So I've watched the movie multiple times. Reading the book is
somewhat spoiled for me and the differences made in the adaptation
are immediately apparent. The picture on the cover clearly shows that
Shawn Hatosy is far better looking. Whatever ratings the movie is
given the book is not G rated.
Remember the it describes prison life. The language is of the lowest
form of Cockney/Irish/English dialect laced with enough profanity to
make a dockyard stevedore blush. These aren't choir boys. Fully half
the book deals with his stay in the English Prison System before he
is ever sent to Borstal.
The reading is rather tedious being excessively wordy. Eight people
tell one another good night rather than putting it as I just did. We
are given the words of the author's extensive repertoire of Irish
ditties in Gaelic as well as English. The movie cast obviously
weren't singers.
On the other hand to say that the movie version of this book is a
loose interpretation is to understate the case. Behan's book may have
been partially fictionalized but the script writers altered the facts
presented here so radically the author would not have recognized
himself were he alive today.
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