The Boys Of St. Vincent
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Main Program: B
In one of the earlier and controversial looks at the
atrocities occurring against young boys in conjunction with The Catholic
Church, The Boys Of St. Vincent (1991) is a tale that begins in the
early 1970s. This Canadian TV
two-parter was issued theatrically in The United States and was lucky to get
independent bookings. This chapter of
the worldwide church crisis involves a pedophilic, abusive priest played by
Henry Czenry before he became typecast as a Hollywood bad guy. He has young boys he keeps abusing
(physically and sexually) and when it becomes a potential legal case in 1975, a
dark conspiracy involving the Church and Canadian Legal System hushed it up
until the kids became adults and we in worse shape than ever.
The title location is an orphanage where the boys are
especially susceptible with their supposedly trustworthy guardians turning on
them. The fact that there is constant
brainwashing and abuse already of the psychological and physical nature amounts
to what we would now before the sexual abuse consider child abuse and domestic
terrorism. That is no stretch. Those running and covering up the crimes are
convinced these kids will “forget about it” and move on, as well as believe
that these kids are disposable population with no families to protect
them. As faux families, they can
further confuse and manipulate and the situation has barely changed as of this
posting. The three hours are split into
two parts, with the latter featuring the grown-up young men and their plight of
pain. The story does sometimes drag a
bit and even gets slightly melodramatic, but that is far overcome by the story
The Church still wants to keep quiet and wish would go away. Too bad they cannot control the endless
precession of cases and lawsuits that are being filed as you read this. One even has filed bankruptcy to protect
their assets, though another similar word would also suffice.
The casting and acting help lift this up from what could
have been a compromised TV production.
Even now, with this topic so much in the news and since Barry Levinson’s
uncompromising Sleepers, an excellent tale about young boys who are
similarly abused in reform school in Hell’s Kitchen and their revenge, with a
priest (Robert DeNiro) in the middle which authorities quickly (if not
credibly) denied never happened, it still holds up and justified its U.S.
theatrical bookings. Until all these
problems are resolved, which looks like it will take a very long time, The
Boys Of St. Vincent will stand as the beginning of dealing with a problem
that just will fortunately not stay covered up.
The full frame 1.33 x 1 image was shot on film and that is
one of the reasons it holds up as it does, but the transfer is also not bad for
full frame. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
is also decent, with dialogue that is clear enough to hear, adding up to a
presentation comparable to any American TV movie or mini-series of the time. The only extras are four trailers for other
New Yorker product and one for this program’s theatrical release.
Recently, there was another incident involving The
Catholic Church, this time, one of its High Schools (which shall remain
nameless, as that is besides the point).
Among the Football players, an incident of one of the young men on the
team being singled out by their piers for “tea bagging” (shoving genitilia into
the students face) in the locker room to assault, humiliate and degrade the
victim. This would have remained secret
if the victim did not speak out.
Remarkably, there were those who had the attitude that “why did he have
to say anything?” or that because it was among males that it somehow was not
sexual abuse! Some of this involved the
perpetrators being suspended and not allowed to play football, which was
somehow more upsetting to some very ignorant people than if someone had been
assaulted. Maybe if he were “just a man
about it” he could “let it go” and we could go on. Just how much hate is really out there? No one ever considered that the persons committing the criminal
act could have who knows what venereal diseases and possibly pass them on to
the victim. No one cared to consider
that. On top of all of this, the local
media let this go for far too long by without making into the serious story it
was, trying to hold back on the outrage.
It is only because the school costs so much money to attend that this
story finally made the news to begin with.
Needless to say, the school took far too long to act in the first place,
handling this with the same lack of speed that they seem to in all sexual abuse
cases. As before, this too was
obviously beyond any doubt 100% wrong and being a very resent incident, proves
The Catholic Church is still dodging responsibility for very serious
problems, making them far, far worse.
With that said, The Boys Of St. Vincent may just be at the tip of
a much larger iceberg.
- Nicholas Sheffo
