The Devil’s Playground (1976)

“Growing up can be a special kind of hell…”

The_Devils_Playground_1976Hearing the title of the Australian 1976 film The Devilโ€™s Playground, one may wrongfully assume that Fred Schepisi’s directorial debut feature is a horror flick. Instead, the movie offers a somewhat controversial portrayal of life in a strict Catholic boarding school โ€“ where rules are set to be followed even if often they do not make much sense to the priests and institutions that establish them.

The controversial trait of The Devilโ€™s Playground arises mainly from the fact that it daringly tries to address issues such as temptations and sexual frustration in both the young pupils and the โ€œBrodersโ€ who run the institution. The film’s narrative has more similarities toย Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society than with Aisling Walsh’s Song for a Raggy Boyย — despite the fact that it does not shy away fromย exploring taboo issues related to youthful sexuality and character development.

Tom Allen (Simon Burke) in The Devilโ€™s Playground (1976)
Tom Allen (Simon Burke) in The Devilโ€™s Playground (1976)

Like most Coming-of-Age narratives,ย The Devilโ€™s Playground has a young character atย its core —ย 13-year-old Tom Allen (Simon Burke) โ€“- a pupil atย the school who tries to follow his vocation (towards becoming a brother himself), while dealing with various problems. ย These include such things as bed wetting, tardiness andย resisting (or at least trying to resist) the urges that the โ€œbrothersโ€ refer to as unnatural. The brothers themselves are well aware of the changes that occur to the body and minds of their youthful pupils, yet they have to find a balance between acknowledgment and acceptance on one side and rules and discipline on theย other.

Scene from The Devilโ€™s Playground
Scene from The Devilโ€™s Playground

As a former boarding school student myself, I enjoyed the portrayal of comradeship and the trials and tribulations associated with living on the school grounds. The director did not opt for cheap thrills or surprising plot twists, yet the philosophical conflicts of and between the characters result in a sense of tension (of distinct kinds), which more than compensates for the former.

Cinematographically there is little to complain about as most scenes include smart use if shadows and shades. I enjoyed the usage of lights, especially in the scenes chosen for the artwork of the film’s poster.

devils-playground-1976

Even though the film was released more than 30ย years ago, it addresses universal issues that are as valid todayย as they were back then. The film features some scenes with nudity, yet nothing exploitive and nothing that really is veryย controversial on its own. ย The characters are well developed and portrayed by the director and cast yet, for some reason, I was not able to associate with any particular one โ€“ remaining an outside observer of their experiences, which is not the ideal outcome of a Coming-of-Age film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074404/combined

SUMMARY

An accurate portrayal of comradeship and the trials and tribulations associated with living at a boarding school.
An accurate portrayal of comradeship and the trials and tribulations associated with living at a boarding school.The Devil's Playground (1976)