The Crying Game

In the movie The Crying Game, the character of Fergus undergoes a transformation as he discovers his true nature and overcomes his belief in the doctrine of the IRA, a doctrine which itself overcomes individuality in a belief in the greater importance of the political battle taking place in Northern Ireland. There is no doubt that the movie is largely about issues of identity, and the specific element of gender is only one of the many elements making up individuals which are explored by Fergus as he begins to question the need to conform to any externally imposed point of view and instead seeks to develop his own sense of right and wrong, of life and love, of the importance of the individual over the society as a whole. Fergus at first adheres to the requirements of the soldier to do what he is told, but he begins to shift when confronted with the humanity of his captive. He next develops a conscience as he looks more deeply into the life of that captive after the latter's death, and in effect Fergus takes the man's place with the "woman" left waiting for him in the city. Finally, Fergus has to confront his old life and his new as they come together, forcing him to make a choice.

Fergus is humanized by his experience. He is at first more a mechanical part of the revolution, a soldier with no mind of his own. He does what he is told, and he refuses at first to think beyond that simple fact. He is forced to think about his life and its meaning because he is confronted

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re by accident than design. Fergus has promised Jody that he will find Dil and buy her a drink, and he sets out to do just that. He has traded his old way for a new way of viewing the world and his place in it, and it is unsettling to him. He is a scorpion who no longer wants to be a scorpion. He has recognized that the scorpion garb he wore was something he assumed and not his real nature. He now sees himself as a good man who has been caught up in something in which he no longer believes. He is recognizing a truth that he could not see before, a truth about himself. Even as he attempts to pursue a different course, he does so in a way that forces him to assume a new identity as Jimmy and to pretend to be something he is not. He approaches the rest of the world as if it were a reality he had never seen before and that is only open to him now because Jody has opened the way for him, and yet this world as well is not precisely as it seems. Always Fergus is forced to reassess his own life and the world in which he finds himself. In a conversation with Jody, he had said that he had stopped being a child and had put aside childish things. This is meant to be an affirmation that he has become an adult and understands his act

Category: Film - T