Martin Bradley Looking at "The Boys in the Band" today is a depressing experience and not because it's about a group of self-loathing homosexuals being very nasty to each other, (you do have to put it into an historical context), but because several members of the cast have died from AIDS-related illnesses. Of course, the film does present us with every gay stereotype there is and what once appeared liberating, now might seem offensive. On the plus side, it is superbly played, (by the original NY cast), which makes the loss of so many feel all the more tragic. It also has some of the best dialogue ever written for an American play. Viewed today it is a period piece and while you may find a lot of it hateful you have to bear in mind it was groundbreaking, coming as it did at a time when homosexuality was not as freely visible on screen as it is today.

elli1017 I do not believe one must be a "fan of gay films" to enjoy this movie. This is a movie for anyone smart enough to get it. The setting, the script, the acting - superb. I do not feel, in any way, that this film portrays gay men negatively. I think it portrays gay men in 1970...each with their own personality - men who are gay, but are more importantly friends. This film addressed some heavy issues in 1970 and as far as I am concerned, it was a grand slam. Yes, some characters are funny, brutal, flamboyant, intelligent, reserved, critical, lonely, happy, sad, fun loving, caring, angry...again, these men are individuals who happen to be gay. This is still (after 40 years) a thought provoking film, full to the brim with details - the set, the characters, the "language"...this is a special film.

claudemercure A birthday party among gay friends turns into a harrowing emotional experience. Writer Mart Crowley was obviously influenced by Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf - a deeper, funnier, and more disturbing play and film.The jokes in The Boys In The Band mostly fall flat, because it's so obvious they were written. The drama is much more effective. Hank and Larry have a realistically complex relationship, and their turn at the game of "telephone" is the film's most moving scene. And the prototypically acid-witted Harold could easily have been a caricature, but somehow Leonard Frey makes every bon mot and theatrical gesture come from a genuine place.Speaking of theatre, I rarely forgot that this film was based on a play, but that didn't prevent it from being engaging. Director William Friedkin is in large part responsible for this. His judicious decisions throughout - from well-chosen reaction shots to a good sense of dramatic timing - facilitate the viewer's emotional involvement.The Boys In The Band has been controversial among the gay community for portraying gay men as psychological disasters. I think this criticism is invalid. First, only one character (Michael) is a true mess. The problems of the others are more ordinary in nature. Second, it happens to be true that being gay is damaging, because from birth, we are taught that homosexuality is wrong. Even if no one says that in so many words, homophobia is impossible to avoid. It's been deemed acceptable behaviour for so long that it's become subtextual in everyday life. This leads to the self-loathing depicted in the movie, and to its too-baldly stated message: "If only we could just not hate ourselves quite so very much."

mushbuster Leonard Frey, who played Harold both in the celebrated off-Broadway production of BOYS IN THE BAND and in the film, told Johnny Carson a funny anecdote about his unforgettable entrance line during a particular performance of the play.Michael has just flung the door open and, finding birthday boy Harold standing there giggling, scolds, "You're late. You're stoned and you're late." Harold brushes by him and delivers his famous line as he saunters directly downstage to the apron: "What I am, Michael, is a 32-year-old, ugly, pock-marked, Jew fairy, and if it takes me a little while to pull myself together, and if I smoke a little grass before I get up the nerve to show my face to the world, it's nobody's goddamned business but my own." He is then supposed to do a little Barbara Stanwyck pivot and sweetly ask: "And how are you this evening?" But before he can turn, a loud amen chorus comes out of the orchestra: "TELL IT LIKE IT IS, MARY!" Well, let there be general rejoicing throughout the land: BOYS IN THE BAND is still telling it like it is, and now in a stunningly beautiful DVD release. William Friedkin's landmark film is both brilliant film-making and a penetrating, bitingly funny examination of some of the more dysfunctional ways gay men cope with their pain. Mart Crowley, who adapted the screenplay from his play, penned more memorable lines than any three Bette Davis films. Director Friedkin gives Michael's tony, late-sixties Manhattan apartment a sense of place and mood that is just uncanny, and the ensemble acting is pitch-perfect. By the time LOOK OF LOVE plays, it's movie magic.I remember seeing BOYS IN THE BAND as a college freshman in Oklahoma City during its initial release. I was not a little horrified by what I saw and prayed my generation would avoid this kind of self-annihilating behavior. And we did change some things—laws, social structures, attitudes. But that said, in the thirty-five years that have passed between the making of BOYS IN THE BAND and Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, emotional issues around gay sexuality have changed very little because the childhoods of most gay men changed only just a little. Then and now, gay boys early on pick up on dear old dad's apoplectic revulsion to their difference, and his subsequent withdrawal, however subtle, is deeply lacerating. Often it's not at all subtle. (Deep-closeted Alan's presence roils the party because he embodies such rejection.) For the most part, they still deal with the same emotional injuries as Michael from BOYS IN THE BAND or Ennis Del Mar from BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Anyone who says otherwise is either the happy exception that probes the rule or, more likely, someone hiding from his issues.I could easily assemble the cast from my present circle of friends and acquaintances, including one whose rabbit-like frequency of couplings would make playboy Larry seem rather chaste by comparison (though, to be fair, Larry didn't have the advantage of having with him at all times a notebook PC with a browser open to men4sexnow dot com). My upper lip involuntarily curls with contempt at the self-deception of gay men who insist that we've come so far as to make BOYS IN THE BAND a tired irrelevancy. And, if written now, Crowley's witches brew would require just that sort of character--a sniffy, intellectually dishonest, college-educated militant who marches to a brittle little anthem inside his head and trowels PC banalities over his conflicts and longstanding hurts.BOYS IN THE BAND is still as deeply relevant as it is funny and entertaining. We should take notice.