Essay:Movie Review of GUTER JUNGE

by Gatekeeper

Guter Junge: Review

Sven is a good boy. While still in his teens, he looses his mother in an auto accident and moves in with his father, a man he hardly knows. An excellent student, Sven has a promising future.

But he has a secret: Sven likes young boys.

Sebastian Urzendowsky plays Sven. The movie has a release date of 2008, and it is a made-for-TV movie. So, I am guessing Sebastian was about 22 when he made the movie, though he passes for a boy in his late teens. Sandro Lohmann was probably about 17 when he played the 12-year-old Patrick. He passes quite nicely for a younger boy, and he is gorgeous.

Sven loves Patrick, and it is clear that the feeling is mutual. Sadly, parents, the law, and society mess up their lives. Patrick’s mother learns something of the relationship and gets hysterical. Sven’s father, Achim, is angry and bitter. He verbally and physically abuses his son, at one point punching Sven in the face. The boys’ lives are torn apart.

A review of the film, found on IMDB, says, “Sven himself is shattered and regrets his actions.” I agree that Sven is shattered; he has lost the one boy he truly loves and who loves him in return. Sven does not, in my opinion, feel regret. Throughout the film, Sven tries desperately to get his father to understand his Love, to accept that he does love Patrick.

In desperation, he tries to do what his father wants, but it is an overpowering grief that leads Sven to attempt suicide, then later to beg his father to lock him in his room. He does not regret his Love. He is only trying to find a way to live in an insane world.

Achim, in contrast, is a man who, though legally able to have sexual relations with people in the age group he is naturally attracted to, and who can find adult sexual partners, is also a man who does not love. He destroyed his marriage to Sven’s mother. He cannot make a commitment to the woman he is currently with, though he has sex with her regularly. He abuses his son. With his son in great pain, Achim goes out and receives fellatio from an adult female prostitute. He is the antithesis of Sven, an empty man who cannot love, while his son loves deeply and passionately in a way that is condemned by a world full of hate.

The world, it seems, is not ready for this great Love. And so, naturally it seems, the movie does not end well. We cannot expect more than this…now. But I hope we see better in the future. I know there are people out here in this bitter and cruel world who are trying to make a positive difference for intergenerational love. Maybe someday--before I leave this mortal sphere, I trust--we may see a more positive, enlightened film portraying our great Love.

I so very much look forward to that day.