The Big Picture

• Robert De Niro's recommendation of Leonardo DiCaprio during the making of This Boy's Life was the beginning of their successful partnership with Martin Scorsese.
• This Boy's Life showcases DiCaprio's talent in portraying the conflicting emotions of adolescence and the desperate need for belonging.
• DiCaprio holds his own against Robert De Niro in the film, highlighting his skill as an actor and setting the stage for his future success in the industry.

One of the great actor/director partnerships in the last 25 years of American cinema has been between Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. Since 2002, they have made six feature films, including their most recent, Killers of The Flower Moon, but it's vital to point out that this team-up origin story begins on a phone call in the early nineties. Robert De Niro, Scorsese's muse before DiCaprio, had a phone conversation with Scorsese while he was working on the film, This Boy's Life. According to an article from Digital Spy, Scorsese stated in a Q&A that: "Robert De Niro told me, 'By the way, I'm working with this young kid. He's really good. You should work with him sometime. His name is DiCaprio... for him to recommend somebody, out of the blue, that way to me, during a phone call, was very, very special." The DiCaprio-Scorsese team-ups that would later go on and helm creations such as The Aviator, The Departed, and Wolf of Wall Street were sparked by De Niro's admiration of DiCaprio's performance in This Boy's Life.

What Is 'This Boy's Life' About?

This Boy's Life is a 1993 drama film directed by Michael Caton Jones. An adaptation of the memoir of the same name by Tobias Wolff, the film stars DiCaprio and De Niro, as well as Ellen Barkin, supported by familiar faces such as Tobey Maguire, Carla Guigino, and Chris Cooper. Toby (DiCaprio) and his mother Caroline (Barkin), who seeks stability in life, settle down with Dwight (De Niro) who later reveals himself to be a violent and abusive presence. DiCaprio's portrayal of Toby comes with all the emotion and angst that reside in that period of a person's life. Toby is a reservoir of conflict and feelings of displacement in the world. He goes from trying to do his best for the sake of his mother to being a troublemaker to again trying to be good for Dwight to again causing trouble. What doesn't change is that inner need to belong somewhere. No matter what social outfit Toby wears, his eyes tell the story of a lost, young boy.

Leonardo DiCaprio Imbues Toby With the Conflicting Feelings of Adolescence

There's a scene in the film that showcases that desperation for belonging. Before he forms a bond with one of the local boys, Arthur Gayle (Jonah Blechman), he attempts to bully him to fit in with a group of boys. Toby is unsure of how to go about fitting in with these fellas who start to make homophobic comments about Arthur as they see him walk down the road. In DiCaprio's skilled hands, he has Toby dart his eyes between the group's reactions every time he makes a barb against Arthur. Toby's eyes light up as the boys enjoy and laugh at the horrible things he says. Toby's moment of playing to his audience culminates in him saying something homophobic to Arthur. This is the epitome of Toby and essentially the epitome of being a teenager: doing whatever it takes to belong, even if it means hurting someone. Later on, there are moments when Toby expresses remorse for who he is and what he's doing with his life. He expresses that he doesn't know why he doesn't like the way he acts. At that moment, he exhibits this sense of desperation and insecurity with his heartache and yearning for a purpose in the world. Who hasn't felt this way?

Leonardo DiCaprio Holds His Own Against Robert De Niro

The biggest takeaway from this film is that it's where Dicaprio goes toe-to-toe and holds his own opposite Robert De Niro. Their characters serve as foils to each other. While Toby is drowning in teenage insecurity and masks it as best he can, Dwight's insecurity in his own manhood and place in the world spills out in harmful ways. He takes Toby's money from his paper route, sells Toby's Winchester rifle to buy a dog, and physically abuses Toby. There's a scene in the bathroom where Toby is brushing his teeth and Dwight chastises him for leaving the cap off the toothpaste. When Toby pushes back, Dwight goes into overdrive about it and bullies him into almost picking a fight. This type of interaction happens again in the final scene of the film where Toby receives a scholarship to attend a prestigious private school, and Dwight bullies him over an empty mustard jar. The moment Toby pushes back against him, Dwight hits him, and then they fight to a point where Toby would have died if not for the intervention of Caroline.

The first glimpse of that insecurity is during the shooting competition when Caroline has a higher score than Dwight and his face shows precisely how much it bothers him. Dwight's insecurity hurts everyone around him, especially Toby, by seeking ways to dominate and control. Those ways include but are not limited to: taking the money from Toby, saying Caroline can't work for the Kennedy campaign because it might affect his business, and throwing Toby's school applications away. Dwight attempts to prevent and destroy anyone in his life who is trying to better themselves. Dwight and Caroline, on their first night as a married couple, consummate in the way that Dwight only likes and completely disregards what Caroline wants. Even after the end of the final fight, Dwight screams and whines about how no one appreciates him. Toby tells his mother that they can leave and don't have to take his abuse. It's here that Dwight is the whiny insecure child and Toby is the adult who knows what he wants to do and is secure in himself that he and his mother don't have to take this.

This Boy's Life served as the catalyst for Leonardo DiCaprio's career in the 21st century. It helped catapult him into a relationship with one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and consistently reestablished him as a top-tier actor in 21st-century Hollywood. The work that DiCaprio did in this film with his brilliant performance would later influence the next decade of his career.

This Boy's Life is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

WATCH ON PRIME VIDEO