank and Chloë Sevigny, but also for the director herself. Well-known musicians such as Ric Ocasek, frontman of The Cars, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Robert Smith of The Cure contributed songs. The film eventually won Hilary Swank the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2000, as well as the Best Actress Drama Award at the Golden Globe Awards. The film was her first career highlight.

Real backgrounds and differences to the film

Unlike in the movie, Marvin Thomas Nissen (Tom) as John Lotter is supposed to have been the driving force behind the murder, whereas in the movie the focus is mainly on John's jealousy and the love triangle between him, Lana and Brandon.

The Falls City sheriff in charge at the time, Charles Laux, later testified that although he believed Brandon had been abducted and beaten by John Lotter and Marvin Nissen, he admitted he did not believe he had been raped. Because of Brandon's previous arrest, he had already become acquainted with him and considered him a windy, untrustworthy character because of his petty crimes. He also admitted that he disliked Brandon's transsexuality. Furthermore, the fact that Lotter and Nissen raped someone who was a woman but pretended to be a man was said to have displeased him. Thus, in the wake of the rape allegation, Nissen was also taunted among his acquaintances about being gay. A fact that is said to have angered him the most. Sheriff Laux was later fined $17,360 for not immediately taking Lotter and Nissen into custody after the rape allegations, despite clear circumstantial evidence. His questioning of Brandon in the film is based on a tape recording made at the time. The content is shortened in the film, faithfully reproduced.

Unlike in the movie, the assault on Brandon took place in the winter, on Christmas Eve, during a party at John Lotter's house, followed by the kidnapping and rape. The murders took place a few days later on New Year's Eve. By this time, there was snow in Nebraska. Due to the short filming time and weather conditions in Texas, this time of year could not be depicted in the film. Unlike in the film, Lotter and Nissen searched for Brandon for several days, and even showed up at his mother's house in Lincoln.

After the rape, Brandon Teena sought refuge with single mother Lisa Lambert in Humboldt, who happened to have African American Phillip DeVine staying with her at the same time, both of whom were eventually murdered as witnesses to the crime. DeVine was the boyfriend of Lana's sister, Leslie Tisdel, who also does not appear in the film. Nissen's cousin, Sarah Nissen, later made accusations of racism against the filmmakers due to his absence from the film. The latter explained that DeVines, about whose family there was little information, did not appear in the film due to difficulties with personality rights and also the time constraints imposed by the main storyline. Thus, due to a lawsuit filed by Lisa Lambert's father, the character Candace, who was based on her, was already invented, as was the character Lonny, Brandon's cousin, in order to avoid having to portray his mother and sister. In addition, the introduction of a new character at the end of the film might have caused irritation and taken the focus away from the main characters, since cinematically there was no connection to the clique and DeVine was more of an accidental victim. Further irritation in this context is often caused by a shot John fires in the film when leaving the house, after he had let go of Brandon again and prevented Tom from shooting Lana. This shot was supposed to be symbolic for Phillip DeVine, who was also murdered. Thus, the entire film project was accompanied by other legal difficulties, some of them considerable, mostly due to the violation of personal rights.

Likewise, the real Lana Tisdel and her mother Linda Tisdel spoke out against the film. Linda Tisdel contradicted her portrayal in the film, which assigns her a share of the blame for the murders. After all, she had urged Brandon to go to the police about the rape in the first place. Lana Tisdel also denied having sexual intercourse with Brandon and felt misrepresented and denigrated by the film's portrayal of her family's living conditions as "white trash." Lana Tisdel settled her lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed sum.

Critique