The film tells a true story that takes place in a small suburban Nebraska town. A girl who wants to become a boy, Teena Brandon, finally turns herself into a strange boy, Brandon Teena, but what follows is a bitter nightmare oozing with sweetness.
"Boys Don't Cry", a criminal psychology film, was selected as one of the top ten gay films of the 1990s by the American "Entertainment Weekly". But I don't think this movie is a gay movie because gays tend to identify with their gender roles and Brandon doesn't.
Brandon is closer to a transsexual, if one has to be precise.
So, what is he, gay or transsexual or intersex? Actually it doesn't matter what he is. What the director wants to express is not just an alternative love, it's just an appearance at the image level. I think the ultimate purpose of this Criminal Minds movie is to expose problems and cause reflection.
Boys Don't Cry is a criminal psychology film "about a woman with a 'gender role crisis' looking for life and true love". Gender means men and women. The gender roles of human beings in society are represented by symbols: men are strength and power, women are sensitive and gentle; in terms of role distribution, men are rational and authoritative roles that dominate and triumph, and women are dependent and passive sensibility vulnerable characters.
The default rule is that biological structure determines gender roles. Human society does not accept monsters, and even intersex people caused by congenital factors must ultimately confirm their gender roles through means such as transgender.
The problem with Brandon is that he is physically female and mentally male. He was so eager to be a man, with his hair cut extremely short, his bosom wearing a men's shirt, and a fake male penis on his lower body, in short, he did everything possible to pretend to be a man in appearance, clothing, speech and behavior. , and head out to the bar to pick up girls and do what all men do.
But Brandon is not someone who has been hurt or even developed some kind of psychopath. He just has an extremely strong desire to be a man and put this desire into action. He is unwilling to accept that he is a woman. In this regard, Brandon's explanation is that he has a gender role crisis.
From the perspective of the film's integrity, after the heroine Brandon was abused, the tragedy was born, and the story could have ended; however, there were still killings to come. Although I don't understand what motivated them to kill, let alone kill an innocent bystander. The director's foreshadowing of the character and the relationship between the characters is not to the point where it is necessary to kill. The only reason is because this is the end of the truth.
As a female director, for such a real tragedy, the angle of interpretation is not feminist, not social criticism, but from her own feelings as a woman, the most sensitive heart, trying to understand Branton. Branton's identity is no longer a "special gender inversion" or a "representative of homosexuality that is not tolerated by society", but the most real ordinary woman; if she is different, it is only her It's just that my dreams are different from everyone else's (I want to "live as a man"). Likewise, Lana, as an ordinary woman, was the same as others at first; only later, the dream could not be understood (thinking "to love Branton, whether she is a man or a woman"; wanting to "leave this oppressive home").
"Boys Don't Cry", a criminal mind film, discusses women's freedom through two ordinary women. Branton's freedom, which does not harm others, can still only be achieved through disguise and deception. Once exposed, the result will be violence and destruction; Lana's freedom, finally partially achieved, but at the expense of blood (Branton's death).
Such is the tragic fate of the girl. Lana didn't cry in the end because boys don't cry. The same goes for girls. As a girl, it is more difficult to live in this patriarchal world. But still have to work hard in life, have your own dreams, and pursue your own freedom. No matter how hard it is, no matter what the outcome is, don't cry weakly.
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