Neil Jordan The Crying Game

1. Neil JordanThe Crying Game An ARTS ONE Lecture by Brian McIlroy March 11, 2013

2. MY LAST ARTS ONE LECTURE DEDICATED TO: Dr. Mark Harris (1951-2013) Mark Cochrane (1963-1980)

9. Biographical Facts (1) • Born in Rosses Point, County Sligo, Ireland, 1950. • Parents moved to Dublin when he was two. • No TV at home: visited the cinema once every two weeks. • Attended University College Dublin, graduated with BA in English & History in 1971.

10. Biographical Facts (2) • At university, he played Tiresias in a production of Oedipus Rex. • Married in 1971 and he and wife moved to London for two years to find work. • Began writing short stories: first collection entitled Night in Tunisia (1976) • John Boorman read the collection and invited him to collaborate on a film script.

11. Biographical Facts (3) • Boorman employed Jordan as a “Creative Associate” on the film Excalibur (1979). • Boorman gave Jordan money to make a documentary on the making of Excalibur. • Jordan published his first novel The Past in 1980; also began writing screenplays for TV drama and film. • Boorman instrumental in controversial decision in giving Irish Film Board money to fund Jordan’s first feature film.

13. Jordan’s Angel (1982) • Stephen Rea’s first film role for Jordan • Plays on the idea of an avenging angel • Set in Northern Ireland during the 1970s • Danny, a saxophonist, witnesses murders and seeks revenge; he’s a man brutalized by violence, then murders the murderers. • Poetic, mannered, literary, uneven tone

14. Jordan’s Feature Films • Angel (aka Danny Boy), IRE/UK,1982 • The Company of Wolves, UK, 1984 • Mona Lisa, UK 1986 • High Spirits, USA 1988 • We’re No Angels, USA 1989 • The Miracle, UK, 1991 • The Crying Game,UK 1992

15. Jordan’s Feature Films (2) • Interview With A Vampire, USA 1994 • Michael Collins, USA 1996 • The Butcher Boy, USA 1997 • In Dreams, USA 1999 • The End of The Affair, USA/Germany 1999 • The Good Thief, Canada, 2002 • Breakfast on Pluto, USA, 2005 • The Brave One, USA, 2007

16. Most Recent Films/TV • Ondine (2009) • The Borgias (TV) (2011-) • Byzantium (2012)

18. Key Dates in Irish History (1) • Early 1600s, “The Flight of the Earls” • 1603-1625: James I’s reign—policy of “plantation” [English and Scottish Protestant settlers to present day Northern Ireland. Common that native Catholic Irish forced off their land. • 1690 Battle of the Boyne—William of Orange (Protestant) defeated armies of James II (Catholic). Thereafter, royalty and Protestantism inextricably linked.

19. Key Dates in Irish History (2) • 1801 Act of Union—Dublin parliament dissolved and Irish MPs travelled to Westminster • Irish Nationalist forces gradually remove by parliamentary means penal laws against Catholics, e.g. Horse over 5 pounds-not • Gradual move to Home Rule interrupted by First World War • 1916: Easter Uprising in Dublin

20. Key Dates in Irish History (3) • 1919-1921: Irish War of Independence • 1921: Peace agreement led to partition of Ireland: The six counties of Northern Ireland remained in the UK; 26 counties formed the new “Dominion” of the Irish Free State, later The Republic of Ireland • 1922-23: Irish Civil War between “moderates” and “hardliners” ; moderates win. • 1968-69: “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland began

21. Northern Ireland • Initially 66% Protestant and Unionist, 33% Catholic and Nationalist. 1.5 million total. • Today, maybe 53%/47% religious split • Between 1968 and 1998 at least 3500 people murdered/killed. Per capita, that would mean 70,000 Canadians or ten times the death toll of Americans in the Vietnam War.

22. Who was fighting? • The Irish Republican Army (IRA) who believed Northern Ireland should be under ALL-Irish control, and that Britain should relinquish its control and leave. • The British Army at one point had 20,000 troops in the country. • Loyalist Paramilitaries emerged to fight the IRA. Similar to militias.

23. Circa 1990-1992 • The guerilla war had continued for more than twenty years; a stalemate had set in. • British Ministers often talked about “acceptable levels of violence” in private. • Political progress, however, was beginning to happen, but the IRA had started targeting England as well as Northern Ireland.

24. “The Troubles” • A little local difficulty • A low grade civil war • A guerilla campaign of bombs and bullets at what were termed “legitimate targets” • Northern Ireland ruled directly from London, UK • Diplock courts—judge and no jury

25. Literary and Filmic Sources • Frank O’Connor’s short story “Guests of the Nation” (1931): Republicans take two English solders captive, then have to kill them. Brendan Behan play, The Hostage (1958) • IRA man on the run: Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) film. • Orson Welles’ film Mr Arkadin (1955)—uses the fable of The Scorpion and the Frog

26. The Scorpion and the Frog • [Frog] takes the scorpion on his back. Braves the waters. Halfway over feels a burning spear in his side and realizes the scorpion has stung him after all. And as they both sink beneath the waves, the Frog cries out, “Why did you sting me, Mr. Scorpion, for now we both will drown?” Scorpion replies, “I can’t help it, it’s in my nature”

27. Does Fergus have a story? • Jody: Tell me something… • Fergus: When I was a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. • Jody: what does that mean? • Fergus: Nothing • Jody: Not a lot of use, are you Fergus? • Fergus: Me? No, I’m not good for much

28. 1 Corinthians 13 • 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. • 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. • 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

29. Four Ways of Reading the Film • Historical/Political: Violence a means with no usable political end. • Artistic: Jordan draws on the Literary and Filmic Gothic: An Irish sublime • A narrative platform to question racial, gender and sexual identities • A meditation on the nature of love and desire

30. Hurling

32. And then cricket…..

33. Cricket

35. Romantic Sublime/Gothic • Death Energy/burden of the past [Jody] • The monstrous feminine [Jude] • The adventurer/explorer—internal [Fergus] • Emotions treated as seriously as reasoning • Indulgence of the “unnatural” • Melodramatic consideration of suicide [Dil] • Feverish excitability/negative pleasures

36. Racial/Gender/Sexual • Racial: A white man causes the death of a black man • Or, one white Irish “soldier” causes the death of a black English soldier, both working class, both colonized. • A white man replaces the black man in his love for a black “woman”.

37. Questions of Gender & Sexuality • Jody and Fergus are bisexual, one knows it and acts upon it; the other explores his homoerotic desires, subconsciously? • Is Dil a cross-dresser, a transwoman, queer, transgender, homosexual, a person who escapes labels? • Is Jordan saying that men who get in touch with their feminine side are glorious, while women who get in touch with their male side (Jude) are monstrous?

38. Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990) • “how do non-normative sexual practices call into question the stability of gender as a category of analysis? How do certain sexual practices compel the question: what is a woman, what is a man?” [xi, Preface, 1999] • Butler considers lesbian as possibly a third gender. [note its absence from the film]

39. Metropole and The Metro • Metropolis—Greek for “Mother country” or city state • The French word métropole indicates the controlling imperial centre • Contrast the Metropolis [London for the British Empire] to the Peripheries, such as Ireland, Scotland, Wales, India, Australia • The film’s Metro empowers the Marginal