Eban and Charley (2000) Although at first glance one might consider this a gay romance spiced with the controversy of age difference, James Bolton's film is mainly a reinterpretation of parental issues that pertain to any gay or straight dynamic.
Eban is a 29 year old man, unemployed, uncertain of his future and with no other choice but to live with his parents. Parents who not so delicately ask him to respect his curfew, to go to bed early, etc. Charley is just a 15 year old kid who has a somewhat precarious relationship with his father. As soon as they meet, one could reason that they must first resolve their parental issues before trying to consolidate their passionate relationship.
The characters, however, are not entirely aware of the importance of fatherly figures in their lives. That's up for the viewer to discern and interpret, a task that is much easier in Bolton's recent film "Dream Boy".
Both characters are longing for freedom. But in order to reach freedom a sacrifice must be made. It has been discussed in psychoanalytic theory the importance of independency. Every young man, at some point in his life, craves for freedom. In many cases getting a job can secure financial independency and thus leaving home for good becomes a real possibility. But there is no such thing as being free as the wind. A new shackle replaces the old one. The young man must thrive at the cost of his own hard work, money after all doesn't grow in trees. He is free from his parents but he's now in a new type of confinement. How he deals and resolves this apparent paradox will help him to achieve adulthood.
Sacrifice can also be understood as leaving something behind. Something deemed precious or essential. That is why traditional psychoanalytic theory associates sacrifice with castration. It's all about leaving something behind. In some cases, in some cultures, this takes upon a most literal meaning: what is circumcision after all? Isn't it a symbolic castration? Isn't it leaving something behind, leaving part of the penis behind, the same penis that Freud appointed as phallus? Lacan however renounces this Freudian interpretation. For Lacan castration is never a negative process, it's the only way in which the individual can be successfully inserted in the symbolic order. If castration does not take place then the individual turns psychotic. Castration for Lacan means to enter into the symbolic order, and that means to enter into language. Human language is the required castration before any individual can become a part of society.
Nonetheless, what can be said about sacrifice and castration regarding Eban and Charley? Well, there are at least two things I feel confident enough to explain. "Laws are stupid" says Charley when confronted with the possibility of Eban being accused of pedophilia. Laws are stupid. Laws are castrating indeed. When Charley says "I don't think age should matter if you love someone" he inadvertently relies on an Aristotelian conception of the Supreme Good. According to Aristotle, to obey the law means to feel good (doing the right thing makes you feel good); this a Greek paradigm that Socrates upholds even when it means his own demise (in Plato's dialog about the laws Socrates explains why he must face the death penalty instead of running away, because to obey the law is the only way to preserve the polis, and thus to reinforce the Greek culture). Kant, on the other hand, affirms that obeying the law is painful and it must be so. To obey the law, according to Kant, means to experience a narcissistic diminishment. By obeying the law I understand that I'm just one man, that I'm not the center of the universe, that there are things I must obey although I don't agree with them.
Of course, we no longer live in Classic Greece. We live in a post-Kantian world. Now the only alternative is to follow Charley's reasoning: age shouldn't be a concern because it's no longer required to support a law which neither of them can respect. What fascinates me about Bolton's film is how he handles pedophilia, probably one of the most controversial subjects, and how he turns this relationship into a metaphor of sacrifice, castrating parents and conceptions of Aristotelian and Kantian law.
53 out of 54 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink