All there is to know about 'The Crying Game' (and no, it's not just about the twist)

Constructing a film around a twist, just a twist, and having everything else lead up to and stem from that, is an extremely difficult task that sets one up for failure. It takes someone like Alfred Hitchcock to nail it, and even then I still don't think Psycho is a flawless film. One factor for this is that twists are too often easily spoiled by the media; thus if a film is based around solely its twist, it runs the risk of falling completely flat.

I think a lot of people know the twist to Neil Jordan's The Crying Game by now (thanks in large part to Ace Ventura) - and even if you're watching the film for the first time with no previous knowledge, I'd say a lot of viewers could pick it out beforehand. I'm going to discuss it alongside the film because, frankly, I don't think knowing the mid-film twist does anything to hurt one's experience of the film; in fact, I think it enhances it. The point is that, unlike what you might've heard, The Crying Game is not all about the twist. It's about the journey that leads to and leads from the twist, alongside a lot of different plot elements and themes that may seem scattershot at first. The film is not dominated by the twist, nor should it be.

The film starts off quietly enough in rural Northern Ireland. A British soldier Jody (Forest Whitaker) is kidnapped by an IRA unit, and used as a hostage to demand the release of three jailed IRA members. In the initial stages, The Crying Game is not much of anything really, and I mean that in a good way. It's not quite a thriller, it's a rather subdued drama but nothing very dramatic happens, there's a bit of comedy but it's always undercut with a certain darkness, and it's all rather static in terms of location - the IRA members have holed themselves up with Jody  for three days in a little cabin in the woods. 

The tersely done interplay between the IRA terrorists is well done and well-acted, but where the film really starts coming into its own is in the relationship between hostage Jody and one of the IRA volunteers, Fergus (Stephen Rea). Rea's performance is one of the greatest understated performances of all-time, rightfully nominated for Best Actor even though some consider him the weak link of that lineup. There's something so utterly magnetic about his portrayal of Fergus despite the man being written as a bit of a non-entity to start with. The whole arc of the film is centred on his character's development, and we begin with him being a blank slate, a simple goon really, who just follows the IRA's orders without really giving much thought or passion to it. Rea does incredibly well to show  that behind this dispassionate way of going through questionable motions, is a good man. 

Jody and Fergus have a bit of rapport that starts of as queasy, good-natured animosity to something much deeper. There's one flaw to these scenes, and that's Whitaker's incredibly odd BritISH accent. And even that's really not all that distracting when you focus on the intrinsic power of these scenes together, which involves Jody gently probing through Fergus' defenses to find the humanity lingering within, and Fergus contemplating his position in life whilst interacting with the desperate, scared but also very charismatic and endearing Englishman. The screenplay's handling of their friendship is incredibly moving and powerful, and makes the swift, sudden exit of it, all the more jarring.

SPOILERS

Fergus makes Jody a promise to visit his girlfriend Dil in London, which he does so after the cabin the IRA volunteers were hiding out in gets bombarded by British soldiers, and he goes AWOL. The twist to the film is that Dil, played by Jaye Davidson, is a trans woman. This apparently elicited many shocks at the time, and watching it again I can see why; it's hidden well by the film up to that point, although you can certainly tell if you're watching attentively enough that it is indeed a man playing a character that's set up to be 'female'. I won't get into too much detail about it all because frankly, I don't think the film's trying to make any overt statement about it. 

The first scene where Dil and Fergus meet, by the way, is one of the best-written scenes in film history. Watch this. 

Anyway, Dil being a trans woman, and Fergus falling for Dil, is not the dominant theme, just another component of The Crying Game which makes it one of my favourite films of all-time. He's a man who must firstly learn to confront how he was brought up, his whole way of life and thinking that the English are all evil. Well as he learns from Jody, some Englishman can be alright chaps, and the lot he hung out with back at home - best represented by Miranda Richardson's iconic, subtly terrifying performance as the seductive and reprehensible Jude - weren't all that great anyway. Then in Dil he's thrown yet another curveball to his way of thinking; how can he have been attracted to someone, when the whole idea behind Dil just goes against the conventional ways of thinking? Fergus starts off by being disgusted at himself for having been allured by Dil, but gradually he finds the better man within him to disregard that. It's not so much that he immediately develops the conventional sort of love for Dil, but rather a blend of a friend's affection with a lover's attraction. 

Even till the final scene, we still see a slightly tentative side of Fergus to being attracted to Dil, but the great thing about the film is as well as developing the relationship effectively, it makes it rather heartwarming in evoking its themes of acceptance and equality with such remarkable subtlety. It's never thrown at us, Jordan just takes the film into a slightly different direction, and from a different perspective after the twist that really takes you aback and makes you think with each re-watch. What makes someone a good man? The film doesn't offer a definitive answer, but becoming more open and accepting is one of them - and acknowledging one's instincts and 'nature'.

The theme of human nature is set up earlier in the film in a story told by Jody to Fergus, about the scorpion and the frog:

“Scorpion wants to cross a river, but he can’t swim. Goes to the frog, who can, and asks for a ride. Frog says, ‘If I give you a ride on my back, you’ll go and sting me.’ Scorpion replies, ‘It would not be in my interest to sting you since as I’ll be on your back we both would drown.’ Frog thinks about this logic for a while and accepts the deal. Takes the scorpion on his back. Braves the waters. Halfway over feels a burning spear in his side and realizes the scorpion has stung him after all. And as they both sink beneath the waves the frog cries out, ‘Why did you sting me, Mr. Scorpion, for now we both will drown?’ Scorpion replies, ‘I can’t help it, it’s in my nature.’”

Fergus has been denying his nature by participating in the IRA, acting as a mindless mook, following the motions. When he finally takes life head on and tries to make a differece, he starts to act for himself, act in his nature. 

The Crying Game is thus, all about a flawed man becoming a better man - but most importantly, within his nature. Fergus starts off as someone who'd probably bore your socks off at a social gathering; he seems to have nothing to him beyond his ability to take orders. When asked to tell a story, all he can muster is a Biblical quote - 'When I was a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.' Dil and Jody, two people he'd have never have associated with in normal circumstances, help to bring out the best in him. He's haunted by the memory of Jody and having been so touched by his friendship with him, does his best to keep Dil safe, no matter what the cost. His hesitation to reveal that he'd been part of the IRA squad that effectively killed Jody is not because of fear of being found out; nor is his reluctance to helping the remaining IRA volunteers carry out an assassination due to cowardice. He's become a decent man who wants to do the decent thing.

I've spent most of my time talking about the thematic elements of The Crying Game, and not even all of them; beyond the emotional story of self-realization and the transgender dynamics, there's a bit of political elements regarding the Anglo-Irish relationship thrown in as well. But it's also extremely well-directed, the cinematography is ace, and the music is fantastic. The opening and ending songs - 'When a Man Loves a Woman' by Percy Sledge, and 'Stand By Your Man' by Lyle Lovett - act as perfect bookends to the film's message, and the titular song, sung by Boy George, forms the backdrop to one of the most deeply involving sequences in the film. It's a great film I feel deserves a lot more credit both for what it directly is, and its more subtler undercurrents. Watch it!!!!!

2010s The Crying Game directed by Paddy Considine

Fergus: Cillian Murphy

Jude: Claire Foy

Jody: Nonso Anozie

Dil: Jacob Anderson

Col: Peter Mullan