Disco Pigs

When I saw this movie for the first time, I liked it a lot, but was still on the fence of "greatness". Lots of good things happened but I wasn't sure if it added up to a full meal of a film.

HOW WRONG I WAS.

I still had questions and popped it back in the next day and I can honestly say that this is the most romantic and touching film I have seen. Ever.

Yes its horrible, ugly, violent, brutal and painful to watch at many points but here is why it hit me like wrecking ball.

The story sets the two leads as friends of the highest caliber, being so close that a sort of hazy psychic bond has formed (although I like to think they don't really seem to notice/care, it just is). They in actuality are two halves of the same person, Pig being the voice, strength, and ego of the person. Runt is the other half consisting of the thought, rational and id. When they become separated, the calmer thinker deals better with others than the brash speaker. I feel that these points are clearly brought forth in the liquor store scenes where Runt literally calls him off the poor clerk, yet until Pig went too far, she was smiling at and enjoying the brutal scene. When something this unifying clashes with puberty, sexuality, society, coming-of-age, and separation they act out only as a person can. Neither of them are acting crazy or differently. This is all they know.

Other comments are very wrong when they say that Runt has feelings for the bartender or her roommate. Her feelings of love and devotion to Pig are always there, NEVER wavering for a moment. But shes learned to cope with the world should it become an issue to them, where as Pig has not.

Were I to be in the same relationship with someone that was that deep, that intense, I know that I would not hesitate to do anything Pig did. I dont believe in violence in any way shape or form either, I just know that what they have isn't temporary of fleeting. Hes not fighting to hurt people, he is literally fighting for his life. This depth of this notion of love is shockingly brilliant and really impressed me.

The end is the only sort of ending that could happen. Their love has become something so passionate and uncontrollable that it cant work in our world. No one would understand.

There's a large psychiatric literature on the "twinning effect," which is often a beautiful thing, but in its pathologic manifestation shows up as what's called "symbiotic psychosis." In plain language, although not biological twins, the two main characters here grew up so closely intertwined that their private world disallowed the intrusion of mundane reality. "Private language" is often a characteristic of this clinical syndrome, and in the movie the heavy Cork dialect accentuated (at least for non-Irish) the barrier between the characters and the viewer. Does anyone remember Melanie's song, "We were so close, there was no room/ We bled inside each other's wounds"? Quite apropos. Also, I felt reflections of "David & Lisa," but updated and sort of run in reverse. As with much Irish literature, one has to be prepared for a view of humanity that never crawls out from under Original Sin, but nevertheless this is a serious work, very much worth watching, and deserved a better title.

Two 16-year-olds share a birthday, a love, a language of their own and a uniquely violent world view. Disco Pigs is an electric, disturbing and violent sprint through the unique world of Pig and Runt, two 17 year old kids who were born with a special, almost psychic affinity for one another.

It's a gentle and tender story about a pure, innocent love between two inseparable people who 'want for something different' out of life, lashing out at 'the sameness of it all'. When this invisible thread between Pig and Runt is stretched to breaking point, the inseparable are about to separate and which one will survive depends on which one can break free.

I'll stick my neck out here and say that Disco Pigs has a real Clockwork Orange feel about it - its use of a lyrical communication between our two leads - a combination of baby talk and Shakespeare monologue gave me that strong impression. The lead roles also exist in their own world, oblivious and unbound by the rules that govern us all.

Pig and Runt are two kids that really don't want to grow up, but despite their enforced isolation from common reality the pressures bear upon them to change. Pig wants the relationship to move to the 'next level', but innocent Runt either doesn't understand or doesn't want that right now. She seems more interested in experiencing other boys - finding a local bartender particularly intriguing. He is frustrated that their relationship, while deep, is not deeper, and she is perhaps seeing the blinkers removed from her eyes a bit, allowing the outside world a peek in.

I've made mention of the language that is used throughout the film used by Pig and Runt; the dialogue between the two is at times heart breakingly beautiful; witness Pig's love expressed in words as he talks to himself about the beautiful passion they would both share when they would make love for the first time. It nearly made this hardened critic cry.

Disco Pigs is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is unconventional, yes, but that is the stuff of greatness. The incredible soundtrack complements the visuals perfectly and is nearly a character in its own right. My only gripe is `REMOVE THE SUBTITLES!'

If this film gets a local Australian distribution, see it. It's that simple. 10 out of 10.

A film that creates a fine line between sweet and scary, 'Disco Pigs' takes you on a strange journey into a private little fairy tale world of two people who've never been separated who create chaos for everyone around them where ever they go until they're separated by their parents and school. However when reunited they find themselves drifting apart as one's behavior moves from the playfully anti-social to the dangerously psychotic.

Great performances by some of Irelands great new talents.

This films an interesting watch, as it seems to create a new genre: Romantic Thriller.

7.5/10

Pig (Cillian Murphy) loves Runt (Elaine Cassidy) and Runt loves Pig. This has been true since their shared birth date, and their love excludes all the rest of creation. This idyllic love is immortal, eternal... at least for a while.

Pig and Runt are childlike teens approaching adulthood, at least physically. Mentally, they are what they have always been, two children lost in each other. Then, one day, Pig sees Runt in a new and different way. Suddenly, she's no longer the girl he's grown up with. She's a beautiful, desirable woman. From here, the relationship begins to change.

Pig is ill-equipped to deal with the emotions that overwhelm him. The crazy innocence of youth is being replaced by something else. Something dangerous, even deadly.

DISCO PIGS is a tragic, obsessive love story, similar in vein to HEAVENLY CREATURES. Both films concern an all-consuming love that blots out all else. Both are among the few "love stories" I can bear watching. Both are astonishing...