I was wondering,..
If I should pick this movie up? Or at least try to find it, is it even worth my time?
shareThis film is brutal & hair-raising. If you're looking for a stark account from the seamy underside of life, this is a good example. Also check out, "The Inheritors", and, "Once Were Warriors". Gawd, the things people are capable of!
J
Ok that's sounds about right, I'll be checking all of them out.
Thanks
It was over the top in terms of the total wacko "sex tourists" the boys ran into. All of it was true, taken from real accounts from the real boys on the streets of Prague, but not all the same boy and not all in the same year. I thought some more normal one-night-stands, blow-jobs in the train station bathrooms, quickies in the bushes (for money of course), earlier in the movie would have set the tone that this might be a viable way to survive, and then introduce the bizarre, sadists, gay bashers, rapists, robbers, pornographers, AIDS etc..., but no, he gets drugged and anally raped his first night there and meets the rest of those whacko’s soon after. I am glad I bought it, but it is disturbing. The violence is very graphic. There is one long scene of him in full frontal and rear nudity where he is showing himself off for a rich English client (and the camera), but the rest of the "sex" scenes are the usual simulated "Hard R" variety. The lead actor is fantastic in making you believe his emotions which run the full gamut of unabridged joy and boyish delight to the worst kind of sadness, abandonment and pain to final total numbness. While there are two scenes where Marco and his new best friend – fellow 16 year-old hustler David, bond emotionally, you can’t tell if they are really lovers, or really gay/bi-sexual, or would actually have sex with guys, or even with each other, if they weren’t getting paid. On the same subject of teenage male prostitution (but not any where as over-the-top as Mandragora, "My Own Private Idaho" staring River Phoenix (a year before his death from drugs) and Kunene Reeves about street boys/prostitutes in Portland, Oregon (also much richer story/screen play) and "The Toilers & Wayfarers" [black and white indi film] about two 16 year olds sons of German immigrants in the 1960's from a small town in Minnesota, who discover they are gay (but in denial), and become male prostitutes in the big city (Minneapolis/St. Paul).
shareIf you're looking for a stark account from the seamy underside of life, this is a good example. Also check out, "The Inheritors", and, "Once Were Warriors". Gawd, the things people are capable of!
I call, and raise you with "Christiane F" and "Lilya-4-Ever". Whatever faith you might still have in humanity, well, prepare to lose it.
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