Main Cast: Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Blechman, Eliza Dushku
Release Year: 1993
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A single mother and her difficult son find family life isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be in this drama adapted from writer and professor Tobias Wolff's 1989 memoir of the same name. Nomadic, flaky Caroline (Ellen Barkin) just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent guy, and provide a better home for her handful of a son, Toby (Leonardo DiCaprio). When she moves to Seattle and meets the respectful, respectable Dwight Hansen (Robert DeNiro), she thinks she's got it made. Toby, however, feels differently after spending a few months with Dwight and his children and away from Caroline. The boy's stepfather-to-be seems to want to mold Toby into a better person, but to do so he emotionally, verbally, and physically abuses the kid. The marriage proceeds, and soon Caroline, too, recognizes Dwight's need to dominate everyone around him. She sticks with it, though, convinced it's the best thing for her son, and several years of dysfunction ensue. During this time, Tobias befriends another misfit, the possibly homosexual young Jonah (Arthur Gayle), while continuing to chafe under the yoke of his repressive stepfather. This Boy's Life provided the first lead role for future superstar DiCaprio. The film was written by Robert Getchell, who also penned such mother/son fare as Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and The Client. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
It's obvious that This Boy's Life shares an affinity with Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore even before one realizes that the films share the same scribe. Like a '90s take on a '50s version of Martin Scorcese's classic '70s women's picture, This Boy's Life concerns the relationship between a kooky but lovable single mom and her excitable son. To achieve this symmetry, screenwriter Robert Getchell shifts the focus of novelist and short-story writer Tobias Wolff's original memoir so that it concentrates as much on the relationship between Ellen Barkin's Caroline and Leonardo DiCaprio's Toby as it does on Toby's inner life and the effects of his dysfunctional upbringing on his sense of self. For the most part, though, the material survives the transition, thanks in part to strong turns from the eminently likable Barkin, the meticulous Robert DeNiro, and the charismatic, mischievous young DiCaprio. The plot through which their characters walk may be familiar and it may lose its nuance when removed from the written page, but it's well-rendered, nicely acted, and relatively subtle for a family drama. The jackhammer, yet mealy mouthed cadences of DeNiro's Dwight eventually grow as tiresome as his character's unflinching brutality, while the film's emotional climax seems like a standard-issue ending tacked onto a less predictable character study. Still, it's hard not to like a picture sweet enough to include a chaste kiss between DiCaprio's Toby and Arthur Gayle's eccentric, devoted gay best friend. This Boy's Life may be the Hollywood version of Wolff's autobiography, but it comes off like a real life nonetheless. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Chris Cooper - Roy; Carla Gugino - Norma; Zachary Ansley - Skipper; Michael Bacall - Terry Taylor; Ken Camroux - 2nd Place Shooter; Tracey Ellis - Kathy; Gerritt Graham - Mr. Howard; Kathy Kinney - Marian; Thomas Kopache - Geiger Counter Vendor; Robert Munns - Ticket Seller; Tristan Tait - Jerry Huff; Lee Wilkof - Principal Shippy; Stephen E. Miller - Target Ranger; Sean Murray - Jimmy Voorhees; Frank C. Turner - Truck Driver; Jason Horst - Oscar Booker; Dwight McFee - Voice in Crowd; Owens Hill; Rachel Abroms; Bill Dow - Vice Principal; Tobey Maguire - Chuck Bolger; Deanna Milligan - Silver Sister #1
Credit
Sandy Cochrane - Art Director, Donald D. Brown - Boom Operator, Owens Hill - Casting, Rachel Abroms - Casting, Sonny Kompanek - Conductor, Fitch Cady - Co-producer, Richard Hornung - Costume Designer, Bill Westley - First Assistant Director, Michael Caton-Jones - Director, Jim Clark - Editor, Susan Stewart - Hair Styles, Mike Fantasia - Location Manager, James Sallis - Location Manager, Carter Burwell - Composer (Music Score), Allan Mason - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jo-Anne Smith-Ojeil - Makeup, Michael Roberts - Camera Operator, Stan McClain - Camera Operator, Rose Mihalyi - Camera Operator, Dave Owen - Camera Operator, Stephen Lineweaver - Production Designer, Casey Grant - Production Designer, David Watkin - Cinematographer, Peter Guber - Producer, Art Linson - Producer, Jon Peters - Producer, Jim Erickson - Set Designer, Nick Lawson - Special Effects, Eric Potter - Sound Special Effects, Martin Maryska - Sound Editor, Charles Andre - Stunts, Fred Perron - Stunts, John Polce - Stunts, Ric Waugh - Stunts, Jim Dunn - Stunts, Gary McLarty - Stunts, Marcia Holley - Stunts, Fred M. Waugh - Stunts, John Scott - Stunts, David Jacox - Stunts, Michael Langlois - Stunts, Tom W. Eirikson - Stunts, Cotton Mather - Stunts, Kevin Andruschak - Stunts, Cole McLarty - Stunts, Matt Johnson - Stunts, Betty Thomas - Stunts Coordinator, Casey Grant - Unit Production Manager, Robert Getchell - Screenwriter, Robert Andrew Reeves - Production Assistant, Brigitte Prochaska - Unit Publicist, Peter Kelley - Dialogue Coach, Peter Lonsdale - Associate Editor, Jamie Barber - First Assistant Camera, Cam North - First Assistant Camera, John Sandy McCallum - First Assistant Camera, James L. Hurford - Key Grip, Adam Milo Smalley - Music Editor, Heather Murphy - Production Coordinator, Penny Gibbs - Production Coordinator, Yvonne Melville - Production Coordinator, Grant Swain - Properties Master, Michael Herbick - Re-Recording Mixer, Donald O. Mitchell - Re-Recording Mixer, Frank A. Montaño - Re-Recording Mixer, Christine Wilson - Script Supervisor, Rachel Leiterman - Second Assistant Director, Mike Vezina - Special Effects Coordinator, Takashi Seida - Still Photographer, Richard King - Supervising Sound Editor, Ellen Ryba - Costume/Wardrobe, Mary Zophres - Assistant Costumer Designer, Jan Kobylka - Construction Coordinator, Jill Schachne - Foley Artist, Tim Chilton - Foley Artist, Christopher Flick - Foley Editor, Christine Danelski - Foley Editor, E. Jeane Putnam - Foley Editor, Peter E. Hirsch - Second Second Assistant Director, Rory Moffatt - Transportation Captain, Ian "Moss" Urquhart - Transportation Coordinator, Tobias Wolff - Book Author, Gary A. Hecker - Foley Mixer, Donah Bassett - Negative Cutter, Rob Young - Production Sound Mixer, Dan Cervin - Special Effects Technician, Cliff Latimer - Supervising ADR Editor, Kevin Speckmaier - Third Assistant Director, Robert Dawson - Title Design, Bob Warner - Painter, Victor Zolfo - Assistant Set Decorator
Largely filmed in the state of Washington, the town of Concrete, Washington, (where Tobias Wolff's teen years were spent with his mother and stepfather, Dwight) was transformed to its 1950s appearance for a realistic feel. Many of the town's citizens were used as extras, and all external scenes in Concrete (and some internal scenes, as well) were shot in and around the town, including the former elementary school buildings and the still-active Concrete High School building.
The soundtrack of This Boy's Life used many songs from the 1950s and early 1960s. The main titles (filmed in Professor Valley, Utah) feature Frank Sinatra's version of "Let's Get Away from It All" from his 1958 album Come Fly with Me and Toby and his mother sing "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" from the popular postwar musical South Pacific. However, most of the music in the film reflects Toby's fondness for rock and roll and doo wop, including songs by Eddie Cochran, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and Link Wray. Carter Burwell composed the film's pensive score, which featured New York guitarist Frederic Hand.
Nomadic, flaky Caroline Wolff just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent guy, and provide a better home for her and her son, Toby. When she moves to Seattle and meets the seemingly respectable Dwight Hansen (in real life Dwight Thompson; at that time a mechanic for Seattle City Light), she thinks she has got it made. Toby, however, feels differently after Dwight's true personality is revealed after spending a few months with Dwight and his children away from Caroline. The boy's stepfather-to-be seems to want to mold Toby into a better person, but his method includes emotionally, verbally, and physically abusing the boy.
The marriage proceeds, and soon Caroline, too, recognizes Dwight's need to dominate everyone around him. She sticks with it, though, convinced it is the best thing for her son, and several years of dysfunction ensue. During this time, Toby befriends another misfit, the possibly homosexual young Arthur, while continuing to chafe under the yoke of his repressive stepfather.
