Based on a True Story Book
On Sunday, I decided to watch the movie Nickel Boys on the independent channel because it was nominated for an Oscar. It is an interesting movie, but sad and disturbing. The story takes place in 1960s Florida, and it is told in the point of views of two African-American teenage boys. Such point of view perspective enabled the viewers get an up-close experience to the boys’ experiences during that time. Elwood Curtis is a studious teenager who wants to go to college and do something positive in his life. He feels optimistic because he always tries to do the right thing, even though he cannot afford to go to college. He is given a brochure about a free semester at a technical school.
He decides to hitchhike there, and an African-American man driving a stolen car picks him up. Soon after, a policeman stops them, arrests the man, and sends Elwood to Nickel Academy Reform School. His life there is turned upside down. He bonds with one African-American teenager, Jack Turner, and they often discuss the school together. Jack tells him about many murdered and abused boys at the school. Elwood witnesses physical and emotional abuse, as well as he was abused by the guards and employees. Black and white students are segregated in this Reform School, and blacks are abused and tortured much worse than the white teenage boys.
They attend classes, encouraging them to excel in their studies. They also are given certain jobs. Some of the African-American teenage boys are trained for boxing, where they have to fight a white teenager, and the audience bids on the boys, similar to dog-fighting and cockfighting. It appears to be similar to a job because the winner can make a lot of money, based on the bids. Elwood was beaten a couple of times by the guards, as well as he was placed inside a very hot room. I also noticed a baby alligator roaming around the school, probably used to torture the boys.
Elwood’s grandmother visits the school to see him, but they refuse to let her see him, telling her that Elwood is sick. She asks around if any of the boys know her grandson until she meets Jack Turner. She gives him a package to give to Elwood. The POV was sometimes confusing because I wasn’t sure if it was Elwood or Jack at certain scenes. The scenes also change back and forth from the 1960s and 2010, in which it is obvious that one of the boys survive but something happens to the other boy. But I was sometimes confused who was who in that particular scene.
Jack Turner overhears others talking about killing Elwood next. Many boys have mysteriously disappeared at this reform school. He tells Elwood about a place where they hang the boys as well as a gravesite where many are buried. Jack persuades Elwood to runaway with him in order to save his life. They steal two bicycles and ride off together as fast as they can, although Jack is faster than Elwood. A white truck from Nickel Academy catches up with them, and the boys eventually fall off their bicycles and start running for their life. The driver is a white teenager at the school. He gets out of his truck and starts shooting at them. It isn’t clear which boy was shot by the white teenager, but one of the boys arrives at the grandmother’s house. When she opens the door, she immediately starts crying.
The scenes from 2010 is of a black man with dreads. It isn’t clear who he is, although he calls himself Elwood and he is often seen working on his computer, exposing what happened at the reform school. He has a good job, lives in a nice apartment, and he is now married. Jack Turner takes up Elwood Curtis’ identity, grows his hair to long dreads, and works on exposing the reform school and all the murdered young black men. He tells his wife his real name, before going to Tallahassee to give a testimony about his murdered friend, Elwood Curtis. The novel, Nickel Boys, is based on an actual reform school, Dozier School for Boys in Florida, which closed in 2011 because of beatings, torture, rapes, and murder by the guards and employees. Over 55 young men were buried at the reform school property as well as at gravesites.
Directed by RaMell Ross, written by RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, and produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine, and Joslyn Barnes, this 2024 movie starred Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Jimmie Fails, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Brad Pitt is one of the Executive Producers for this film, which is interesting because he starred in a similar movie, Sleepers, about four young boys who were sexually and physically abused at a juvenile detentional school in New York. Sleepers was also based on a true-story book.
This movie reminded me of the 1996 movie, Sleepers, where four young boys in NYC played a prank on a hot dog vendor that accidentally destroyed two men’s life. The boys experienced similar abuse by the guards, which changed their life forever. Brad Pitt starred in this film, playing the older version of one of the four boys. Sleepers was also based on a book, in which one of the four boys later wrote to explain the abuses that him and his friends had endured at the detention school. This movie also takes place during the sixties, but later ends in the eighties when the four young boys grow up and fight back.
