''The War Boys'' is a 2009 American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Ronald Daniels and starring

Peter Gallagher Peter Killian Gallagher (born August 19, 1955) is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series '' The O.C.'' from 2003 to 2007, recu ...

Victor Rasuk Victor Rasuk (born January 15, 1984) is an American actor. Early life Rasuk was born in New York City, to Dominican parents. His mother worked as a seamstress, and his father at an auto shop. He has one brother, actor Silvestre Rasuk, with whom ...

, Brian J. Smith and Benjamin Walker. Its screenplay was written by

Naomi Wallace Naomi Wallace (born 1960) is an American playwright, screenwriter and poet from Kentucky. She is widely known for her plays, and has received several distinguished awards for her work. Biography Naomi Wallace was born in Prospect, Kentucky, to ...

and Bruce McLeod, based on the play of the same name by Naomi Wallace.

Plot

David Welch has been suspended from college. He and two friends, Greg and George, spend their time along the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

border, alerting the border patrol to illegal border crossings and calling themselves "The War Boys." David is angry at his father, who won't agree to him leaving school to work in the family trucking business. David devises a plan to hijack one of his father's trucks, expecting it to be carrying a shipment of black market TV's from Mexico. The boys succeed in stealing the truck and they temporarily park the locked truck in a desolate area while they look for a purchaser for the stolen goods. David's father vows revenge against whoever stole from him. David is surprised that his father is so upset instead of just seeing the stolen truck as a business loss. While the truck sits abandoned, Greg pursues Marta, a local Mexican woman, and David and George explore their attraction for one another. David's father discovers his son's relationship with George and confronts him, expressing disapproval of George's family and economic status. The operation goes perfectly until some unidentified men vaguely threaten Marta. She had occasionally helped immigrants to get fake documents, and the traffickers interrogate her on the whereabouts of the cargo. This makes it clear to the trio that the truck must contain something more valuable than just televisions, possibly drugs. Determined to get some profit anyway, they choose to return to the wasteland, take what they can from the truck, and then report its location to the traffickers via an anonymous call. When they unlock the truck's storage, they discover its cargo included Mexican immigrants being smuggled into the US—and who are now dead after being locked in the truck for so long. Their rage and fear leads the situation to slip completely out of their control as David's father arrives with the police. David confronts his father at gunpoint and is shot by the police. George screams for help as David dies in his arms.

Cast

as Greg * Brian J. Smith as George * Benjamin Walker as David Welch *

as Slater Welch * Micaela Nevárez as Marta * Teresa Yenque as Maria * Cheyenne Serano as Cat * Ross Kelly as Agent Burrows

Production

The film was shot over a twenty-three-day span in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to Daniels, the shoot was plagued by

sandstorms A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transporte ...

and prop mishaps.

Release and reception

The film premiered at the Birmingham Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on May 30, 2009. It went on to be screened at the

Woods Hole Film Festival The Woods Hole Film Festival was founded in 1991 by Judith Laster and Kate Davis. Since its foundation, the festival has grown from a one-day invitational event to an eight-day event with films submitted from around the world. The Festival is hel ...

, held in

Woods Hole Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 at ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

; the

San Antonio Film Festival The SAFILM – San Antonio Film Festival was founded in 1994 by Adam Rocha as a video festival, which sported a logo of a naughty-looking angel. It was later renamed the San Antonio Underground Film Festival and then finally the SAFILM – San An ...

, held in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

; and the SoCal Independent Film Festival, held in

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, where it won the Best Feature Film Award.

References

External links