2001 Talk About Movies
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Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND

Ernie: The film could be seen as an allegory of attitudes in the pre- and post-conciliar Church. The brothers represent the hierarchy; the students, the faithful; and the rules of the place, the precepts we all have to follow. The brother who supports the rules is tortured by the conflict between spirit and flesh to the point where he says he hates life. One sidesteps the struggle by drinking and going to rugby matches. And the old brother has decided it's all a bunch of nonsense, and that the important thing is to be true to yourself. The point of the film is that we have to get away from the rules in order to love life.

* * *

Matthew: When we first see the boys, they're swimming in the lake -- that's symbolic of the atmosphere they live in. When Tom gets out, he says it's the last swim of the season; the water's getting too cold. Something's changing for the worse; they can't do things the way they used to. The movie sees the kid who tries to swim the freezing lake as the natural consequence of the brothers' attitude that the body is the enemy of holiness. He's taken their teaching to heart.