''This Boy's Life'' is a 1993 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

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-g ...

based on the

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

of the same name by author

Tobias Wolff Tobias is the transliteration of the Greek which is a translation of the Hebrew biblical name he, טוֹבִיה, Toviyah, JahGod is good, label=none. With the biblical Book of Tobias being present in the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha of the Bible, To ...

. It was directed by

Michael Caton-Jones Michael Caton-Jones (born Michael Jones; 15 October 1957) is a Scottish Film director, director and Film producer, producer of film and television. His credits include the World War II film ''Memphis Belle (film), Memphis Belle'' (1990), the r ...

and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Tobias "Toby" Wolff,

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

as Toby's stepfather Dwight Hansen, and

Ellen Barkin Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an American actress and a producer. Her breakthrough role was in the 1982 film '' Diner'', and in the following years, she had starring roles in films such as ''Tender Mercies'' (1983), ''Eddie and the ...

as Toby's mother, Caroline. The movie marked the first time Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro ever collaborated. The film also features

Chris Cooper Christopher Walton Cooper (born July 9, 1951) is an American actor. He has appeared in several major Hollywood films, including '' American Beauty'' (1999), ''October Sky'' (1999), '' The Bourne Identity'' (2002), ''Seabiscuit'' (2003), '' Cap ...

Carla Gugino Carla Gugino (; born August 29, 1971) is an American actress. After appearing in ''Troop Beverly Hills'' (1989) and ''This Boy's Life'' (1993), she received recognition for her starring roles as Ingrid Cortez in the ''Spy Kids'' trilogy (2001� ...

Eliza Dushku Eliza Patricia Dushku (; born December 30, 1980) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Faith in the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1998–2003) and its spin-off series ''Angel'' (2000–2003). She als ...

and Tobey Maguire's first credited appearance in a feature-length movie. It was the first collaboration on-screen between Maguire and DiCaprio, who both later worked in ''

Don's Plum ''Don's Plum'' is a 2001 black-and-white independent lengthened short film directed by R. D. Robb, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Kevin Connolly. It was filmed in 1995–1996, and written by Robb with Bethany Ashton, Tawd Beckman ...

'' and ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...

''., and also the first collaboration on-screen between DiCaprio and De Niro, who both later worked in '' Marvin's Room'', short film '' The Audition'', and the upcoming film ''

Killers of the Flower Moon ''Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI'' is the third non-fiction book by the American journalist David Grann. The book was released on April 18, 2017 by Doubleday. ''Time'' magazine listed ''Killers of the Flo ...

''.

Plot

In the 1950s, nomadic and flaky Caroline Wolff wants to settle down and find a decent man to provide a better home for herself and her son, Tobias "Toby" Wolff. She moves to

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

and meets Dwight Hansen, a man who seemingly meets her goals. However, Dwight's true personality is soon revealed as being emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive to Toby while Caroline is away for a few weeks. The marriage proceeds, and Caroline and Toby move into Dwight's home in

Concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

, a small town near the north Cascades Mountains. Dwight's domineering personality is soon apparent, but Caroline remains with him, enduring several years of a dysfunctional relationship. During this time, Toby befriends a classmate named Arthur Gayle, a misfit at school and ambiguously

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. Toby wants to leave Concrete and live with his older brother, Gregory, (who lives on the East Coast with their father). Arthur wants to leave because he knows he will never fit in and that there is more to life than living in Concrete. Toby plans to apply for scholarships at East Coast prep schools by submitting falsified school records. Meanwhile, Arthur and Toby's friendship becomes strained when Arthur accuses Toby of behaving more like Dwight. Arthur helps Toby to falsify his grade records. After numerous rejections, Toby is accepted by

The Hill School The Hill School (commonly known as The Hill) is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a campus in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization (TSAO). ...

Pottstown, Pennsylvania Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the incorporation as a borough in 1815. In 1888 ...

near

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

with a full scholarship. Later, Caroline defends Toby from Dwight during a physically violent argument; they both leave Dwight and the town of Concrete. :''Note: The real Dwight died in 1992. Caroline (Rosemary Wolff) remarried and moved to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Arthur Gayle left Concrete and became a successful businessman in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Dwight's children all married and lived in Seattle. Toby and his brother Geoffrey both became noted writers.''

Cast

* Leonardo DiCaprio as Tobias "Toby" Wolff/“Jack” *

as Dwight Hansen *

as Caroline Wolff Hansen *

Jonah Blechman Jonah Ethan Blechman (born February 8, 1975) is an American actor. He has appeared in ''This Boy's Life'' with Leonardo DiCaprio and stars in ''Another Gay Movie'' alongside Jonathan Chase and Michael Carbonaro and the sequel '' Another Gay Seq ...

as Arthur Gayle *

as Pearl Hansen *

as Roy *

as Norma Hansen * Zack Ansley as Skipper Hansen *

Tracey Ellis Tracey Ellis is a Canadian actress, known for ''The Last of the Mohicans'' (1992), ''This Boy's Life'' (1993) and ''The Age of Innocence'' (1993). Filmography Film Television External links * Living people Canadian television actr ...

as Kathy *

Kathy Kinney Kathy Kinney (born November 3, 1954, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin) is an American actress, voice actress, and comedian. She gained considerable popularity in the late 1990s for playing Mimi Bobeck, the outrageously made-up, flamboyantly vulgar, a ...

as Marian *

Tobey Maguire Tobias Vincent Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for playing Peter Parker (Sam Raimi film series), the title character from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in film#Sam Raimi films, ''Spider-Man'' tril ...

as Chuck Bolger *

Michael Bacall Michael Bacall (born Michael Stephen Buccellato;: "Le petit Michael Bucellato qui a choisi le pseudo de Michael Bacall..." April 19, 1973) is an American screenwriter and actor, known for having co-written the films ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ...

as Terry Taylor *

Gerrit Graham Gerrit Graham (born November 27, 1949) is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a scriptwriter and songwriter. He is best known for his appearances in multiple films by Brian De Palma as well as appearances in two ''Star Trek'' ...

as Mr. Howard *

Sean Murray Sean Murray may refer to: * Sean Murray (field hockey) (born 1997), Lisnagarvey player and senior Ireland international * Sean Murray (footballer, born 1993), Dundalk FC player and Irish youth international * Sean Murray (Gaelic footballer), Dubli ...

as Jimmy Voorhees *

Lee Wilkof Lee Wilkof (born June 25, 1951) is an American actor and veteran of the Broadway stage. He originated the roles of Samuel Byck in ''Assassins'' and Seymour in '' Little Shop of Horrors, ''later earning a Tony Award nomination for the 2000 reviva ...

as Principal Skippy *

Bill Dow Bill Dow is an actor, director and writer in theatre, film, and television. He is best known for playing Bill Lee in the ''Stargate'' franchise. Career He also had a recurring roles as Russ Hathaway in the Canadian drama series ''Da Vinci's I ...

as Vice Principal *

Jen Taylor Jennifer Taylor is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Cortana in ''Halo'' games and the intelligent personal assistant. Career Jen Taylor taught herself how to do voice work by recording the radio and imitating what she ...

as Deputy O'Riley (uncredited) *

Deanna Milligan Deanna Milligan (born January 1, 1972, Vancouver, Canada) is a Canadian actress. She has appeared in numerous Canadian and American films and television shows. Career Milligan had a major role playing Dave Thomas' daughter in ''The Beachcomber ...

and Morgan Brayton as Silver Sisters

Production

Largely filmed in the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, the town of

Concrete, Washington Concrete is a town in north-central Skagit County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon- Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, and had a population of 705 at the 2010 census. Early history The town of Concret ...

(where Tobias Wolff's teen years were spent with his mother and stepfather, Dwight), was transformed to its 1950s appearance for a realistic feel. Many of the town's citizens were used as extras, and all external scenes in Concrete (and some internal scenes, as well) were shot in and around the town, including the former elementary school buildings and the still-active Concrete High School building. Parts of the film were also shot in the

La Sal Mountains The La Sal Mountains or La Sal Range are a mountain range located in Grand and San Juan counties in the U.S. state of Utah, along the border with Colorado. The range rises above and southeast of Moab and north of the town of La Sal. This range ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Release

Box office

The film was released in

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on April 9, 1993, and earned $74,425 that weekend; upon its

wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical re ...

on April 23, the film opened at #10 at the box office and grossed $1,519,678. The film would end with a domestic gross of $4,104,962.

Critical reception

The film received mostly positive reviews; review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film a 76% 'Fresh' rating from 37 critics, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's consensus states: "A harrowing, moving drama about a young boy, his single mother, and his abusive stepfather, ''This Boy's Life'' benefits from its terrific cast, and features a breakout performance from a young Leonardo DiCaprio." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, where they give a 'normalized' score, the film has a 60/100.

Home media

''This Boy's Life'' was released on VHS September 1, 1993 and on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

May 13, 2003.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of ''This Boy's Life'' used many songs from the 1950s and early 1960s. The main titles (filmed in Professor Valley, Utah) feature

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

's version of "

Let's Get Away from It All "Let's Get Away from It All" is a popular song with music by Matt Dennis and lyrics by Tom Adair, published in 1941. The song is most commonly associated with Frank Sinatra (who had a hit with it as a member of The Pied Pipers while he was a part ...

" from his 1958 album '' Come Fly with Me''. Toby and his mother sing "

I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" is a song from the musical '' South Pacific'', sung by Nellie Forbush, the female lead, originally played by Mary Martin in the 1949 Broadway production. Her character, fed up with a man (Emile De Becque ...

" from the popular post-war musical '' South Pacific''. However, most of the music reflects Toby's fondness for

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

and

doo wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

, including songs by

Eddie Cochran Ray Edward Cochran (; October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. Cochran's songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", " C'mon Everybody" and " Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire ...

Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers The Teenagers are an American music group, most noted for being one of rock music's earliest successes, presented to international audiences by DJ Alan Freed. The group, which made its most popular recordings with young Frankie Lymon as lead s ...

, and

Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. ''Rolling Stone'' placed Wray at No. 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 ...

Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has consistently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. Burwell has also scored three of Todd Haynes's films, three of Spike Jonz ...

composed the film's pensive score, which featured New York guitarist

Frederic Hand Frederic Hand (born 1947) is a classical guitarist and composer. Career A native of Brooklyn, New York, Hand was attracted to the music of Bill Evans, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis in his teens. Most of his career has been spent in classical m ...

References

External links

* * * *
''This Boy's Life''
film trailer at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

{{Michael Caton-Jones 1993 films 1990s coming-of-age drama films 1990s biographical drama films American biographical drama films American coming-of-age drama films Biographical films about children Drama films based on actual events Films based on biographies Films about domestic violence Films about dysfunctional families Films directed by Michael Caton-Jones Films produced by Art Linson Films set in Seattle Films set in the 1950s Films set in 1957 Films set in 1959 Films shot in Washington (state) Films set in Washington (state) Films scored by Carter Burwell The Hill School Films about the Boy Scouts of America Films shot in Utah Warner Bros. films 1993 drama films Biographical films about writers Films about mother–son relationships 1990s English-language films 1990s American films