The Lost Boys movie

[tcarroll]

For anyone who is interested, I just purchased The Lost Boys mini series by Mr. Birkin/BBC from Amazon.com.  I must say, I haven't enjoyed anything that much in a long time. You should make time to watch all of it at one time if possible; that's the way I did it, and it was fabulous!  I have also read Mr. Birkin's book, and this movie is just like it, with a few very minor changes.  If you share my interest in the Llewelyn Davies family and Mr. Barrie, treat yourself to this movie.  It is truly a treasure.

                                                     tcarroll

[tcarroll]

Andrew,
Having recently watched the mini series again, I noticed a close resemblance of the actors on the series to the actual people they portrayed.  Were you responsible for casting in any way?  The actors did such a wonderful job, and the lady who played Sylvia was most impressive.  I believe I could even see her "crooked smile".  The casting was excellent, and the film a treasure as well as the book and this website.  Thanks so much Andrew.
                                                         tcarroll

[andrew]

Yes, I did have a hand in the casting, Ian Holm being my vision of Barrie from the very beginning. But most of the casting credit should go to the director, Rodney Bennett. We had numerous battles during the production, including the original casting of the young George Llewelyn Davies, but most of his casting I thought was excellent, particularly Ann Bell as Sylvia - yes, that crooked smile caught everyone, not least Nico. Even Tim Piggott-Smith as Arthur turned out excellent, although he didn't really have Arthur's "Italian warrior looks".

My biggest grumble was the adult Michael - he simply didn't have Michael's charm - followed by the ghastly casting of Gaby Deslys, and the rather po-faced actress playing Jack's wife Gerrie (the real-life Gerrie was furious that the unfortunate actress wasn't nearly beautiful enough!).

The real triumph, apart from Ian, was Alexander Buss as the 12 year old Michael. He came down to Ian's house in Kent, and the three of us rehearsed (and slightly rewrote) the Caux/draughts scene over the weekend - just about my favourite in the whole trilogy. What became of him, heaven knows. His father was a friend of Rodney's - a vicar in Wandsworth, who I rather think disapproved of acting - or Barrie - or both - but allowed Alexander to play the part as a favour to Rodney. Whatever, it was an inspired choice.

I also loved Nicholas Borton as the young Jack - another of Rodney's finds - and of course Ian's son Barnaby as the young George, who replaced the original boy cast as George at my insistence!

[Hannah High]

Despite his looks, I was so moved by the actor performance as Arthur. Even when re-watching it, I always find myself awash at the scene in which he returns home from the hospital, when Michael abandons him and then he ends up talking to George and Jack about Barrie. He makes me cry in other scenes too.

I think I agree with all Andrew's opinions above, so it will be pointless to just repeat them, but will comment on the draught scene with Michael and Barrie that it is an incredible, not only the actors, but just the dialogue itself, thrilling and heartbreaking. That scene is on youtube, and whenever I get stuck writing, I find myself listening to it and exeperiencing a thick mist with bits of fire.

I also must say, I think Barnaby Holm was awesome as "the one who started it all"...the closest kid I've seen to show the devil in Peter, especially when he smiled.

[tcarroll]

The young actor who played George was one of my favorites!  I love the scenes where he has conversations with Mr. Barrie.  The love between them is obvious in those scenes.  George, being the first one of the boys who got Mr. Barrie's attention, and that red hat..it was great!

[ecb]

One of the things about the casting that struck me is that unlike nearly every other film based on real people, the actors portraying the Davies family were (for the most part) NOT as good-looking as the originals!

Barnaby Holm however was as handsome as George - and that is quite a compliment to his looks!

[andrew]

Quite agree about Barnaby, who was actually my casting in the sense that I threatened to take my name off the credits if the boy originally cast to play the young (6 year old) George wasn't replaced. The poor boy couldn't act to save his life, and looked more like Billy Bunter than the real George. There was quite a showdown - the boy's father was a friend of the director's - but after seeing several rehearsals I was convinced that he would be a disaster.  I won over the producer, who was nevertheless concerned that we wqould never be able to replace him in time. I knew Ian had a son, so I headed over to his flat that night, took Barnaby out for a Macdonalds and got him to read the scene - which he did brilliantly - then drove him into BBC TV Centre the next morning: "Meet George Llewelyn Davies!"  The only real problem (apart from the wretched business of having to dump the original boy) was that Barnaby was 11, whereas George was only about 5 when he first met JMB. We therefore had to dump both the boy playing the 1st Geroge, the poor boy playing the 1st Jack, and the boy cast as the 2nd (13 year old) George, although he does appear fleetingly at the first night of P Pan. The other problem was one of historical accuracy, and the question of whether an 11 year old would have been taken in so readily with the whole Peter Pan saga.  Oddly enough, no one ever seemed to notice!

[Nicholas]

I loved Nicholas Borton's convincing Scottish accent when he said: "It's worth at least a shillin'" when discussing his royalties over the tea table.

[andrew]

As did Ian Holm, who nearly cracked up laughing!

[tcarroll]

One more thing about the movie that I noticed was the music.  The music played at the beginning of each episode was so haunting.  However, considering the story it seemed appropriate. One scene that seemed so true to the story was the one where George is killed and Mr. Barrie comes to 23.  The sadness is so profound in that scene, as it is in the scene of Sylvia's death.  This family suffered so much loss, and all these years later we all still care. Not to make lightly of Mr. Barrie's suffering and loss.  He too had a great deal of pain.

[TheWendybird]

I actually had a question about the movie...I know no one here believes Barrie to have had a "stirring in the undergrowth" and stuff but me and my boyfriend were wondering about something in the script... When James is writing to George and George is now seeing a girl...James writes something about wishing he were a young girl or something...it almost sounds homosexual and we were not sure how to take these lines. Could you clear this up for us Andrew as we've wondered what it was about since we watched this last fall? We love this movie but didn't understand what was up with that part.

[AlexanderDavid]

I actually had a question about the movie...I know no one here believes Barrie to have had a "stirring in the undergrowth" and stuff but me and my boyfriend were wondering about something in the script... When James is writing to George and George is now seeing a girl...James writes something about wishing he were a young girl or something...it almost sounds homosexual and we were not sure how to take these lines. Could you clear this up for us Andrew as we've wondered what it was about since we watched this last fall? We love this movie but didn't understand what was up with that part.

I'm obviously not Andrew, but I always understood that to mean simply that he wished George could stay home and didn't have to fight in the war (girls didn't enter the army at that time, did they?).

But I'll leave it to Andrew for the official explanation.

[TheWendybird]

I actually had a question about the movie...I know no one here believes Barrie to have had a "stirring in the undergrowth" and stuff but me and my boyfriend were wondering about something in the script... When James is writing to George and George is now seeing a girl...James writes something about wishing he were a young girl or something...it almost sounds homosexual and we were not sure how to take these lines. Could you clear this up for us Andrew as we've wondered what it was about since we watched this last fall? We love this movie but didn't understand what was up with that part.

I'm obviously not Andrew, but I always understood that to mean simply that he wished George could stay home and didn't have to fight in the war (girls didn't enter the army at that time, did they?)

But I'll leave it to Andrew for the official explanation.

Well if I recall he was saying of himself he wished he were a girl...not George..but we did kinda try to think logically "okay he wasn't homosexual that we know of and Nico didn't think he had sexual feelings for anyone especially the boys so...maybe it just means he wishes he were a girl so he'd get more time to spend with George because they were close"....hopefully we understood right lol

[AlexanderDavid]

I actually had a question about the movie...I know no one here believes Barrie to have had a "stirring in the undergrowth" and stuff but me and my boyfriend were wondering about something in the script... When James is writing to George and George is now seeing a girl...James writes something about wishing he were a young girl or something...it almost sounds homosexual and we were not sure how to take these lines. Could you clear this up for us Andrew as we've wondered what it was about since we watched this last fall? We love this movie but didn't understand what was up with that part.

I'm obviously not Andrew, but I always understood that to mean simply that he wished George could stay home and didn't have to fight in the war (girls didn't enter the army at that time, did they?)

But I'll leave it to Andrew for the official explanation.

Well if I recall he was saying of himself he wished he were a girl...not George..but we did kinda try to think logically "okay he wasn't homosexual that we know of and Nico didn't think he had sexual feelings for anyone especially the boys so...maybe it just means he wishes he were a girl so he'd get more time to spend with George because they were close"....hopefully we understood right lol

No, I don't remember him saying that at all--he was saying it of George, not himself.  He specficially said he almost wished George were "a 21-year-old girl" instead of "a 21-year-old boy", referring to George's age.

[tcarroll]

That is exactly the way I understood the statement too, that he wished George were a girl instead of a boy so he wouldn't have to go to war.  Girls didn't have to go to war, and he knew he could keep him safe.