Bullet Boy

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Bullet Boy
Directed by	Saul Dibb
Written by	Saul Dibb Catherine Johnson
Starring	Ashley Walters Luke Fraser
Release date(s)	2004
Running time	89 min.
Country	U.K.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Bullet Boy is a 2004 film directed by Saul Dibb, written by Saul Dibb and Catherine Johnson, and stars Ashley Walters. The film's original music was composed and performed by Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, who released it as an album. The film is about a family in London, the eldest son's involvement in gun crime, and the effects of this on his younger brother.

1 Plot
2 Awards and nominations
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Bullet Boy is about a man recently off parole attempting to straighten out his life, with negative results.

While on his way home from prison with his friend Wisdom, a wingmirror is hit off of another gangster's car by Wisdom who refuses to pay for it. Ricky, played by Ashley Walters, hides a gun in his room which his little brother Curtis finds.

Wisdom attempts to hunt down the gangmember for spreading word that he doesnt want to fight, and to get revenge shoots his dog that he threatened Wisdom with earlier. As a result, the gang member destroys Wisdom's car with a baseball bat and drives past his home shouting that he is "dead". Wisdom tries to kill the gang member before he gets killed by him himself, but fails and is seen by the gang member.

As the two flee from here, Curtis accidentally shoots his friend Rio when Rio suggests they take the gun out and play with it, and their mother eventually asks Ricky to leave the home.

Just before heading home, he goes to Wisdom's house to get the money Wisdom told him to take before he left, only to find Wisdom dead, presumeably at the hands of his rival, he leaves after sitting there for a long time thinking. As he packs his bags, he asks Curtis to go to the takeaway and get a kebab, and when Curtis returns, his brother has already left. As Ricky is waiting at the train station, two gangsters approach him.

As Ricky is about to run away, the gangmember comes out and shoots him six times in the chest. His body is later identified, and the film ends with Curtis reclaiming the gun from where he hid it and throwing it in to the river.

[edit] Awards and nominations

In 2004 the film was nominated for the Douglas Hickox Award and won the award for the Most Promising Newcomer (Ashley Walters) at the British Independent Film Awards. In the same year, it was nominated for the Golden Hitchcock at the Dinard British Film Festival. In 2005 it won the Award of the German Unions Association at the Emden International Film Festival and in 2006 it won the award for Most Promising Newcomer (Ashley Walters) of the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

[edit] Trivia

The film was shot largely within one square mile on the edge of Hackney.
Local residents were employed as extras and local homes were used as locations.
The title of the film is inspired by a headline in the Hackney Gazette.
Half of the main casts were not professional actors, they were recruited from the streets of London.