Brendan Behan - The Roaring Boy (1 Viewer)

[7 - No tomorrow]

Just watched this on RTE. Good stuff.

Plenty of footage. Good insights.

Brendan Behan - The Roaring Boy - RTÉ Player

Anyone watch it?

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Terrible shit. Embodiment of what is worst about RTÉ.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Ha!

 

[Scientician 0.8]

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[Scientician 0.8]

Seriously though. Dunbar swanning around for no reason, it's not about him. Jim Sheridan and other yoke psychoanalysing in a fucking Weetabix Box style. There is ample contemporary footage and reportage of the man, let it speak. This sort of drivel is an affront to Irish culture and culture in general. Treat the audience like arseholes method is disgusting.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

And the whole oooh he was bisexual/homosexual stuff is borderline homophobic. This lad led a more interesting life in 40-something short years than most of us can hope to fathom in thrice that time but there was nothing of that in this pathetic supposed-homage.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

And the "what might have been" narrative is nasty and philistinic. Try write a play as well as Behan did then maybe you can say his life's work was unfulfilled, otherwise you are a ghoul and a vulture.

 

[nooleen]

so you wouldn't say you enjoyed it, then?

 

[Lili Marlene]

And the "what might have been" narrative is nasty and philistinic. Try write a play as well as Behan did then maybe you can say his life's work was unfulfilled, otherwise you are a ghoul and a vulture.

I dunno, even an unsuccessful 5 year old could probably work out that if a writer dies at 41 (as opposed to say, an athlete) then their life is pretty unfulfilled in terms of what might be.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Well I never… My boss was in a new wave band in the 80s called The Roaring Boys which made a bit of a splash on the charts.

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[Lili Marlene]

Well I never… My boss was in a new wave band in the 80s called The Roaring Boys which made a bit of a splash on the charts.

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such a tender saxophone solo in that song

amazing!

 

[David Kronenbourg]

such a tender saxophone solo in that song

amazing!

That's my boss on sax!

 

[Lili Marlene]

That's my boss on sax!

Hero. I hope he's plays Careless Whisper at the Christmas party.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Seriously though. Dunbar swanning around for no reason, it's not about him. Jim Sheridan and other yoke psychoanalysing in a fucking Weetabix Box style. There is ample contemporary footage and reportage of the man, let it speak. This sort of drivel is an affront to Irish culture and culture in general. Treat the audience like arseholes method is disgusting.

No harm in having an Irish stage actor present something about a playwright, and supposedly he was asked by the family.
And talking to an Irish writer like Sheridan who grew up down the road in similar circumstances? What harm?
The JP Donleavy stuff was great. The marked up manuscript was gold! Worth it for that alone.
They used the contemporary stuff too. The interviews with his wife were fantastic.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I dunno, even an unsuccessful 5 year old could probably work out that if a writer dies at 41 (as opposed to say, an athlete) then their life is pretty unfulfilled in terms of what might be.

Except as I say, there is a body of work extant greater than most fucking plebs so why the faux-concern? Why not celebrate or even I dunno elaborate upon the body of work the guy managed to extrude for all his problems?

 

[Scientician 0.8]

No harm in having an Irish stage actor present something about a playwright, and supposedly he was asked by the family.
And talking to an Irish writer like Sheridan who grew up down the road in similar circumstances? What harm?
The JP Donleavy stuff was great. The marked up manuscript was gold! Worth it for that alone.
They used the contemporary stuff too. The interviews with his wife were fantastic.

I disagree, plenty of harm. That format, that RTÉ loves, is a joke. I agree that the Dunleavy stuff was great but funnily enough he was a contemporary and not a latter day poseur/bullshit artist.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

And the whole oooh he was bisexual/homosexual stuff is borderline homophobic. This lad led a more interesting life in 40-something short years than most of us can hope to fathom in thrice that time but there was nothing of that in this pathetic supposed-homage.

I think they went to the homosexual stuff because it has been so missing in previous docos about him. It wasn't in your Youtube. And it wasn't in any of the contemporary footage you want to let speak, because no one could say they were gay then.
It was a real insight seeing that professor look at manuscripts for Borstal where the references to homosexuality were excised.
That's the benefit of not letting just the contemporary footage speak, the contemporary footage is incomplete.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I agree that the Dunleavy stuff was great

So now it is a great idea to use current day interviews to contextualise the man?
Interesting.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

And the "what might have been" narrative is nasty and philistinic. Try write a play as well as Behan did then maybe you can say his life's work was unfulfilled, otherwise you are a ghoul and a vulture.

Well it's clear that Behan wanted to keep writing, so the sense that there could have been more is from the man himself.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

OK but the "I think he was an alco because he was a closet bender" approach is what annoyed me. Also, if they were serious about exploring it could they not have found anyone who knew him to talk about it? I know it is 50 years later and people are dead but it was really badly handled in my not so humble opinion. My documentary didn't cover it but it was hardly new information. The whole time I've known of Behan I've known of his sexuality.