Eighteen by Richard Bell

If like us you haven't see before, it is about the time to get the DVD. It is an amazing story: Pip is a street kid who's meeting life head-on in the big city. On his eighteenth birthday he receives his grandfather's Second World War memoirs on audio cassette, a gift that awakens the ghost of the long lost world. His grandfather relates the story of the day he turned eighteen, fleeing German forces through the woods of France with a dying comrade hanging on for life.

In Pip's own and contemporary way, he begins to live the parallel life of his grandfather, both lost in their environments and generations. Along Pip's path he stumbles into an unlikely alliance with Clark, a gay street hustler on the make, and Jenny, an aspiring social worker who tempts Pip with feelings of love and domesticity. He also forges a small but important relationship with a local priest, in whom he confides his deepest secret: the death of his brother and the heinous act his father committed against him before his passing.

The movie is directed by young and handsome Richard Bell, and we are really looking forward to see his next project come to life.

Eighteen - Director’s Comment

I was inspired to write Eighteen after my grandfather left me an audiocassette with his World War II memoirs on it. I journeyed down the cassette’s length of magnetic tape and learned of young men who did extraordinary things in dangerous times. After that, I started going to Remembrance Day ceremonies more often; I began to appreciate what my granddad, and countless young men like him, did for the world I now live in.

It was also around the same time I became a bit disheartened with that world, however. I began to notice how apathetic our culture and today’s youth had become. I questioned whether any of us deserved to live in this world that our granddads got blown apart for.

The idea for a story about a young person who inherits a war account and how it changes him occurred to me. For me, the perfect incarnation of the apathy I saw on a day-to-day basis was a street kid. And for the street kid to connect with his grandfather, he would need to be the very same age. The two main characters were born.

I set out to write a story and create a world for these characters. I wanted to throw open a window onto a very different universe for most audiences, that would take people below the surface of “street people,” diving deeper to discover World War II in a thread that would echo over time. I also wanted to tell a story that would show gays and straights being friends in a meaningful and intimate way, a rarity in filmdom.

Eighteen is about boys standing on the edge of manhood, teetering back and forth on their heels, wondering how cold the water will be if they jump in. It is a story about masculinity, in its many and varied forms: young and old, straight and gay. The characters are young men on the brink: a street kid, a rogue soldier, a male hooker, and a gay teen looking for love in a straight world.

Eighteen simultaneously introduces you to the youth who were thrown into the chaos of battle, frightened, hysterical, and wounded, and then delivers you today’s generation – a generation lost in the maelstrom of popular culture, drugs, HIV and airplanes that crash into office buildings. It’s about war, and finding peace and oneself, in that war.

Richard Bell

Comments

[brad]

"Eighteen" was an okay story. It could have been better. The lead character, the runaway Pip was somewhat unbelievable as an 18 year old. But I enjoyed the story more about Clark and the gas station attendant which grows endearing and sweet as the movie progresses. The flashbacks to World War II Europe were interesting, but it kind of bogged the film down.

However, I saw a really great film this weekend which was certainly wonderful: Shelter. Now that is a MUST-SEE!!