SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

An action-packed slog

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I watched this movie with tears in my eyes. No other movie until know was able to make me feel such pain – almost physical just from watching the story that unfolds on the screen. With risk to repeat myself I must note that this was probably the hardest movie to watch from all I have seen until the moment.I made few notes when it started – there were about the interesting characters, the song of Libera I noticed – but now I can not really write about that. Shocking, painful, cruel, realistic to the core – I can go on like this for a long time. The fact that "Song for a raggy boy" is based on a true story contributes to the powerful effect this movie has on its viewers.The acting is quite good as well – so good that I felt like I knew some of the characters in person. The young actors were really convincing and I felt Delaney and Mercier almost like my friends. But let me tell you a bit more about the movie – it is set in a reformatory school run by the catholic church – as it often happens the boys who are send there find anything , but help and support – instead they are beaten and abused mentally and physically ( some even sexually ) from the priests. One of them Brother John is in charge of discipline – here is the line with which he tells the new teacher for the kind of job he is expected to do: "The creatures you are going to teach are not to be confused with intelligent human beings." Only this line itself was enough for me to imagine the horrible manner in which the boys are treated. The new teacher however tried to change all that – and as the story unfolds I began to really like him – he was strict, but at the same time caring with the boys he taught. Brother John becomes his enemy almost from the very beginning and after failing to persuade the superior at the institution to dismiss the new teacher he directs his anger to the school pupils. You will have to watch the movie to find out how it all ends … This movie gets 10 out of 10 for me – since it is sure one of the best ones I have ever watched.Similar movies: Sleepers, Dead Poets Society

A superb movie. Well acted by the whole cast. Based in a Irish young offenders institution at the start of the second world war, though this is only mentioned inpassing. It's horrrific to think that it is based on a true story - thank god we have moved into a more civilizes way of dealing with young offenders. Being a 'true' story the bad guys don't actually seem to get the sort of punishment (one is a child abuser, the other is a sadist)that a fictional film would give them. Similar in style and story feel to 'Sleepers'.Not for the faint hearted - like 'Sleepers' the sexual abuse is not filmed and totally left to the viewers imagination which in many ways is worse. The violence is appropriate but not overly graphic. Similar sort of happy ending but with a sting in the tail. Well worth watching. Highly recommended.

While i lived in Ireland, a friend and i went to the movies in Cork and saw "A song for a Raggy boy" i never thought i would like the movie. But guess what, it was one of the best movies i ever seen. It really touched me, I cried and felt so much for the movie. Its one of the best movies i have ever seen, and i have seen much! Now after seeing this movie i cant help but thinking of another movie that resebels this one, well not so much resembles but made me fell the same, its "Schindler's list". Both movies is based on a true story and about a man that tries to change or change others. Both these movies have an effect to make people understand how we work, and it is scary that we, as a well developed of species, act like brutal animals. Its scary to see. just as you can see it in Mel Gibson's movies "The passion of the Christ". We are not and have never been a nice species. we are just as bad as any other. But for you who want to see a movie that touches and makes you see something else then the classical Hollywood movies, see this one.

An Irishman who fought in the Spanish Civil War is engaged as the only lay teacher in a reform school run by oppressive, predatory Catholic priests. In this brutal environment, the teacher kindles the intellectual enthusiasm of his initially illiterate students by introducing them to poetry. His resistance to the reformatory's regime sparks a harsher crackdown in response. The plot earns no awards for creativity or subtlety but then, we learn in the end that this is based on a true story. Although the characters can seem one-dimensional, I found the acting riveting and the story well-paced; hardly a dull moment. On a side note, I can't remember another recent film without female characters (although one appears in flashbacks).