Fergus And Dil example essay topic

This is a version of the classic Irish short story, "A Guest of the Nation", by Frank O'Connor, in which IRA men in the 1920's make the mistake of becoming friendly with the man they will have to kill. But the movie resolves this dilemma with an unexpected development. And then, the next time we see Fergus, he is in London, under a new name, working as a laborer on a construction site. He still has the snapshot. He goes looking for the soldier's girlfriend, and finds her working in a beauty salon. On an impulse he goes in to get his hair cut.

After work, she goes to a nearby pub. They begin a conversation, using the bartender as a middleman in one of the many unexpected narrative touches in an entirely original film. The girlfriend, named Dil is an original, too, with a delightful dry way of understating herself, of keeping her cool while seeming amused at the same time. She reminds us there is such a thing as verbal style; too much modern movie dialogue is flat and plot-driven.

Fergus and Dil are attracted to one another. But there are fundamental unacknowledged deceptions between them - not least, the fact that Fergus is the man who shares responsibility for the boyfriend's death. The most fascinating passages in the film follow the development of their relationship, which becomes an emotional fencing match as it survives one revelation after another. Then the IRA tracks Fergus to his hiding place and has another job for him to do. The peculiar thing about "The Crying Game" is that this story outline, while true, hardly suggests the actual content of this film. It is much more complex and labyrinthine - both in terms of simple plotting, and in terms of the matters of the heart that follow.

Most movie love stories begin as a given; we know from the first frame who will be together in the last. Here, there are times when we know nothing, and times when we know less than that. Yet because we care about the characters - we can't help liking them - it's surprising, how the love story transcends all of the plot turns to take on an importance of its own. One of the keys to the movie is the casting. The ironic, vulnerable Dil is a real original, a person who arrives on the screen not as a writer's notion but with a convincing, engaging personality. Stephen Rea, as Fergus, is an essentially good person who has gotten involved in a life that requires him to be violent and ruthless.

He doesn't have much heart for it; maybe Dil has deeper resources. And Miranda Richardson has a key role as an IRA terrorist who toys with Fergus, early and late, confusing sexual power with political principles.