American Playhouse (TV Series) Fifth of July (1982) User Reviews

Wonderful cast and sweet ending...no spoilers

[wadkins75 · 7/10 · 18 November 2005]

FIFTH OF JULY is a wonderfully sweet, bitter, funny, and ultimately enjoyable play and this film captures those qualities to a T. It's openness about what some consider taboo subjects is amazing for a film from 1982. AIDS hadn't been fully discovered just yet and in Lanford Wilson's work we have a gay couple who are not threatened by the ravages of disease, like so many post-discovery films. This isn't AND THE BAND PLAYED ON, or LOVE, VALOUR, COMPASSION but the importance of it is almost equally valid. Here is a an American family, disrupted by the Vietnam War, the radical dreams of the 1960s, the desire to be different than the generation before. These are real people with real agendas, painted with a brush that might be more familiar with them then it leads us to believe. Mr. Wilson weaves a tapestry worth enjoying. Netflix has this film available in their collection so I recommend checking it out if you have a lazy Saturday afternoon to spare... pour some lemonade, make yourself a grilled cheese sandwich, and pop this into your DVD player.

It's rare to see a play done well as a film, but this one does the original justice.

[MustangBobby · 10/10 · 29 May 2000]

Playwrights are understandably nervous when their works are turned into films. But in the capable hands of the original stage director, Marshall W. Mason, this Showtime production of Wilson's play comes across with all the intimate care and character of the play. The cast recreates their roles from the Circle Rep production of 1980, including Richard Thomas and Jeff Daniels as gay lovers and Swoozie Kurtz as a delightfully dizty country singer. For audiences unfamiliar with Wilson's work (including Hot l Baltimore and Talley's Folly), this film is an excellent introduction to one of our best American playwrights. In 2001 many of the cast of "Fifth of July" reunited in Independence, Kansas, to recreate their roles in the play as well as several other plays of Mr. Wilson, including "Hot L Baltimore," "Talley's Folly," and "Burn This" at the William Inge Theatre Festival's tribute to the playwright who was honored with the Inge Award for Achievement in American Theatre.

Superior Talent- Superior Performance

[hmghosthost · 10/10 · 14 March 2006]

The rise to fame of Jeff Daniels (Arachnaphobia, Butcher's Wife, Good Night & Good Luck, Pleasantville), Cynthia Nixon (Amadeus, Sex in the City), Swoosie Kurtz (Sisters, Bubble Boy, Liar Liar, Reality Bites), Joyce Reehling (Nypd Blue, Law & Order, Ed, Long Time Companion), and Helen Stenborg (Longest Journey Video Game, Law & Order, Bonfire of the Vanities) is a testament to the combined acting perfection demonstrated in Fifth of July. I first saw this movie on PBS in 1989 and was instantly addicted to it.

I was thrilled when it finally came out on d v d, and I don't think I have a friend to whom I haven't shared this movie with. It's funny, it's sad, it's an attention grabber and thought provoker. Plus, of course, there's the chance to see sexy Jeff Daniels without a shirt through half the movie. It was also the first movie I had seen with a gay couple whose sexuality is neither the focus or the melodrama of the story. It was just there, it wasn't "in the way", and it presented a gay couple as they truly are - just part of the family like everyone else. The effect of this movie is that you're invited to join a family, and you feel as though you've become a part of their lives; but then the movie ends and you feel like you've suddenly been orphaned. You really fall for the characters. And the closing song is very beautiful - and I had memorized it on the first hearing! It kept me going until I bought the movie many years later on d v d.

great script, middling film

[jim-314 · 6/10 · 29 April 2009]

"The Fifth of July" may be among the most satisfying stage scripts of the last three decades. For those of us who were young when the play's characters were young (in the Vietnam war era), it movingly touches on the idealism and disappointment of that time. It has a vein of sentimentality, but does that have to be a bad thing? Perhaps not. Even with its sentimental moments, the script is full of sharp, funny dialogue that is "theatrical" in the best sense. How well does that theatricality translate to film? With mixed success. This adaptation uses most of the original Broadway cast of the play. I saw the same cast on stage, and I remember really liking this TV film when it first came out. Now, seeing it again a couple of decades later, it strikes me as regrettably stagy. Swoozie Kurtz's flamboyant performance nabbed her a Tony on stage, but seems strident and one-dimensional on film. Likewise, Richard Thomas comes across as surprisingly mannered and overwrought for an actor who built most of his career in TV. He works too hard and ends up unconvincing. In contrast, Jeff Daniels (as Thomas's devoted but under-appreciated boyfriend) steals the movie with a subtle, natural performance. In general, the supporting players come off better than the leads, and it's fun to see a very young Cynthia Nixon. This is a competent introduction to a beautiful script, but it's still pretty much a film of a stage production. Like so many adaptations of this sort, it fails to convey the power of the live theatrical experience, and at the same time, it isn't a very good film as film. I couldn't help wondering how this would work if someone turned it into a "real" movie that emphasized cinematic values over stage values. I'd like to see someone try some day.

Brilliant, sorrowfully overlooked

[shoreroad · 10/10 · 23 November 2000]

The Fifth of July has been one of my favourite plays/movie. I fist saw it on PBS and have never forgotten it. Not only is the play brilliant, the cast is first rate and superb. A cast like this with such a wonderful story makes for great entertainment. See it!