Picture Credit- Domain
“Fake it till you make it. Become the man you are not.”
- Brandon
Boy Erased is a masterpiece in the world of cinema. Based on Garrard Conley’s biographical memoir, this simple yet emphatic film about how a young man is forced to change his identity, his sexual orientation through treatment and more importantly how people still consider homosexuality a disease to be treated externally is definitely something that you are missing if you don’t watch this movie.
The movie shows how ignorant and stuck in their own believed people can be. How if something is beyond their horizon of understanding, people think it to be abnormal and will do anything to change it.
Introduction
Name of the Movie - Boy Erased
Name of the Writer - Adapted from the book by Garrard Conley, Written and
Directed by Joel Edgerton
Genre - Biographical Drama
Language - English
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
Jared Eamons is the son of a small-town Baptist pastor. He is an ideal son and a good Christian until he goes to college and after an incidence with a classmate realises that he is gay. The news soon reaches his parents who think it best to send him to a center where they perform conversion therapy.
Because of how sad and disappointed his parents are in him, Jared goes to the center and it is after he sees the cruel tactics of the people there, that he realises how wrong it is to erase who he actually is. Read more to find out what happens when he gets out.
About the Writer
Picture Credit- Wikipedia
Garrard Conley is a proud member of the LGBTQ Community and an American author. Conley is famous for his activist works for the community and also for his beautiful book ‘Boy Erased: A Memoir’.
In his memoir, Conley talks about his childhood in a fundamentalist family and how he “spent years struggling to reconcile his sexuality with his faith.” He also talks about how his family enrolled him into conversion therapy in order to cure his homosexuality.
About the Movie
Jared Eamons, played by Lucas Hedges is the only child of a Baptist Pastor and his wife, played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. He is the perfect kid, who scores well at school and plays sports, only he is hiding something very crucial about himself from everyone.
After a rather cruel and violent incident at college, it is revealed that Jared is homosexual. This comes as a complete shock to his parents, who instead of listening to him sends Jared off to a conversion camp in the hope that he would pray away his homosexuality.
Jared meets other people at the center and sees how the people there humiliate and torture the young people they enroll. In a rather sad turn of events, one of the trainees there dies by suicide and it is sort of an epiphany moment for Jared who realises that his sexuality is not something they can cure him of and he leaves.
He also befriends this artist whose gallery he used to visit while in the center.
At the end of the movie, Jared becomes a writer who lives with his partner in the city. We see that his father is still not able to set aside his beliefs completely but he is willing to understand his son and Jared accepts the truce.
Themes Involved
The main theme around which the plot of the movie revolves is the misconception that people’s sexuality are something that can be treated. The homophobia among people, especially religious people in some countries, drives them to believe that homosexuality is something that can be driven out by punishment and extreme measures.
The whole concept of having so-called conversion therapy camps is so problematic. People shouldn’t be subjected to such extreme measures of torture for being who they are. Just as we cannot drive away heterosexuality, same way we cannot change somebody who is homosexual by torturing them and nobody should be subjected to that.
Famous Quotes
“I’m gay, and I’m your son. And neither of those things are going to change. Okay? So let’s deal with that!”
“I think we’re our own God. I mean, I think he’s in us. In all of us, not, you know, somewhere hiding and watching.”
“I love God. God loves me. I love my son. That’s it. I think for your father it’s a little bit more complicated.”
“Fake it till you make it. Become the man you are not.”
The Bottom Line
Boy Erased is an excellent movie and a tear jerker if you are someone who really gets into stories. It is not one of the best movies made upon the LGBTQ community perhaps, nor is it a feel good, lighthearted piece, but it definitely makes the top ten list and I recommend this movie a hundred percent.
My ratings for the movie - 5 on 5
Written By - Sakshi Singh
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