Ratcatcher (1999) on Netflix
Glasgow, summer 1973, and the dustmen are on strike. Twelve-year-old James Gillespie play-fights with his neighbor Ryan at the canal, and Ryan drowns. James runs home to his family's flat.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.5/1013,533 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes87%
Trailer
Plot summary
James Gillespie is twelve and lives on a Glasgow council estate in the summer of 1973, with his ma, his da and his sisters. The dustmen are on strike and refuse piles up between the flats. At the canal, a play fight with Ryan Quinn ends with Ryan drowned in the water. James runs home, and the Quinns, who live nearby, are rehoused before long. Ryan's mother hands James the sandals she had bought her son, and he scratches them with a piece of broken glass. James runs with the older lads on the estate and keeps company with his friend Kenny and with Margaret Anne, an older, myopic girl the local gang bullies. The family hopes to move to a new council estate.
Cast
- William Eadieas James
- Michelle Stewartas Ellen
- Lynne Ramsay Jr.as Anne Marie (as Lynne Ramsay Jnr.)
- Leanne Mullenas Margaret Anne
- John Milleras Kenny
- Jackie Quinnas Mrs. Quinn
- James Ramsayas Mr. Quinn
- Anne McLeanas Mrs. Fowler
- Craig Bonaras Matt Monroe
- Andrew McKennaas Billy
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ratcatcher (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ratcatcher was only the second feature film ever directed by a Scottish woman, after Margaret Tait's Blue Black Permanent in 1992.
- Ramsay deliberately kept the children in the dark about where the story was going, believing that too much detail would distract them and cost her their spontaneity.
- Scottish tabloids accused the film of showing underage sex in the bath scene between James and Margaret Anne. Ramsay defended it as two kids having a laugh, and called it the toughest scene she had ever shot.
