Director
Neil Jordan
Leading Actors/Actresses
Stephen Rea and Miranda Richardson
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Jaye Davidson and Forest Whitaker
Genre
Thriller
Language
English
Awards
BAFTA Award for Best British Film and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Date of Release
18 September 1992 TIFF and 30 October 1992 in UK
Producer
Stephen Woolley
Setting and Context
The action is set in a rural area in Northern Ireland and London in the 1990s.
Narrator and Point of View
The film is narrated from the perspective of the main character, Fergus, who tells the story from the perspective of a first person subjective point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone used in the film is a violent one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Fergus and the antagonist is Dil.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is between the IRA and the British government as well as between Fergus’ love for Dil and his desire to fight for the IRA.
Climax
The film reaches its conflict when Fergus finds that Dil is transgender.
Foreshadowing
The ending scene, the moment when Fergus takes the blame for Dil, is foreshadowed by the story he told in the beginning, the story of the Scorpion and the Frog.
Understatement
When Fergus claims he will never be able to be with Dil because she is transgender is an understatement because he later returns to her.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
N/A
Allusions
One of the allusions made in the play is that the IRA should not be perceived in a negative way. The IRA and its members are presented in a positive manner and as victims, the idea transmitted is that they only wanted to fight for the independence of their country.
Paradox
A paradoxical idea is how Fergus decides to protect Dil even though Dil killed his friend and member of the same group he was in.
Parallelism
No parallelism can be found in the film.
