From a purely sociological viewpoint, this is a very important motion picture and should not be so lightly dismissed.
I remember vividly when this film first came out. Audiences were either thoroughly disgusted by the subject matter or simply ambivalent. I sat in a movie theater during this film, and when the part where the two men kiss came on the screen, people stormed out of the theater demanding their money back.
One of the most laughable (and saddest) aspects of the release was that Paramount had to put a HUGE RED WARNING MESSAGE on the screen before the film started to caution audiences about the subject matter.
I re-watched the film the other night and its interesting to see that this film was 25 years ahead of Brokeback Mountain and in many respects has far fewer gay stereotypes in it than Brokeback does. (No one dies or wishes they were dead and no one kills anyone because they are gay.) It's a deeply satisfying love drama much the same as The Way We Were.
I have a tremendous respect for Barry Sandler who wrote the screenplay. In another time and place, this film would have succeeded. The film is an important part of film history for several reasons. It was the very first mainstream Hollywood film to deal openly with Gay subject matter in a positive way. It proved that male actors in Hollywood could play gay roles. (However neither of the male leads careers were ever the same again because of the film. Harry Hamlin couldn't get work for five years and Michael Ontkean career as a leading man came to a screeching halt. ) In the new DVD release of the print, Paramount has removed the original warning message since the film is quite tame by today's standards. However I think it should have stayed there as a reminder to us all of how narrow minded and prejudice our American society can really be.
Watch this back to back with Brokeback Mountain and you'll see how groundbreaking this film really was. In 1982 critics and audiences jeered at this film and now in 2006 critics and audiences are praising Brokeback Mountain.
I remember vividly when this film first came out. Audiences were either thoroughly disgusted by the subject matter or simply ambivalent. I sat in a movie theater during this film, and when the part where the two men kiss came on the screen, people stormed out of the theater demanding their money back.
One of the most laughable (and saddest) aspects of the release was that Paramount had to put a HUGE RED WARNING MESSAGE on the screen before the film started to caution audiences about the subject matter.
I re-watched the film the other night and its interesting to see that this film was 25 years ahead of Brokeback Mountain and in many respects has far fewer gay stereotypes in it than Brokeback does. (No one dies or wishes they were dead and no one kills anyone because they are gay.) It's a deeply satisfying love drama much the same as The Way We Were.
I have a tremendous respect for Barry Sandler who wrote the screenplay. In another time and place, this film would have succeeded. The film is an important part of film history for several reasons. It was the very first mainstream Hollywood film to deal openly with Gay subject matter in a positive way. It proved that male actors in Hollywood could play gay roles. (However neither of the male leads careers were ever the same again because of the film. Harry Hamlin couldn't get work for five years and Michael Ontkean career as a leading man came to a screeching halt. ) In the new DVD release of the print, Paramount has removed the original warning message since the film is quite tame by today's standards. However I think it should have stayed there as a reminder to us all of how narrow minded and prejudice our American society can really be.
Watch this back to back with Brokeback Mountain and you'll see how groundbreaking this film really was. In 1982 critics and audiences jeered at this film and now in 2006 critics and audiences are praising Brokeback Mountain.