The Crying Game (1992)

Tagline: Play at your own risk.

The Crying Game movie storyline. Writer / director Neil Jordan’s powerful, layered suspense thriller/modern-day noir, which examines friendship, sexuality, love, political intrigue, race relations and human nature, was partly inspired by the classic Irish short story A Guest of the Nation by Frank O’Connor.

The highly profitable independent film opens with the kidnapping of a British soldier named Jody (Whitaker) by a group of IRA resistance/terrorists, led by a cold, calculating femme fatale Jude (Miranda Richardson), who had entrapped the soldier by seducing him hile he was intoxicated.

One of the captors, Fergus (Rea), strikes an unlikely friendship with the prisoner, both knowing that Jody would most likely be executed. The execution goes awry when Jody, trying to escape, is accidentally killed by a convoy of British army soldiers, who immediately disperse the IRA cell.

Fergus goes into hiding and partial retirement from the IRA in London, but feels compelled to honor his promise to Jody that if he was killed, he would tell Jody’s beautiful lover Dil (Davidson, whose magnificent gender-bending Oscar-nominated performance was in a role that was considered uncastable) of his fate.

As a love triangle develops, Fergus soon finds himself attracted to Dil and valiantly protective of the lonely and aloof hairdresser, but both harbor a secret that would prevent them from romantically loving one another.

The revelation of Dil’s sexual secret is a Hitchcockian plot twist that audiences were urged not to reveal, which they honored. Complications arise when Jude shows up, and embroils Fergus in a dangerous assassination plot, using “wee black chick” Dil as collateral. The film was a smash hit both critically and commercially, and earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and two nominations for Jordan for his direction and original screenplay (which he won.) Shockingly, Richardson would be nominated for her role in Damage (1992) rather than for this film.

The Crying Game is a 1992 English-language thriller film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The film is about the experiences of the main character, Fergus (Stephen Rea), a member of the IRA, his brief but meaningful encounter with a soldier, Jody (Forest Whitaker), who is held prisoner by the group, and his unexpected romantic relationship with Jody’s girlfriend, Dil (Jaye Davidson), whom Fergus promised Jody he would protect. However, unexpected events force Fergus to decide what he wants for the future, and ultimately what his nature dictates he must do.

A critical and commercial success, The Crying Game won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Rea, Best Supporting Actor for Davidson, and Best Film Editing. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 26th-greatest British film of all time.

Neil Jordan first drafted the screenplay in the mid-1980s under the title The Soldier’s Wife, but shelved the project after a similar film was released. He sought to begin production of the film in the early nineties, but found it difficult to secure financing. Potential investors were discouraged by his recent string of box office flops, as well as the difficult themes of the script; most studio heads believed the role of Dil to be un-castable.

The film went into production with an inadequate patchwork of funding, leading to a stressful and unstable filming process. The producers constantly searched for small amounts of money to keep the production going and pay left crew members disgruntled. The film was known as The Soldier’s Wife for much of the production, but Stanley Kubrick, who was a friend of Jordan, counselled against the title saying that audiences would expect a war film. The opening sequence was shot in Laytown, County Meath, Ireland and the rest in London and Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire UK.

Directed by: Neil Jordan
Starring: Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Forest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson, Adrian Dunbar, Andrée Bernard, Jim Broadbent, Ralph Brown, Tony Slattery, Josephine White, Shar Campbell
Screenplay by: Neil Jordan
Production Design by: Jim Clay
Cinematography by: Ian Wilson
Film Editing by: Kant Pan
Costume Design by: Sandy Powell
Set Decoration by: Martin Childs
Art Direction by: Chris Seagers
Music by: Anne Dudley
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality, strong violence and language.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: September 18, 1992