I recently saw this movie and I just can't help, but admire it. (Zombie may make jokes later, but I can't help it, I am sentimental about things like this). I know this is not an LGBT movie or a popular big budget american movie, or even a recent movie, but I think good movies do not need to be defined by age or frame of reference.

If Danial Radcliffe lost his Harry Potter Moniker with Kill Your Darlings in the US, I hope he lost the typecasting with his portrayal of Rudyard Kipling's son in My Boy Jack in the UK. It might not be a gay drama, but it has a powerful father-son relationship with duty and honor to one's parent versus reality. It's a human drama cast behind World War I and it shows a rather stark picture of Kipling's beliefs and his own human tragedy with how he encourages his own son to go to battle despite his wife's doubt.

Beyond the movie's plot, the historical Kipling has always fascinated me as a writer that I admire and detest at the same time. He's definitely a conservative in ideology, an intellectual who can analyze reality and even criticize traditionalism when it does not serve purpose, and an advocate for causes that he holds passion for. The last point is also his central flaw as a human being in reality and fiction; he is swept up in his passions and ideals, only realizing far too late that he allowed it to overcome his keen intellect. Without going into my political ideology or my "way" of thinking in these terms, I think the truth within Kipling's great passion is also something many leaders and followers of popular ideas should also remember. Being "Righteous" in acts does not mean it is correct action; reality should never be hidden by passion or else tragedy results.

I give this British tele-movie a 9 out of 10 and leave you the poem that inspired it:

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

 

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

 

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

 

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!