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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: BBC Warner
Salesrank: 9578
Released: April 22, 2008 |
| Our Price: $13.34 |
| Used Price: $7.74 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Its 1915 and World War I has been declared. Aged only 17 Kiplings son like most of his generation is swept up in the enthusiasm to fight the Germans a mood stoked vigorously by his father. Jack is cripplingly short sighted and the army has rejected him twice rendering him too myopic even for an army suffering thousands of casualties a week and desperate for recruits. Yet Rudyard is undeterred determined that his son should go to the front like countless other sons and fight for the values that he Kipling espouses so publicly. Using his fame and influence Kipling persuades Lord Roberts on his death bed to get Jack a commission in the Irish guards. This intervention is barely tolerated by Carrie and daughter Elise (Carey Mulligan) as they disagree that Jack is fit to fight and fear for his safety on the front line. Jack is instantly popular with his troop he is a great leader and trains tirelessly to overcome the disability that is his eyesight. Six months later Jack sails to France as a lieutenant. Jack went missing in action during the Battle of Loos and his mother and father carried out an increasingly desperate search for him spanning many years and many miles.Running Time: 93 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/BBC UPC: 883929009350 Manufacturer No: 1000037030
Description of My Boy Jack:
As affecting as it is thought-provoking, ITV's My Boy Jack illustrates the dangers of unbridled patriotism. To grow up the child of a famous author is burden enough, but when the boy must embody the beliefs of the man, the consequences can be devastating. In the case of John "Jack" Kipling (Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe in his most mature role to date), 17-year-old son of Rudyard Kipling (Four Weddings and a Funeral's David Haig), his father's passion for King and Country leads to a preventable tragedy. Based on Haig's play, the proceedings begin in 1914, prior to the outbreak of World War II. Jack attempts to join the army and the navy, but both reject him due to severe shortsightedness, so Kipling Sr. pulls strings to place him with the Irish Guards. Jack's sister, Elsie (Bleak House's Carey Mulligan), and American-born mother, Caroline (a brunette Kim Cattrall), would rather he serve the war effort at home. Through hard work and determination, Jack scales the ranks from private to lieutenant, but goes missing in France, and many months pass before the family solves the mystery of his disappearance. In the end, My Boy Jack, which aired in England on Remembrance Day, concerns itself more with paying tribute than apportioning blame, and Haig skillfully portrays Kipling's guilt in putting his son in harm’s way and pride in a brave soldier who "played his part properly." Special features include interviews and deleted scenes. Parental advisory suggested due to situation-appropriate language and teen smoking. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
My Boy Jack Reviews:
My Boy Jack 
2008-09-19 - This BBC special was aired on PBS in the USA and I had to have it ASAP. I was initially pleased because it starred Daniel Radcliffe but it is a fascinating piece of true history and the saddness of war and misplaced patriotism. Rudyard Kipling, played by David Haig, loved his country no less than many Americans love theirs, but he was blinded by his love to the horror of losing his son and his country's lack of preparedness. Granted he was right about Germany's evil but neither he nor his country were aware that there could be failure and loss even if you were on the side of good.
Not a bad movie 
2008-08-28 - Radcliff did a good job, my only comment was, he reminded me of Adolf Hitler (as a younger man). Plot was maybe a little over done, but still worth the price.
Coming of age and patriotism 
2008-07-28 - Amazing story about Rudyard Kipling and his young son John Kipling (Jack) at the start if the WWI. Elder Kipling is well established writer best known for his "Jungle Book" stories for young boys. He and his family are comfortably tucked in British countryside and his society connections give elder Kipling high social status. His family is close knit and loving, but at the time of upcoming Great War, elder Kipling's unwavering patriotism is means for Jack to create his own adult life. At the age when most boys would plan going to college or striking on their own, Jack views the war as a way of getting into adulthood, away from his parents, their overwhelming love and his own constricted existence. It seems to him that going to war is the most natural way to strike on his own. But Jack's eyesight vision is so poor, that he gets rejected for active military service twice: once by the navy and the second time by the army. It is only thru his father's connections that he is accepted in the military, where he puts extra efort to finish his basic training and become an office before the age of 18. Soon, young Jack is dispatched to the front in Loos, Northern France, where only one day after his 18th birthday, he is killed in the battle. It is a bittersweet story of a young man trying to build his own identity during the difficult time in the history and his father, who living thru the young man is fostering his own patriotic desire for the glory of England and tradition. Kim Catrall gives stunning performance as Jack's mother who in the course of 6 months changes from vivacious mother to a grief stricken, old woman broken to pieces once she learns that her missing son is in fact killed in the war.
Brilliant
2008-06-13 - I loved this movie - both for its content and acting.
Would love to see more of Rudyards life on the big screen - particularly some of his experiences in India or perhaps holidays in South Africa.
Moving and thought provoking
2008-06-06 - The story of Rudyard Kipling's son John and his short career as a soldier in early World War I is quite a powerful story. The presentation has to compress and eliminate many details so I think it would have better served its purpose if it had been allowed to be a longer production - maybe three hours. I marked it down for this purpose only.
The acting performances were outstanding on all levels - from David Haig's Kipling to the nameless men in young John's (Jack) platoon waiting to go over the top in the mud and muck of Loos. Everyone did their parts to perfection. The attention to detail was outstanding although I could quibble that one man's South Africa War medal ribbons were in the wrong order.
You recieve a great sense of what it was like on the western front in 1915. Not glorious or romantic - rather a quagmire of mud and muck where the biggest concern was trench foot and keeping your rifle in working order when it was caked in mud. About the only creatures that seemed to enjoy the western front were the rats.
Kipling has a very complex role in this film. On the one hand he wants to aid his son achieve his ambition of entering the military. On the other hand he is on the committee that is dealing with releasing war news to the public and the horrific casualty rates - over 11,000 officers and men killed, wounded and missing in one day in one battle. Kipling's feeling that it is best to be upfront with the numbers as that will inspire others to serve to remember those who had gone before them. I'm not sure that was good thinking for later in the war but I can understand his logic at the start. I wonder what he felt after his son became one of the huge number of casualties in that war?
The commentaires by the actors in the afterward of the DVD were also quite impressive and thought provoking. Kim Cattrell's comments are especially important as she talks of her grandfather and her father and the effects that World Wars I and II had on them and what she wanted to achieve for her nephew as the war in Iraq was starting up as this was filmed.
It is a complex story that is well told and acted. I encourage those interested in British history and literature to see this film.
