This Boy's Life | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Caton-Jones |
Screenplay by | Robert Getchell |
Based on | This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | David Watkin |
Edited by | Jim Clark |
Music by | Carter Burwell |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 115 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $4.1 million [1] |
This Boy's Life (titled onscreen as This Boy's Life: A True Story) is a 1993 American biographical coming-of-age drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It is based on the eponymous memoir by author Tobias Wolff. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio (in his theatrical film debut), Robert De Niro, and Ellen Barkin. The cast also features Chris Cooper, and Carla Gugino, Eliza Dushku, as well as Tobey Maguire's first credited appearance in a feature-length film.
It was the first collaboration on-screen between Maguire and DiCaprio, who both later worked in Don's Plum (2001) and The Great Gatsby (2013), [2] [3] and also the first collaboration on-screen between DiCaprio and De Niro, who both later worked in Marvin's Room (1996), the short film The Audition (2015), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).
In the 1950s, nomadic and flaky Caroline Wolff wants to settle down and find a decent man to provide a better home for herself and her son, Tobias "Toby" Wolff. She moves to Seattle, Washington and meets Dwight Hansen, a man who seemingly meets her goals. However, Dwight's true personality is soon revealed as being emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive to Toby while Caroline is away for a few weeks.
The marriage proceeds, and Caroline and Toby move into Dwight's home in Concrete (Newhalem in the book), a small town near the north Cascades Mountains. Dwight's domineering personality is soon apparent, but Caroline remains with him, enduring several years of a dysfunctional relationship. During this time, Toby befriends a classmate named Arthur Gayle, a misfit at school and ambiguously gay. Toby wants to leave Concrete and live with his older brother, Gregory, who lives on the East Coast with their father. Arthur wants to leave because he knows he will never fit in and that there is more to life than living in Concrete. Toby plans to apply for scholarships at East Coast preparatory schools by submitting falsified school records. Meanwhile, Arthur and Toby's friendship becomes strained when Arthur accuses Toby of behaving more like Dwight. Arthur helps Toby to falsify his grade records. After numerous rejections, Toby is accepted by The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia with a full scholarship.
Later, Caroline defends Toby from Dwight during a physically violent argument; they both leave Dwight and the town of Concrete.
This Boy's Life is adapted from Tobias Wolff's memoir of the same title, recounting his experiences with an abusive stepfather in the 1950s. The screen rights were acquired by Peter Guber, then head of Guber-Peters Productions at Warner Bros. Pictures, shortly after the memoir's 1989 publication. Following Guber's departure to lead Sony Pictures Entertainment, Art Linson assumed the role of producer. Although Guber is credited as an executive producer, alongside his producing partner Jon Peters, Warner Bros. initially hesitated to produce the film, deeming it commercially unviable due to its child abuse story. Despite this, director Michael Caton-Jones insisted on the project, and the studio relented due to Caton-Jones’s successful directorial track record. [4]
Screenwriter Robert Getchell, after Guber obtained the rights, expressed interest in writing the script. Getchell, known for adapting Tobias Wolff's older brother's memoir, Geoffrey Wolff's The Duke of Deception, was captivated by the brothers' stories and eager to adapt the younger brother’s memoir. The film adaptation altered Geoffrey Wolff's name to "Gregory." Tobias Wolff also requested changes, such as renaming his mother from Rosemary to "Caroline" to reflect scenes created by Getchell that were not in the original book, depicting marital discord between his mother and stepfather. This alteration transformed the true story into a work of fiction, a fact initially contested by Wolff. However, upon viewing the finished film, Wolff approved, recognizing that his mother might be upset about the name change. [4]
This Boy's Life marked the cinematic debut of actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who portrayed "Toby" at seventeen years old during filming. Christian Bale was up for the role of Toby, but lost to DiCaprio. [5] Initially, Debra Winger was set to star as "Caroline" but withdrew due to scheduling conflicts, leading to Ellen Barkin taking over the role. Actor Robert De Niro, playing the abusive stepfather "Dwight," extensively consulted with Tobias Wolff in preparation for the role. However, De Niro chose not to contact the real-life Dwight, who passed away just before filming commenced. [4]
Principal photography began on February 23, 1992, in Vancouver, Canada. Dwight's dilapidated house, constructed in the woods outside Vancouver, served as the primary set. Filming also took place for ten days in Concrete, Washington, where crews restored the town's main street to its 1950s appearance. [4] 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. Additional scenes were shot in the La Sal Mountains, and Moab and Salt Lake City, Utah. [4] [6]
The film was released in limited release on April 9, 1993, and earned $74,425 that weekend; [7] upon its wide release on April 23, the film opened at #10 at the box office and grossed $1,519,678. [8] The film would end with a domestic gross of $4,104,962. [1]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 76% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critics consensus states: "A harrowing, moving drama about a young boy, his single mother, and his abusive stepfather, This Boy's Life benefits from its terrific cast, and features a breakout performance from a young Leonardo DiCaprio." [9] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale. [11]
This Boy's Life was released on VHS September 1, 1993; LaserDisc in November 1993; [12] and on DVD May 13, 2003. [13]
The soundtrack of This Boy's Life used many songs from the 1950s and early 1960s. [14] 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 . Toby and his mother sing "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" from the popular post-war musical South Pacific . However, most of the music 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 score, which featured New York guitarist Frederic Hand. [15]
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. As of 2019, his films have grossed over $7.2 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors.
Concrete is a town in north-central Skagit County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, and had a population of 801 at the 2020 census.
Tobias Vincent Maguire is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for starring as Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), a role he later reprised in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is a 1996 romantic crime film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It is a modernized adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, albeit still utilizing Shakespearean English. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles of two teenagers who fall in love, despite their being members of feuding families. Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Perrineau, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora also star in supporting roles. It is the third major film version of the play, following adaptations by George Cukor in 1936 and by Franco Zeffirelli in 1968.
Newhalem is a small unincorporated community on the Skagit River in the western foothills of the North Cascades, in Whatcom County, northwestern Washington, United States.
Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is an American short story writer, memoirist, novelist, and teacher of creative writing. He is known for his memoirs, particularly This Boy's Life (1989) and In Pharaoh's Army (1994). He has written four short story collections and two novels including The Barracks Thief (1984), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Wolff received a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in September 2015.
Don's Plum is a 2001 black-and-white independent drama film directed by R. D. Robb, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Kevin Connolly. It was filmed in 1995–1996, and written by Robb with Bethany Ashton, Tawd Beckman, David Stutman and Dale Wheatley. The film takes place over the course of one night in which a group of young adults discuss life while eating at a diner.
George Paul DiCaprio is an American writer, editor, publisher, distributor, and former performance artist, known for his work in the realm of underground comix. DiCaprio has collaborated with Timothy Leary and Laurie Anderson. He is the father of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Vincent "Vince" Chase is the protagonist of the comedy-drama television series Entourage and its film sequel, based on the series' executive producer Mark Wahlberg. He is played by Adrian Grenier.
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Robert Anthony De Niro is an American actor and film producer. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.
Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro are an American director-actor collaborative duo who have made ten feature films and one short film together since 1973. Many of them are often ranked among the greatest films of all time.
The Great Gatsby is a 2013 American historical romantic drama film based on the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars an ensemble cast consisting of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Elizabeth Debicki. Filming took place from September to December 2011 in Australia, with a $105 million net production budget. The film follows the life and times of millionaire Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio) and his neighbor Nick Carraway (Maguire) who recounts his interactions with Gatsby amid the riotous parties of the Jazz Age on Long Island in New York.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with age and despair.
Manabu Ino is a Japanese actor and voice actor.
Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor who began his career performing as a child on television. He appeared on the shows The New Lassie (1989) and Santa Barbara (1990) and also had long-running roles in the comedy-drama Parenthood (1990) and the sitcom Growing Pains (1991). DiCaprio played Tobias "Toby" Wolff opposite Robert De Niro in the biographical coming-of-age drama This Boy's Life in 1993. In the same year, he had a supporting role as a developmentally disabled boy Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, which earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. In 1995, DiCaprio played the leading roles of an American author Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. The following year he played Romeo Montague in the Baz Luhrmann-directed film Romeo + Juliet (1996). DiCaprio starred with Kate Winslet in the James Cameron-directed film Titanic (1997). The film became the highest grossing at the worldwide box-office, and made him famous globally. For his performance as Jack Dawson, he received the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance and his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
The Audition is a 2015 comedy short film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter. It stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, who travel through Asia and compete against each other for a potential role in Scorsese's next film. Brad Pitt, also playing a fictionalized version of himself, makes a cameo appearance.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are frequent collaborators in cinema, with DiCaprio appearing in six feature films and one short film made by Scorsese since 2002. The films explore a variety of genres, including historical epic, crime, thriller, biopic, comedy and western. Several have been listed on many critics' year-end top ten and best-of-decade lists.
The following is a list of unproduced Martin Scorsese projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Martin Scorsese has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these productions fell in development hell or were cancelled.
This Boy's Life: A Memoir is an autobiographical book by Tobias Wolff about his childhood in the American Northwest in the 1950s, published in January 1989 by The Atlantic Monthly Press. The book was adapted into a film of the same name.