This film is not new but for some reason it was trending at number 8 in films in my region yesterday. I watched the trailer, saw Kevin Bacon and Brad Pitt's faces and figured I'd give it a go. It is my understanding that this film was quite popular back in the day and it is a surprise to me that I have managed to not see it for all these years.
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Released in 1996 I am actually a bit alarmed that I wasn't forced to go see this in theaters because my girlfriend at that time in my life was basically drooling over anything and everything that Brad Pitt was in. On that note, Brad Pitt isn't actually in a great deal of this film so maybe that is why we didn't go.
4 childhood friends end up getting sent to a "boys home" after one of their childhood pranks goes awry and results in the death of an innocent bystander. The story gets pretty gruesome from that point forward as the 4 boys are forced to endure physical and sexual abuse over the course of a year or more at the hands of the guards. The main guard is played by Kevin Bacon and he does an absolutely fantastic job in this role and in my opinion anyway, is the best actor in the entire production.
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The story isn't just about that, but it is a rather large portion of this over 2 hour film. The rest of it is a courtroom drama that you really need to stay on your toes in order to follow because it involves a bunch of players that were introduced into the storyline an hour earlier and you probably forgot that they were even in this thing.
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This movie is part Stand by Me, part Goodfellas, and part anything by John Grisham all rolled into one and even though I personally feel as though the movie is about 30 minutes longer than it needed to be, it is still entertaining all the way through. Once things become the legal part of the film though, this is not a time to be staring at your phone on the sofa because you will miss the entire damn point of the film if you don't pay very close attention during all of this. I made this mistake and had to rewind a bit.
Should I watch it?
Well, chances are if you are my age you have already seen it, but if you are younger or somehow it managed to pass you by in the 90's then I would say absolutely you should watch this. It's a pretty powerful film and we also get to see some of our favorite actors more than 20 years younger than they are now.
