Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Crying Game
by Neil Jordan

The Crying Game is a 1992 Irish/British drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Irish Troubles. The original working title of the film was The Soldier's Wife.The Crying Game is about the main character Fergus' experiences as a member of the IRA, his brief but meaningful encounter with Jody (held as prisoner by the group), and his unexpected romantic relationship with Jody's girlfriend, Dil, whom Fergus promised Jody he would protect. However, unexpected events force Fergus to decide what he wants for the future, and ultimately what his nature dictates that he must do.The film is notable for containing a dramatic plot twist and for its sympathetic portrayal of characters from often-reviled subcultures, presented here as complex and likable human beings. Audiences accepted the film as a thriller, but also as an unconventional romance.The film begins as a psychological thriller, as IRA foot soldier Fergus and a unit of other IRA members, including Jude and led by Maguire kidnap Jody, a British soldier. The IRA members demand the release of other jailed IRA and threaten to execute Jody in three days if their demands are not met.While Fergus guards Jody, they develop a bond. Jody, in particular, tells him the story about the frog and the scorpion: the scorpion, wishing to cross a stream, asked the frog to let him ride his back over the stream. When the frog asked the scorpion how he could be sure that the scorpion would not sting him, the scorpion replied that if he did sting him, it would mean death by drowning for both of them. The frog complies, carrying the scorpion on its back across the stream. Before they reach the other side, however, the frog feels pain and realizes that the scorpion has stung him. He protests, "Why did you sting me, Mr. Scorpion? For now we both will drown!" The scorpion replies, "I can't help it, it's in my nature."Jody persuades Fergus to meet his girlfriend, Dil, after he is killed and make sure she is all right. The deadline set by Jody's captors passes and Jody is to be executed. Fergus takes Jody into the woods to carry out the sentence, but cannot bring himself to shoot him, and Jody is instead accidentally run over and killed by British armoured personnel carriers when he attempts to flee across a road. Fergus then hides from his IRA companions in London, where he takes a job as a day labourer with the alias "Jimmy." While in London, Fergus meets Jody's attractive girlfriend, Dil, at a hair salon. Later they talk in a bar, where the next evening he sees her singing "The Crying Game."Even then, though, Fergus still suffers from guilt about Jody's death, seeing him in his dreams bowling a cricket ball to him. Nonetheless, he continues to pursue Dil, protecting her from an obsessive suitor and gradually falling in love with her. However, when he later is about to make love to her in her apartment, he discovers that she has a penis and is thus a transwoman, and his initial reaction is of revulsion. Rushing to the bathroom to throw up, he accidentally hits Dil in the face, leaving a bruise, and leaving her on the floor by herself. A few days later Fergus leaves Dil a note, and the two make up. Fergus realizes he is still attracted to Dil.At around the same time, Jude unexpectedly reappears in Fergus' apartment with a new mission for him: aid in assassinating a well-known official. She also offhandedly mentions that she knows about Fergus and Dil, telling him to "forget about that girl."Fergus, however, cannot overcome his compassion for Dil, who keeps on wooing him, and shields her from possible retribution by his IRA members by giving her a haircut and male clothes as a disguise. The night before the IRA mission is to be carried out, Dil gets heavily drunk and Fergus has to escort her to her apartment, where Dil asks for him to stay with her for the rest of the night. Fergus complies, then admits to Dil that he had an indirect hand in bringing about her former boyfriend's death. Dil, drunk, appears to not have understood, but in the morning before Fergus wakes up, ties him to the bed, unwittingly preventing him from joining the other IRA members and completing the assassination according to plan.Dil, holding Fergus at gunpoint, forces Fergus to tell her by the tune of "The Crying Game" that he loves her and will never leave her. When Fergus does so, Dil unties him, saying that even if he's lying, it's still nice to hear his words. Dil then breaks down into tears.Just then, an exasperated Jude comes into their room with a gun, seeking to kill Fergus for missing the assassination he was to commit. Dil quickly shoots at her, realizing that she was complicit in Jody's death, and that she used her sexuality to trick him. After finishing her off, Dil then points the gun at Fergus, but then lowers her hand, saying that she cannot kill him because Jody will not allow her to. A sympathetic Fergus prevents Dil from shooting herself in the mouth, and tells Dil to hide out in the club for a while. When Dil is gone, he wipes her fingerprints off the gun, and allows himself to be arrested in place of Dil.The epilogue takes place a few months later. Fergus, in prison, is visited by Dil. Dil, after discussing with Fergus on their plans once he gets out of jail, asks him why he took the fall for her in the first place. Fergus responds, "As a man once said, it's in my nature," and then proceeds to tell Dil the story of the frog and the scorpion he heard from Jody.