Liam,
directed by Stephen Frears, is an English film that focuses
on how a precious seven-year-old boy views life as he looks
for role models in his long path from childhood to adulthood.
Based on Joseph Keown’s novel The Back Crack Boy,
the story is set in Liverpool as the Great Depression deepens
among the working class. Liam Sullivan (played by Anthony
Borrows) views the various authority figures in his life with
trust, though they clearly misbehave. His mother (played by
Claire Hackett) argues vehemently with her sister Aggie (played
by Julia Deakin), a neighbor, and his father (played by Ian
Hart) over matters that Liam does not fully understand, though
he is fascinated by the drama of the altercations. His older
brother Con (played by David Hart) also has words with his
father. Nevertheless, Liam is close to his sister Teresa (played
by Megan Burns), who is approximately ten years older. At
Catholic school, Mrs. Abernathy (played by Anne Reid) puts
the fear of God into all the schoolchildren, while Father
Ryan (played by Russell Dixon), the parish priest, delivers
homilies to members of his congregation, pointing out that
the flames of Hell await sinners. Abernathy and Ryan, because
they are so extreme in their need to find filth lingering
in the hearts of innocent children, actually provide the only
comedy relief in the film to twenty-first-century filmviewers
(who have only recently been told by a religious fundamentalist
that the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon were God’s punishment for the oversecularization
of America). At home Liam is quiet, shows proper respect,
but converses easily only with Teresa. Outside the home, Liam
stutters, fearful that the whole world will erupt into intense
anger, as that is what he sees at home when words fly. Although
Liam is unaware, the Great Depression is not an ideal time
in which to grow up, as the quarrels often involve money,
which is in short supply. His father is laid off by a Jewish
shipyard owner, spits on a representative from management,
and then is denied severance pay; on one occasion, he interrupts
Father Ryan’s sanctimonious irrelevancies by pointing
out economic injustices that the church is ignoring. Indeed,
protests among the unemployed break out and are suppressed
by police. Some out-of-work English organize a fascist rally,
articulating the view that Jewish employers have hired thousands
of Irish to take their jobs at lower wages, while some Irish
rough up Jewish merchants. Liam’s mother tries to hock
clothing at a Jewish proprietor’s pawnshop, which is
later burned. Teresa accepts the position of maid for the
Samuels family, who are Jewish, to bring money and food to
the family, but she is ordered by Father Ryan to quit when
she confesses that she was forced to aid in an extramarital
affair. On the day when Liam accompanies Teresa to the Samuels
residence to announce her resignation, his father bring a
Molotov cocktail to the house; inarticulate, Liam tries to
stop the violence, because his sister is inside, but his father
instead lobs the fiery missile, which hits Teresa, and she
is permanently disfigured. How Liam could endure all the pressures
of the time while maintaining a cherubic appearance is a testament
to the hope that comes with youth but fades with age due to
many adult Pied Pipers, whom we observe throughout Liam
trying to find scapegoats for social problems that are larger
than themselves. MH
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