The Bay Boy : Correcting the revisionists

Correcting the revisionists

I saw this film theatrically in 35mm in New York City in 1985 - it was a release from Orion Pictures, the company formed by ex-United Artists executives and known for releasing quite a few good films in their day, most famously Woody Allen's work. Their subsidiary Orion Classics also had a great track record of quality releases. I enjoyed "The Bay Boy" as a real film, not some VHS release (DVD and Netflix streaming were yet to be invented).

The fact is that "The Bay Boy" was a flop, not in line with what audiences wanted to see at the time. I was a film industry professional throughout the '80s (Motion Picture editor for Variety in NYC) and saw virtually all the studio releases during that period, and there were many little gems that fell through the cracks. But the reason for their failure to generate significant theatrical attendance and subsequent obscurity is not the knee-jerk reaction of "it's the film companies' fault".

The IMDb reviews here that keep harping about the deficiencies of Hollywood and the distribution executives (with misleading information like the notion that this film was only shown on Showtime once) are off-base. The public is at fault -voting with their wallets for junk, and eventually reducing the theatrical film experience (few of which are shown on 35mm or 70mm film any more, now that digital projection has taken over) to an infantile joke. Marvel comix (and DC) adaptations, 3-D gimmickry and fake IMAX are a result of an ignorant public and the horrible trend towards "Home Theater" and HDV replacing cinema.

Little films that strike a nerve (not necessarily good films: I liked neither "Juno" nor "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and especially not Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ") are pushed by the distributors and milked for every dollar that can be generated. But labor-of-love films like "The Bay Boy" often run counter, unfortunately, to public tastes. That is where the problem lies.
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