Spud

Having enjoyed the book and grown up around that time I was anxious to see how the movie turned out. Many nostalgic memories were aroused during the movie. I thought it was well made and true to the book - a good mix of humour and the serious business of growing up. The acting was good (Cleese was brilliant - exactly how I pictured the guv) and the scenery was great - I love the Natal Midlands.

The crazy eight could have been better developed. I wanted to see more of Mad Dog and Vern.

Sadly I don't think it is going to appeal to a wider audience outside South Africa. I imagine that most guys from the US just wont get it or appreciate it as they will not be familiar with the historical context of the time. I hope I am wrong because it is a good movie.

"Spud" is set in South Africa at the cusp of Apartheid's collapse. However, such worldly concerns pale in comparison to the traumas and triumphs of the main character as he endures his first year of boarding school.

Perhaps it's a British colonial thing, but the obligatory gang torments and slow uphill slog toward acceptance are probably all too familiar to Brits, Canadians and Aussies alike. And so are the quandaries the main character, has to face: should he try to avoid the school "loser" in a bid to win the approval of his peers, or do what he knows deep down is right? That main character, brought brilliantly to life by boy wonder Troye Sivan, manages to pull the viewer in with a powerful, unaffected, guileless charm. He's Everyman in miniature, and his pangs and joys resonate deeply. Sivan's immense talent shows a surprising depth and sensitivity for one so young - he completely convinces as John Milton, dubbed "Spud" by his rougher classmates.

Bouyed by the peerless master of comedy John Cleese, Spud soon rises to the level of a classic cinematic masterpiece. The rapport between the crotchety old lit teacher known as "The Guv" and his promising young protégé is bang on, eliciting the gamut of reactions from pathos to hilarity. Cleese is at his best when rudely pontificating, and he doesn't disappoint here.

As Spud's doomed pal Gekko, Jamie Royal also provides a superb performance, and Genna Blair is perfect in her role as the nascent sunbeam of Milton's first love. You'll also find yourself and every single one of your old schoolmates in the main characters and supporting cast.

The lush settings are beautifully captured by cinematographer Lance Gewer, Ed Jordan's score is just the right degrees of uplifting and poignant, and Sivan's voice is aptly pure, expressive, and gently powerful.

The movie's based on the best-selling novel "Spud", which I've not yet had the pleasure of reading. Its tone is very much akin to John Irving's best, though, for my money, this is easily successor to Stephen King's classic "Stand By Me". Yes, it's that good.

Watch it. You love it, and you won't forget it. 10 out of 10, with room to spare.

OK, I haven't seen the movie yet - heck, I'm only about 2/3 of the way through the book - but I just want to let the SA reviewers know that if the book is any indication, stop worrying about whether international viewers/readers will get it.

All the descriptors and comparisons - coming-of-age, Catch-22, Lord of the Flies - are inadequate. Spud transcends any comparison to become its own unique moment in world history and personal history. It's not only young John Milton's maturing to manhood, but the entire nation's maturing out of apartheid that we see played out here in subtle, powerful parallel.

It's a magnificent, universal story that rings with truth, and I am so very happy my friend Sue, in Cape Town, recommended it.

I enjoyed 'Spud' today. I wasn't expecting much, which always helps. It was filmed in my old school, Michaelhouse, and it shows it very well for the beautiful place that it is - in a lovely setting.

Mostly the action is quite accurate too, for live in that particular boarding school, as I remember it. It hasn't changed all that much, either, over the past 35 odd years. The old Chemistry Lecture theatre is now the English classroom in the film, which seems slightly odd. The theatre was being built when I was there - a boy called Cook, fell through the skylight onto the floor below, leaving his teethmarks in the floor. He fell in front of the painting of the three witches in Macbeth - which I didn't see in the film, sensible.

The acting is good, and the South African accents authentic without being too grating. John Cleese acts very well - an not his usual comic style at all.

I'm not sure how you'll find the film if you didn't go to school there - probably better because you'll not be thinking of what all the different places meant to you, over the years!

I don't know whether I can give an impartial review of this movie, but I'd like to try. You see, I was at the same school, but about 15 years before John van der Ruit. And I couldn't finish the book. It brought back too many unhappy memories. But I managed to stay the course for the movie ! Spud chronicles the first year for John (Spud) Milton at Michaelhouse, an elite boys-only boarding school in the KwaZulu-Natal countryside. It was filmed at the school itself, although for some reason the name was never mentioned, and the uniform, war-cry etc were all changed.

Spud is funny, touching, poignant, and the scenery is pretty too. I'm referring to the countryside around, but the young ladies in the cast contribute here as well. All actors are good/adequate in their roles, and John Cleese makes a creditable transition as an actor from clown to wise old man. Troye Sivan is very good as the bemused and put-upon Spud.

My problem with the book, and with the movie to a certain extent as well, is no fault of John van der Ruit or the movie makers themselves. It's about the people that you have to live with in such a situation.

I spent 5 years at Michaelhouse, and 2 years in National Service, and what made both times a lot less happy than they needed to be, were the people who went out of their way to make other people's lives unpleasant. In Spud it's Rambo, and to a lesser extent, one or two others in the Crazy Eight. Rambo especially, cannot just get on with his life and let others get on with theirs, he has to drag everyone along on his idiotic escapades. And then when they go awry, everyone has to pay. A thoroughly unpleasant person, but one who brought back memories of many such people in school and the army.

It's ironic that one of the books that the Guv offers to Spud, "Catch 22", falls into the same category for me. I've tried to read it twice ! But I find the character of Yossarian to be very similar to Rambo, and I can't get past a certain point. Maybe my reading of it is too coloured by my life in these 2 institutions.

I hope there are sequels and that we can follow Spud throughout his scholastic career. My life at Michaelhouse improved over the years as I learned to ignore the idiots and pursue my own interests. Let's hope we can trace Spud's rise similarly.

And I hope at the end of the final chapter, the camera lingers on the charge over the doorway into the Memorial Hall - a charge that I passed on to my own son at his coming of age - QUIT YOU LIKE MEN !