Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a companion piece to the film The Magdalene Sisters, but is more brutal, and also more beautiful. Not for the squeamish, this work of art is a fantastic example of why we have film as an art form and as a way to bring light to social injustices. There are countless holy people--true saints--who have found Jesus through various Christian constructs such as Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, and a wide variety of Protestant versions. However, for the most part those involved in maintaining the structures themselves are not Christlike at all, but demonic. Jesus promises that if anyone hurts one of his little ones, it is better that a millstone is tied around his neck and that he is then thrown into the sea. Maybe it's just me, but I never want to be on the other end of that warning. It's really too bad that there are those who do find themselves there, hiding their evil behind self-righteousness.

This was by far the most touching movie I've ever seen. I don't normally cry at movies, but at this one I couldn't stop myself, especially at the end, when Liam died. The injustice of these industrial or religious schools, the hypocrisy of these people that do outrageous actions in the name of God, everything is so very well portrayed in a dark atmosphere. You can feel at every moment the fear of the characters, it's in the air. The thing about these Oliver-Twist-like movies is that they mark you deeply, but you can at least say they are just art, and not real, the normal action of a sensitive person willing to ignore the problem. It's not possible in this case,when the movie is based on a true story and the existence of these prisons is recognized. The violence scenes were very graphic, adding, I guess, to the atmosphere of the movie, although they could have been slightly less in number. The movie could have done without the cliché of a teacher with a different mentality that comes to save all the students, repeated also in Mona Lisa Smile. But I guess a shred of hope and support was necessary to boost up the moral. Raw suffering and pain would have been overwhelming with no topic. The movie gets a 10, it definitely shook me.

While i lived in Ireland, a friend and i went to the movies in Cork and saw "A song for a Raggy boy" i never thought i would like the movie. But guess what, it was one of the best movies i ever seen. It really touched me, I cried and felt so much for the movie. Its one of the best movies i have ever seen, and i have seen much! Now after seeing this movie i cant help but thinking of another movie that resebels this one, well not so much resembles but made me fell the same, its "Schindler's list". Both movies is based on a true story and about a man that tries to change or change others. Both these movies have an effect to make people understand how we work, and it is scary that we, as a well developed of species, act like brutal animals. Its scary to see. just as you can see it in Mel Gibson's movies "The passion of the Christ". We are not and have never been a nice species. we are just as bad as any other. But for you who want to see a movie that touches and makes you see something else then the classical Hollywood movies, see this one.

A film in a typical vein to such offerings as Angela's Ashes, Liam and The Leaving of Liverpool. Fantastic performances from an unknown cast of boys, with the stern influence of Ian glen & Marc Warren as the priests. Aidan Quinn is always fantastic, but here excels himself in a performance up there with that in Michael Collins. The film is tough to watch, with many scenes evoking actual rage at what is going on on the screen. The ritualistic violence, which the boys are forced to watch is particularly gruesome. An emotional roller-coaster of a film is compounded with the bleak pen - pics of what happened to the characters after the film, the reading of which leaves a lump in the throat. One small criticism, would be the glaring stereotypes which, at times, threaten to undermine what is a great piece of cinema. Salivating Priests who skulk in the shadows waiting for the boys to do wrong, along with the old cliche of the one picked on boy overcoming all odds to persuade the teacher to stay, is a little bit too neatly packaged for a film that did not need to end on a high. Overall though, definitely worth a watch.