Saint Ralph - (Canada, 2004)


Figure 1.--Here is Ralph and his friend Chester in their Catholic school uniforms early in the film. The uniforms, especially the blazers, are based on English styles.

A HBC reader tells us about a charming recent Canadian film about a 14-year-old Catholic schoolboy from Hamilton, Ontario, entitled "Saint Ralph" (2004). The film was written and directed by Michael McGowan. The action is set in 1954. It was fimed in Ontario, Canada. Gordon Pinsent plays the strict headmaster, Father Fitzpatrick, while Campbell Scott plays the younger and more sympathetic priest who coaches Ralph in his running. Ralph himself is wonderfully played by a very talented child actor, Adam Butcher. "Saint Ralph" is the coming-of-age story of Ralph Walker, a devout but somewhat wayward and mischievous boy at a rather strict Catholic boarding school in Hamilton. Ralph's father has been killed in World War II, and the boy has grown up with only the memory of his Dad, cherishing his father's military uniform. His mother is very ill in a local hospital and falls into a coma from which, Ralph believes, only a miracle will awaken her. Ralph is constantly getting in trouble with the rigid disciplinarian headmaster, Father Fitzpatrick, who punishes Ralph (he has no particular interest in athletics) by making him join the school track team and work out with the boy runners.

A HBC reader tells us about a charming recent Canadian film about a 14-year-old Catholic schoolboy from Hamilton, Ontario, entitled "Saint Ralph" (2004).

Filmology

The film was written and directed by Michael McGowan.

Setting

The action is set in 1954. It was fimed in Ontario, Canada.

Cast

Gordon Pinsent plays the strict headmaster, Father Fitzpatrick, while Campbell Scott plays the younger and more sympathetic priest who coaches Ralph in his running. Ralph himself is wonderfully played by a very talented child actor, Adam Butcher, who is extraordinarily accomplished in providing the subtle range of comic and pathetic attitudes required of the role. His best friend, Chester, a red-haired, bespectacled boy who abets him in some of his pranks and announces the race (illegally) over the school PA system, is played by Michael Kanev. Ralph has a crush on a girl who wants to become a nun (played by Tamara Hope), so part of the action concerns the sexual awakening of the two teenagers in a comic but inoffensive manner. The forbidding headmaster is contrasted with a sympathetic nurse, who is able to nurture Ralph in certain ways. The nurse is played by Jennifer Tilly.


Figure 2.--Ralph getting dressed for his first date with the girl whom he thinks he loves, wearing a suit with suspenders and trying, with only partial success, to manage a bow tie..

Plot

"Saint Ralph" is the coming-of-age story of Ralph Walker, a devout but somewhat wayward and mischievous boy at a rather strict Catholic boarding school in Hamilton. Ralph's father has been killed in World War II, and the boy has grown up with only the memory of his Dad, cherishing his father's military uniform. His mother is very ill in a local hospital and falls into a coma from which, Ralph believes, only a miracle will awaken her. There are two important scenes which take place in the school refectory. There is an incident at the swimming pool and Ralph is in a lot of trouble over this. He is not liked because the pool had to closed and no one can swim there until it is cleaned. This incident turns the school against him. All the school jeered at Ralph and called him when he enteres the refectory. Ralph is constantly getting in trouble with the rigid disciplinarian headmaster, Father Fitzpatrick, who punishes Ralph (he has no particular interest in athletics) by making him join the school track team and work out with the boy runners. The track coach, Father George Hibbert, gets him interested in running and at one point makes a joke about how the boys on his team are hardly material for the Boston Marathon. He says it would be "a miracle" if anyone from the school won that race. But Ralph, with a kind of absurd idealism, decides to train for the Boston Marathon and enter the race in the hope that he can provide the miracle his mother needs. With a kind of literal-mindedness the fourteen-year-old Ralph connects the miracle of winning the race with the miracle of his mother's recovery from the coma. Most of the film concerns Ralph's determined campaign to get himself in shape for the Boston race with the support of Father Hibbert, his sympathetic coach. Training for the race becomes a metaphor in the film for Ralph's spiritual growth and transition into the realities of adulthood. As such it is both funny and moving by turns and provides a delightful melding of comedy and pathos without ever becoming either crude or sappy and sentimental. After the Boston Marathon Ralph again enteres the refectory and this time he is cheered and given much respect by all his peers. In a sense a miricle had happened in that he had gone from the pupil everyone disliked to a well respected and honoured pupil because of his determination to run in a race none but the best competed in. No-one expected him to win and thought he was foolish to try but achieved despite all the odds being him.

Costuming

The costuming of the film is properly nostalgic and true to the conservative traditions of Catholic boarding schools of the mid-1950s in Canada. The school uniform consists of a blue blazer with piping around the collar and lapels and the school coat of arms on the breast pocket. The boys wear white shirts and the school tie. They also wear grey flannel long trousers and black Oxford shoes. Some of the boys are seen in class wearing just a sleeveless sweater over the white shirt and tie and without the blazer. Apparently there is some slight freedom in this respect. We also see Ralph wearing shorts and a sweat shirt when he is sentenced to run with the track team as punishment for his infractions of the rules, and later, of course, we see him in the traditional singlet and shorts of a Boston Marathon runner. In winter Ralph wears sweat pants, a long-sleeved sweater, a muffler, and a stocking cap when he is being coached by Fr. Hibbert, who, by the way, always wears his cassock, even for athletic purposes (another conservative note in the costuming). One scene shows Ralph getting dressed up for a date with his girlfriend, and struggling to tie a yellow bow tie in the mirror. True to the period, his dress-up suit is worn with suspenders, which many boys wore during this period. This is Ralph trying to look very grown-up in order to impress the girl.







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Created: 12:10 AM 1/13/2006
Last updated: 6:33 AM 1/13/2006