Utterly strange in concept and execution despite the noble intentions, The Boy With Green Hair’s anti-war parable and the effects of war on children is clunky and messy and a bit too literal. When the titular boy with green hair speaks directly to camera about how bad war is and how a good future for children can only be secured by ending all war and not fighting new ones it occurred to me that that message was not for the children watching the film, but for the adults who had brought them to watch it. Losey’s attempts at taking a fantasy story about racial prejudices and turning it into this kind of allegory is messy and still cannot shake the very obvious undertones of such, but as an oddity of filmmaking, it definitely stands out. The green tone of the hair, for instance, is striking.
Okay, I just want to also add that it’s wild that Nature Boy came from this movie. That’s one of my all time favorite songs.
Utterly strange in concept and execution despite the noble intentions, The Boy With Green Hair’s anti-war parable and the effects of war on children is clunky and messy and a bit too literal. When the titular boy with green hair speaks directly to camera about how bad war is and how a good future for children can only be secured by ending all war and not fighting new ones it occurred to me that that message was not for the children watching the film, but for the adults who had brought them to watch it. Losey’s attempts at taking a fantasy story about racial prejudices and turning it into this kind of allegory is messy and still cannot shake the very obvious undertones of such, but as an oddity of filmmaking, it definitely stands out. The green tone of the hair, for instance, is striking.
Okay, I just want to also add that it’s wild that Nature Boy came from this movie. That’s one of my all time favorite songs.
