Page
four, Cinematic Depictions
A
Brother's Kiss (1997) is the story of
two boys growing up poor in New York City. Sons
of a promiscuous though loving single mother,
they are chronically exposed to the sounds of
her lovemaking with various men. There is an
early scene in which the older brother (aged
about 15) leads the younger one (aged about
10) into Central Park at night, where they are
waylaid by a policeman who rapes the younger
boy. The rape is interrupted after penetration
when the rapist is attacked and knifed by the
older brother. As a result of this incident,
the older boy is sent to reform school. There
is never any direct discussion of the effect
of the rape or the overstimulation by the mother
as the boys grow up and deal with the various
harshness of their environment. The younger
boy, however, who grows up to be a policeman,
is portrayed as sexually constricted in a highly
sexualized neighborhood and familial milieu.
Sleepers
(1996) is a gritty portrayal of the aftermath
of torture, beatings, and sexual abuse in a boys'
detention center. It is described by its writer,
Lorenzo Carcaterra, as true and autobiographical,
although New York State authorities deny its veracity.
Set in the late 1960s, the movie tells the story
of four boys of about 13 from the Hell's
Kitchen area of New York City, a poor working-class
neighborhood where crime and domestic violence
are rampant. The boys are involved in petty crimes,
but one of these crimes inadvertently results
in a man being critically injured. The boys are
sentenced to a juvenile detention center. They
are not hardened when they go to the reform school,
and indeed are relatively innocent, despite their
exposure to and participation in crime. They are
certainly unaware of what may lie ahead of them
when they arrive at the center, frightened and
chastened. Once there, they are soon brutalized
and raped anally and orally by vicious guards.
These events occur over a period of months and
are portrayed in powerful detail.
Before
the first of them is released from the center,
this conversation takes place among the boys
about their experiences:
"I
don't want anyone to know. . . ."
"I
can't think of anyone who needs to hear
about it. Either they won't believe it
or they won't give a shit."
"I
don't think we should talk about it once
it's over, you know?"
"We
have no choice but to live with it. And talking
makes living with it harder. So we might as
well not talk about it. The truth stays with
us."
The
rest of the movie is set about ten years later,
and is a tale of the boys' revenge against
the guards, whom they manage to murder or implicate
in crimes. In a dramatic scene, one of the former
guards breaks down in tears on the witness stand,
confessing his role in the rape and torture of
young boys at the reform school.
In
this latter part of the movie, we see the young
men suffering flashbacks of the original victimizations,
and other posttraumatic effects of their brutalizations
are described, such as not sleeping unless there
is a light on. There is a celebratory scene
at the end where the four are reunited, and
we hear one of them say, "It's time
for quiet. I just want to shut my eyes and not
see the places I've been. I'm weary.
Maybe I'll get lucky and forget I was
even there."
The
movie has a coda in which we learn the fates of
the young men. Two die violent deaths before the
age of 30, one is a nonpracticing attorney in
dire psychological straits, and the fourth is
the narrator, who says in a voiceover, "I
am the only one who can speak for them and the
children we were."
In
these three movies involving the rape of boys,
the scenarios are different, but the boys have
common reactions and aftereffects. All the boys
keep silent about their abuse, and the effect
of their silence in each case is chilling and
spreads far beyond the specific betrayal situation.
The man in Prince of Tides is filled with unexpressed
rage, and in his adult life has come to a crashing
halt. The boy in A Brother's Kiss reacts
to his rape and the general sexual overstimulation
of his environment by becoming interpersonally
constricted and isolated. The men in Sleepers
are failures of one sort or another, suffer
from PTSD, and, with perhaps the exception of
the narrator, give up any semblance of having
satisfying lives in order to get vengeance on
their rapists.
By
contrast, in the creepily offbeat and disturbing
Blue Velvet (1986), a movie in which a woman comes
close to raping a young man at knife point after
forcing him to strip, the scene is frightening
but erotic. The young man whispers how much he
likes what the woman is doing to him, and his
sexual involvement with her becomes a willing
one. She is portrayed as weak, pitiful, and terrified,
while he saves her life and solves the mystery
at the heart of the movie's plot.
Institutionalized Sexual Abuse
The Boys of St. Vincent (1994) is a two-part movie
depicting long-term, brutal sexual, physical,
and emotional abuse of boys in an orphanage. It
is based on true events in a Newfoundland Catholic
home for boys and their aftermath. It addresses
several diverse themes related to the sexual abuse
of boys, and conveys much of the complexity of
boys' reactions to it. In addition, its
unusual portrayal of the chief abuser, particularly
in Part II, shows him as a complicated individual
whose behavior, while appalling, becomes understandable,
though not forgiveable.
In
Part I, we see the boys' abuse in horrifyingly
graphic detail. Brother Lavin, the Superintendent
of the Home, is spellbinding and charismatic,
but terrifying. He frequently summons Kevin,
his "special boy," to his office.
There, he holds, caresses, kisses, and otherwise
molests Kevin while murmuring how much he loves
him. In these moments he sometimes says he is
Kevin's dead mother. But if Kevin displeases
him, Brother Lavin explodes in physically abusive
rage. When this happens, we see Kevin's
hands and body go limp.
The
involvement between the Superintendent and Kevin
is not isolated at the orphanage, where many boys
are abused in various ways by at least some of
the Brothers. These boys have nowhere else to
go, but to some extent they are able to bolster
one another's spirits in spite of their
situation. The brand of Catholicism being taught
at St. Vincent by the Brothers, molesters or not,
demands unswerving loyalty to the orphanage and
obedience to orders from authority figures. There
is an explicit message that those who do not obey
will go to hell. Independent thinking is not allowed,
and classroom scenes often involve rote repetition
of the definitions and rules of Catholicism.
Political
overtones are also suggested. St. Vincent is
in the midst of a fund-raising drive to raise
money for a new athletic arena; there are scenes
with high Church officials who are clear they
will not stand for any besmirching of the orphanage's
name, particularly at such a time. The power
of the Church to influence lay authorities is
also chillingly conveyed. We see this with politicians
and police, as well as with the Church's
own social worker, who is not allowed to see
the boys.
When
Kevin runs away from St. Vincent, he is picked
up by the police. Brother Lavin, on being told
Kevin protested violently about being returned
to the orphanage, comments smoothly that boys
like this will do anything for attention. When
the two are alone, there is an initial moment
of tenderness until Kevin firmly says the superintendent
is not his mother, that his mother is dead. Brother
Lavin then throws him across the room and beats
him mercilessly with a belt buckle, carrying him
senseless up to his dormitory late that night.
The next day, Kevin cannot get out of bed, and
Brother Lavin tenderly tells him he can stay in
bed that day, and that everything he has done
to Kevin is for Kevin's own good. We see
Brother Lavin shift swiftly back and forth from
states of viciousness to states of tenderness.
He seems not fully to recognize his own actions
or his occasional near-breaks with reality.
In
the rest of Part I, Kevin is broken. He is far
more careful about his protests; he is more
depressed, less lively, and more guarded and
suspicious.
We
also see another boy, Steven, being visited and
molested at night by a different Brother. When
Steven's brother Brian, who is six years
older, learns these molestations are happening
"again," he protests to Brother Lavin
loudly and threateningly. He is punished by having
ten belt lashes on each hand.
When
the situation is reported to the police by a janitor,
an investigation commences. The boys' stories
are conveyed both through flat recitations by
the boys in the police station and brief, viscerally
evocative flashbacks to the abuse being described
in these recitations. Steven, however, unlike
the others, denies he has been abused, showing
a bravado and empty showmanship that superficially
protects him from experiencing the effects of
his trauma. The chief detective promises to visit
Kevin, and Kevin is assured by him and other authorities
that the abuse will stop.
But
instead the investigation is stopped. A high
official on the police force demands that the
boys' statements be rewritten because
they are "pornographic" and so that
criminal investigations will not proceed. Instead,
the Brothers involved will be placed elsewhere,
where they will be counseled. The chief detective
makes a pointed comment about the boys not being
offered counseling; he is told sharply that
his own job is on the line if he does not do
as he is told.
At
the end of Part I, Brother Lavin has allowed Brian
to leave the orphanage, warning him that if he
tells what he knows Steven, his younger brother,
will pay the consequences. Brian promises Steven
that he will return to get him out of St. Vincent.
Two abusing Brothers confess and are removed from
the home, but Brother Lavin continues to deny
any wrongdoing. He stays at his post until he
is discovered by a nonoffending Brother kissing
Kevin passionately. This follows a harrowing scene
in which he chases Kevin in homicidal fury and
Kevin saves himself by calling the Superintendent
"Mom." Brother Lavin and the two other
Brothers are replaced at St. Vincent by men equally
vicious and demanding, and in a brief scene we
see one of them molesting a boy in his bed at
night.
Part
II takes place fifteen years later. In a complex
intercutting of narratives, we follow the stories
of Kevin, Steven, Brian, and Peter Lavin, no
longer a member of his order but now a husband
and father of two boys living in Montreal. The
now retired detective brings criminal charges
against Lavin based on the fifteen-year-old
affidavits by the boys. Kevin is aghast and
enraged that he is being subpoenaed to testify,
and says he will not appear in court. When he
confronts the detective for not having fulfilled
his promise to visit, he learns the detective
was told by a Brother that Kevin was now living
with an uncle. In fact, Kevin stayed in the
orphanage until he was 16. Steven is brought
in to testify from Toronto, where he is a cocaine
addict living on welfare. He is reunited for
the first time with his brother Brian, who is
now married and the father of two. At their
reunion, Brian tells Steven that as an adult
he tried to find him. Steven protests that it
is all "water under the bridge"
but it is clear that underneath his old bravado
he is deeply wounded by his brother's
failure to come back and get him out of the
orphanage. Steven and Brian talk about their
inability to forgive. Steven says he can never
forgive his victimization. Brian says he couldn't
at first, and had turned away from religion,
but has since discovered that if he can't
forgive, then he must live with his rage.
We
witness several legal investigations simultaneously
in crosscut: Lavin's trial, the trial of
the Brother who molested Steven, and the administrative
investigation into the coverup of the boys'
testimony. Cynical assessments of the trials come
in the form of a call-in radio show whose host
dryly comments on what has been said in the trials.
In particular, she ridicules the inability of
any official to remember anything blameworthy
about anyone involved in the coverup who is still
living. Steven is ambushed on the witness stand
by a defense lawyer; he is revealed as an occasional
male prostitute who himself abused younger boys
in the years before he left St. Vincent. Shattered,
he dies of an overdose of drugs just as his abuser
is convicted.
Kevin
is initially stonily silent about his abuse
and prone to erupt in fury if pressed to talk
about it. He is building himself a house in
a lonely country area, and spends his time installing
insulation there, perhaps a symbolic representation
of the isolation and insulation he has needed
to survive. He stops seeing his girl friend
when she gets too curious after he physically
attacks another former St. Vincent orphan who
reminds him that he was Lavin's "special
boy." The girl friend says she doesn't
care what Lavin did to Kevin, but that she does
care about what the abuse and the silence are
doing to him now. Kevin refuses even to go meet
with Steven until Steven's death changes
Kevin's mind about testifying against
Lavin. Devastated, he attends Steven's
funeral, and, against Brian's advice,
decides to appear in court.
Meanwhile,
Lavin's seemingly happy family life is shattered
when he is arrested at home. His wife is at first
supportive of Lavin, totally disbelieving the
charges against him. As time goes on, we gradually
see her begin to doubt him, decide to stand by
him anyway, then turn away from him forever when
she realizes the full extent of his crimes. At
first, he denies all wrongdoing, and is furious
when he is dismissed from his job. In these scenes
we see flashes of the rage that were so common
in Part I of the movie. Imperious, self-righteous,
and arrogant, he maintains that the boys are lying
ingrates.
Lavin
does agree to see a psychiatrist to get support
for his contention that he is not a child molester.
In extraordinary scenes with this psychiatrist,
we begin to see Lavin's inner life. Lavin
describes his own early abuse and abandonment,
and his experiences in three foster homes before
going to St. Vincent himself at age 9. At first,
he claims these experiences only made him strong,
not soft like boys who grew up with families.
Later, however, he talks about the fear of sex
and love that led him to join a religious brotherhood,
confessing that he never felt safe until he
married his wife. He describes his joy in raising
children in a way he himself never experienced.
When Lavin talks about how much he loved Kevin,
he breaks down sobbing. The psychiatrist tells
him to try to meet the little boy inside himself.
The implication is clear that when "loving"
Kevin Lavin was trying to give love to his own
little-boy self while simultaneously despising
that same vulnerable, needy child.
The
night before his trial, Lavin's wife asks
him to tell her what she will hear in court, but
Lavin totally ignores her as he ceaselessly and
feverishly recites the Hail Mary. In the final
scenes of the movie, Kevin appears on the stand
and in a whisper confirms the abuse he had described
fifteen years earlier. Intercut are scenes of
Kevin's first molestation. In an initially
joyful swimming pool sequence, we see how Lavin
turned a lonely boy's Easter without visitors
into a wonderful special event by taking him swimming.
We then see how this marvelous moment veered into
violation. Kevin remembers this along with flashes
of later molestations and brutal beatings.
In
the last scene, Lavin's wife confronts
him about the enormity of what he has done,
and asks how he felt hearing how he had affected
Kevin's life. He shows no remorse, but
instead claims he himself was victimized. He
says he was betrayed by Kevin, whom he had truly
loved. She contemptuously dismisses this "love,"
then asks if he has ever touched their boys.
He enigmatically replies that she should ask
them, since they are "her" children.
She leaves him, emphasizing that indeed the
children will never again be his. Lavin's
face is softer and thoughtful in this scene
than in earlier parts of the movie. After she
leaves, he looks into the distance, then suddenly
pounds the table violently once, then again
and again, much as he had raged in the early
part of the film. Then he looks away again,
cupping his face as the film ends.
The
Boys of St. Vincent is a harrowing film that
tellingly reveals both the facts of the boys'
sexual victimizations and the later impact on
them. When we see the boys as adults, one or
another of them reveals common aftereffects
of childhood sexual trauma: dissociation, isolation,
addiction, prostitution, ragefulness, suicidality,
denial, and the likelihood of becoming abusive
himself. We also repeatedly see the callousness
and denial of institutions in relation to sexual
abuse, and the inability even of those adults
who believe abuse has taken place to stop it.
Father-son incest
I have already noted that, among the the films
I have examined, only Primal Fear (1996) and The
Celebration (1998) even mention male-male incest,
in both cases father-son incest that is alluded
to but not portrayed. In The Celebration, a Danish
film, the childhood paternal abuse of a son and
daughter is publicly announced by the son when
as an adult he is attending his father's
sixtieth birthday party, a large weekend-long
celebration at a chateau. The extent of the father's
transgressions is revealed bit by bit in successive
revelations. We see that the son has been severely
damaged by his boyhood abuse, and has been incapable
of intimate relatedness throughout his life. His
sister, who has committed suicide, was also deeply
damaged. The father denies the incest through
most of the movie, and this denial is conveyed
and reinforced in the reactions of those who hear
the accusations. The partygoers are momentarily
shocked by each disclosure, but then continue
to celebrate the birthday in a nearly surrealistic
manner that serves as a dramatic enactment of
the chronic denial often seen in incestuous families.
The
handling (or mishandling) of the themes of paternal
incest as well as dissociative identity disorder
in Primal Fear are instructive. In it, a criminal
lawyer defends a young man accused of savagely
stabbing and murdering a revered Catholic bishop.
The young man, a soft-spoken and stammering
altar boy, claims he loved the bishop, who had
saved him when he was a runaway, and had no
ill feelings toward him of any kind. He admits
to being there when the bishop was murdered,
but says someone else was also present whom
he could not see clearly. The young man is observed
by a psychologist, and as time goes on it becomes
clear that he experiences periods when he "loses
time" in an apparent fugue state. Childhood
abuse by the young man's father is hinted
at as a cause for the fugue states but is not
specifically described in the movie.
What
seems to be a second personality emerges: abrasive,
fearless, and angry. The man's lawyer
comes to believe that this second personality
committed the savage murder, which was committed
because the bishop made pornographic videotapes
that included the young man, his girl friend,
and several other young men. Too late to enter
a plea of insanity, the lawyer instead tricks
the prosecutor into drawing out this second
personality while cross-examining the defendant.
As this second personality, he physically attacks
the prosecutor in front of the jury. The trial
is stopped and the young man is remanded for
treatment. In a coda, he tells his lawyer that
he had faked the multiplicity, that the soft-spoken
"personality" had always been a
put-on.
Jump to page of this article
|