My boy Jack is a BBC drama that is set in England during 1914. It came out in 2007 and was received positively by audiences, reaching 71% on the film rating website Rotten Tomatoes. The main cast members of this film are David Haig who plays Rudyard Kipling and Daniel Radcliff who plays John Kipling. Much like the poem this film is set to explain what many families went through in world war 1.
The film begins with telling us about the situation between Johns eye-sight and going to war. In this time period no-one new the Macabre and dehumanising effects of war so many people saw it as an excitement. John was fond of joining the Navy, but Rudyard thought otherwise, and that the Army was much more suitable for him. So, following his father’s suggestion John tries to sign up to the Army but is refused because of his eye-sight disability. Rudyard is enraged by this and after several interviews John is finally accepted. Although many propaganda posters were created during this time for example, “Women of Britain say GO!”, The wife’s and sisters of the soldiers tried to convince the men that they shouldn’t go to war, and this is evident in this film.
Daniel Radcliff has been acting since he was a child and this film is proof that he has excelled drastically in his acting throughout the years. He is the perfect actor for John Kipling and was able to exploit the emotion that the real John probably felt. On the topic of realism; David Haig was the ideal actor to play Rudyard Kipling because of his striking likeness to him.
Once John had joined the army and “went over the top” Rudyard receives a letter by a soldier which is foreshadowing the conclusion of the film. The film also shows many changes of emotions in which the beginning of the film has an excited and joyful feel whereas the ending is quite dark and depressing.
To conclude this film review I thought that the directors of this film made a great interpretation of this true story and they brought it to life by filming in Rudyard’s original home and casting great actors. I would recommend this film to anyone who is interested in Rudyard Kipling or World War 1.
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