- Actors: Kenneth Nelson, Peter White, Leonard Frey, Frederick Combs, Cliff Gorman
- Directors: William Friedkin
- Writers: Mart Crowley
- Producers: Dominick Dunne, Kenneth Utt, Mart Crowley, Robert Jiras
- Format: NTSC
- Language: English
- Number of tapes: 1
- Run Time: 118 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000006GST
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#5,252 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
- #19 in Video > Gay & Lesbian > Drama
- #19 in Video > Drama > Gay & Lesbian
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Product Details |
Product Description
Amazon.com Essential Video
A sensitive yet humorous adaptation of the stage play, this 1970 film directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) is one of the first films to openly address gay issues in a matter-of-fact style that largely avoids stereotyping. Shot on one set and featuring a birthday party as the festive setting, a group of friends assemble to celebrate, reminisce, and discuss their lives and the travails of being gay, even as one friend insists he's straight. The night turns from a light celebration to a sometimes-vindictive ordeal of revelation and betrayal, as each man in turn must confess his true feelings. Performed by the original cast of the stage production, the film may feel dated to some, but it still manages to be truthful and entertaining as it explores a subject that to this day is not often addressed. --Robert Lane
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "Must" for all Gay Men,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Boys in the Band (VHS Tape)
As a friend once put it, the first time you see it (usually in college or freshly minted out-of-the-closet) you're horrified because it is full of self-loathing queens. The second time, in your twenties or after a bit moving in the stream of gay life, you're into it because it's campy and fun. The third time, once you've been around a block more times than you can remember, you love it because it's TRUE! While certainly not to be included in any catalogue of PRIDE-ful moments (and as such was the source of great controversy in the 1970s), this is a film that touches on crucial aspects of gay identity that have remained fairly constant in the post-Stonewall period, a series of questions: sexual and emotional fidelity, pride, self-hatred, fraternal destruction, and gay friendship. Or, another way to put it and to borrow Adrienne Rich's phraseology, "lies, secrets, and silence." The telephone game is the dramatic high point of the film (don't try this at home kids, unless you're three sheets to the wind and have an old rotary phone in the garage!), underscoring the complicated histories gay men bring to their desires. For others, this is the low point of self-loathing, but I find the actors rescue the scene with tenderness and emotive power. For me, the saving grace of the film and its central message is the denouement of Harold's committment to his friendship with the hideous lush Michael, who, after suffering a night of Michael's Gin and Ton witticisms honed to a razor sharp edge while languidly flipping through "The Films of Joan Crawford" (a nice touch), and after reading him within an inch of his life, tells Michael, with real feeling, "Call you tomorrow." And who can't appreciate friendship like that? With this, the film brings to the fore the essence of gay survival, which is friendship, and for that is worthy of viewing and LOVE (and a DVD).
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Leading 20th Century Work,
By
This review is from: The Boys in the Band (VHS Tape)
I think "Boys in the Band" is one of the best plays of the 20th century. It's far, far more than a bunch of self-hating queens camping it up. For one thing, look at how succinctly the playwright develops his characters with just one line: "Cheese it. Here comes the socialite nun!"A better way to think about the play is as a tragedy concerning the emotional life of Michael, who exemplifies so many of killer competitor types of the 20th century. When Harold says to Michael, "You're a sad and pathetic man. You're a homosexual and you don't want to be," he's making a larger point that what Michael is really afraid of is his own humanity, not just being seen as a big fairy.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Band Is Still Playing,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Boys in the Band (DVD)
As a teenaged boy who knew he was 'different,' I went to see Boys in the Band and it was the first time I really understood that there were others out there like me. I longed to be at that party - even with all the histrionics and drama - just to be with my own. Now an aging gay man who has suffered through worse parties than the one in the film, I wanted to see if the storyline still had impact. And it did. Ultimately the film is about self acceptance. We need to remind ourselves that the journey that would bring us to 'gay pride' began ultimately with those who dared to work through the 'icks' ... Let's hear it for The Boys in the Band.
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