Boys Don't Cry (film)
| Boys Don't Cry | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Kimberly Peirce |
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| Music by | Nathan Larson |
| Cinematography | Jim Denault |
| Edited by | Tracy Granger |
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Production
companies |
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| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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118 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million |
| Box office | $11.5 million |
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Peirce and Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, an American trans man played in the film by Hilary Swank, who adopts a male identity and attempts to find himself and love in Nebraska but falls victim to a brutal crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, and Alicia Goranson. After reading about the case while in college, Peirce conducted extensive research for a screenplay, which she worked on for almost five years. Peirce was inspired by All She Wanted, a 1996 book about the killing written by Aphrodite Jones; however, she chose to focus the story of the film on the relationship between Brandon and his girlfriend Lana Tisdel. The script took dialogue directly from archive footage in the 1998 documentary The Brandon Teena Story.Many actors sought the lead role during a three-year casting process before Swank was cast. Swank was chosen because her personality seemed similar to Teena's. Sevigny initially auditioned for the role of Brandon, but Peirce could not picture her playing a man, so she was ultimately cast as Teena's girlfriend Lana. Most of the film's characters were based on real-life people; others were composites.
Filming occurred during October and November 1998 in the Dallas, Texas area. The producers initially wanted to film in Falls City, Nebraska, where the real-life events had taken place; however, budget constraints meant that principal photography had to occur in Texas. The film's cinematography uses dim and artificial lighting throughout and was influenced by a variety of styles, including neorealism and the films of Martin Scorsese, while the soundtrack consisted primarily of country, blues, and rock music from the film. The film's themes, which have been explored by many scholars, include the nature of romantic and platonic relationships, the causes of violence against LGBT people, transgender people and the gender binary, and the relationship among social class, race, and gender.
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