By Arthur Flynn
With mediocre reviews for his films High Spirits, We’re No Angels and The Miracle Neil Jordan turned to a low budget film based on his original screenplay for his next project.
With his other unsuccessful films Jordan found great difficulty in raising the budget for The Crying Game, originally titled The Soldier’s Wife. His friend Stanley Kubrick suggested that he should change the title. He believed that films with either religious or mythical titles usually deterred audiences and were often financial failures.
The film, released in 1992, was literally a one man show with Jordan serving as producer, director and screenwriter for The Crying Game. The title was based on a 1960 hit British pop group. The film was shot on a shoestring budget of £2.3 million and came very close to running out of finance.
The film was turned down by all the major studios and financiers but Jordan and producer Steve Woolley were determined to make it and fought against all the odds. Many thought that the film’s mix of sex and terrorism would prove unpalatable with audiences.
He eventually raised the finance for the film. The film was filmed on location with a short stint on location in Ireland with a carnival sequence in Bettystown, County Meath with many locals as extras. The bulk of the film was shot on location in England.
