This Boy's Life (1993)

This Boy's Life (1993) (Blu-Ray) (*)

$21.99

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( DTS 5.1 )
English ( DTS-HD Master Audio )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
111 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1993 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Michael Caton-Jones

Written By:
Tobias Wolff
Robert Getchell

Actors:
Robert De Niro ..... Dwight Hansen
Ellen Barkin ..... Caroline Wolff Hansen
Leonardo DiCaprio ..... Tobias 'Toby' Wolff
Jonah Blechman ..... Arthur Gayle
Eliza Dushku ..... Pearl
Chris Cooper ..... Roy
Carla Gugino ..... Norma
Zachary Ansley ..... Skipper
Tracey Ellis ..... Kathy
Kathy Kinney ..... Marian
Robert Zameroski ..... Arch Cook
Tobey Maguire ..... Chuck Bolger
Tristan Tait ..... Jerry Huff
Travis MacDonald ..... Psycho
Richard Liss ..... A&P Manager

Synopsis:

In the opening scene of this morally edifying screen version of Tobias Wolff's 1989 memoir, it is 1957 and Toby , a teenager, is traveling with his mother Caroline to Utah. Their high hopes for a new life are shattered when her abusive lover shows up in Salt Lake City. They flee again, this time to Seattle. Caroline, who has a habit of settling for tyrannical men, does it again. She married Dwight, an auto mechanic who lives with his three children in Concrete, a remote rural community. Toby, who has changed his name to Jack after Jack London, is not impressed with his new stepfather. He immediately senses the man's meanness after watching his mother beat him and all other competitors in a local turkey shoot. Dwight makes her pay and pay again for this humiliation. Dwight sees Jack as a 'hot shot' in need of discipline and direction. He forces the boy to take a paper route and to shuck horse chestnuts in spare moments. He steals Jack's cherished rifle and trades it in for a hunting dog. And after discovering that his stepson has gone for an evening joyride in his car, he beats him up.

Nomadic, flaky Caroline Wolff (Ellen Barkin) just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent man, and provide a better home for her and her son, Toby (Leonardo DiCaprio). When she moves to Seattle and meets the seemingly respectable Dwight Hansen (Robert De Niro) (in real life Dwight Thompson worked as a mechanic for Seattle City Light at the time), she thinks she has got it made. Toby, however, feels differently after Dwight's true personality is revealed after spending a few months with Dwight and his children away from Caroline. The boy's stepfather-to-be seems to want to mold Toby into a better person, but his method includes emotionally, verbally, and physically abusing the boy.

In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he's an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible. Based on a true story by Tobias Wolff.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 01 March, 2020.

Customers who bought this product also purchased

Mad Dog Time (1996) (DVD)

Don's Plum (2001) (DVD)