Pat Duffy Irish Film Journal 3 June 13, 2013 The Butcher Boy Francie as Herald of Irelands Americanization

n In his analysis of The Butcher Boy, Martin McLoone concludes that Francie Brady becomes a symbol for Irelands tortured past and repressed history. I contend that Francies neurosis is less symptomatic of the forces that shape contemporary Ireland (223) than of one single force: the hegemonic influence of American culture and politics. Through Francies manipulative interactions with the Irish landscape and people, the film explores how American culture permeates Cold War era Ireland and illustrates its effects on marginal countries in general. One of the first scenes shows Francie and his best friend Joe Purcell playing make-believe in which they pretend to be Native Americans. The shot favors the grandeur of the Irish landscape: the figures of Francie and Joe are diminished in size and relegated to the bottom corners of the frame, whereas the idyllic lake and hills are displayed in its center, sublime in their hugeness. A nod to the romanticizing of Irish landscape in such films as the OKalem productions and The Quiet Man that Barton and McLoone discuss, Neil Jordan has American cultural icons invade this landscape. In addition to Native Americans, Francie and Joe play at cowboys as well. In being played on Irish soil, the pairs games not only lay a symbolically indigenous American claim to the Irish landscape but also enact its conquest by American pioneers. Francies enactment of American culture does not stop at his conquering the Irish landscape: he goes on to use it to manipulate the Irish people. Sent to a reformatory school in the country, Francie encounters a group of bog-boys. Amazed at their not

knowing the story of Al Capone, he does not tell it to them, but he proceeds to engage them in an American gangster dynamic. Imprisoned figuratively in the reform school just as Al Capone literally was, he becomes the ringleader of the bog-boys, and they, unwittingly, become his cronies. That the bog-boys enact an American cultural dynamic without realizing that they are doing so indicates the permeating presence of American culture: so subtle yet deep as to shape lives with tacit approval; to tacitly shape lives into ones of servitude. In another subtle intrusion of American authority, the pictures of JFK and the Virgin Mary are hung on a wall at the same level in one of the later scenes of the film. The juxtaposition of these figures on an equal plane suggests equivalence between them. Thus the American government is sublimated into a sort of second Church at whose mercy the Irish people await judgment. When considering the role that the United States played in the Cold Warthe principal actor in opposition to the U.S.S.R.this comparison is not as sensational as it first sounds. The entire world was prepared for the possibility of nuclear warfare (as illustrated throughout The Butcher Boy in radio and television broadcasts): a terrestrial, man-made apocalypse to match Gods judgment. JFK being the president of one of the two nations whose political decisions could trigger such warfare, the fate of mankind was, so to speak, in his hands. Perhaps the most poignant parallel between Francies actions and the influence of Cold War America is the murder of Mrs. Nugent. One of Francies earlier, less harmful bouts of teasing centers on Mrs. Nugents refusal to pay a toll to him as she passes him in the street. In Cold War politics, the question of allegiance was key, and support for the cause was indicative of this allegiance. Mrs. Nugents dealing with Francie by initially

ignoring himrefusing support in the form of an irrational tollreflects the degree to which the world was polarized during the Cold War. Indecision was not an option: Mrs. Nugents initial snubbing which led to persistent pestering could be read as the necessity for a nation to take sides as supporting the U.S. or Soviet Union. The consequences of indecision and eventual opposition are played out in Mrs. Nugents murdera cautionary action for any nation attempting to be neutral. Furthermore, Mrs. Nugents method of dealing with Franciehaving her relatives rough him uprecalls how the U.S. and Soviet Union delegated their warfare without ever physically engaging in combat on their own soil. Mrs. Nugents murder fittingly coincides with the fantasy of the nuclear bombs detonation in the Irish lake: in this parallel, her drastic murder coincides with engaging in all-out nuclear warfare. Francie Bradys manipulative behavior propels him surprisingly far into achieving what he desires and avoiding consequences. Even though this manipulation mirrors the American influence on Ireland, such a film could have been set in any other country allied with the U.S. during the Cold War. Under its cultural influence and allied to (yet powerless in) the cause, Ireland and all other nations in the shadow of the United States could do nothing but await the outcome of the Cold War, prepared for their judgment at the hands of the U.S. This hegemonic influence, in its being shared between many countries besides Ireland, leads me to interpret Francie Brady and The Butcher Boy less as a film about Irelands tortured past than its paralyzed presenta paralysis shared by many nations.