futures-1 "The Brandon Teena Story" (1998): This is the documentary which inspired the film "Boys Don't Cry", about the young woman who cross-dressed as a man, and was eventually beaten, raped, and later shot to death. No, it's not a comedy. Nor will you want to live in a small town, the Midwest, on a farm, or near country-western music… but then you'll come to your senses and realize that this sort of horror can, and does, happen anywhere. Was Brandon a good kid? Not really. She was a check forging thief. Were her friends any better? It's hard to decide by the documentary, but I almost MUST believe SOMEONE was level headed and decent. Were the police effective and professional? I doubt you'll want to rely on them when you're traveling through Nebraska. Was the criminal justice system fair? Well, how do you feel about plea bargains, and rats who rat on other rats? Are there ANY people in this sad story you want to go line dancing with? I'll leave that to you. (It would be a good idea to rent "Boys Don't Cry" and watch it after "The Brandon Teena Story". Hillary Swank stars, and has "Brandon" nailed. It's a top notch film.

Gregory_Wu This was the worst documentary I've ever seen. If I hadn't seen "Boys Don't Cry" I would have absolutely no idea what Brandon Teena's story even was. There was absolutely no storytelling whatsoever. The viewer was given no understanding of Brandon's background, how people felt about him, what actually happened in his life, how these people entered his life, why these people killed him, how his mother felt about him, etc. This was just a really bad documentary with bad editing.

Sasha-13 This film is about a triple homicide. One of the victims and the main target of the "execution" was a young woman who felt she had been born the wrong sex. He called himself Brandon.While the cinematography isn't great, this film does justice to a disturbing subject, the bigotry and hate that thrives in too many small towns. But this isn't just any small town and the people Brandon associated with weren't the type of educated individuals who would be likely to understand and accept someone like Brandon.This movie immerses you in a world of truly scary people. Hate, and ignorance abound. You don't have to be gay or transgendered to feel unsafe with the folks in this film; being middle class will do it. This touches on another even more disturbing subject. Why do some gay and transgendered people take chances with all the wrong people? Strangers aren't a real safe bet for anyone, especially someone who is different in some way. The people in this film aren't the understanding college educated types. For the most part they are people from the very bottom of America's social strata. When you look at Brandon, you have to wonder why he chose to befriend the people who killed him in the first place. The two men were acknowledged low-lifes and ex-cons. He could not have put himself more in harms way if he had tried. Brandon, in spite of his problems with petty crime, was apparently a very sweet, though simple person who seemed unable to accept that his inner male being was not reality. The film portrays him as a romantic who stole through forgery in order to buy flowers and gifts for the people he loved. Even in the sound clips we hear of his voice, he was extremely passive. He was calm even as he discussed the rape that preceded his murder. Why didn't this gentle person see the danger? Why didn't he assume it? Perhaps Gay and transgendered people don't have to be totally paranoid to survive, but certainly they need to be at least as careful as the average African American would be when confronted with a car full of red necks.

dogbowl The story of Brandon Teena is fascinating, true, but was terrible filmmaking. I saw this at the Seattle Internation Film Festival, and the filmmakers were there to introduce it themselves. The audience loved it, but purely just for the subject matter. The truth is that this film was put together poorly. The quality of the whole production was lousy, and nothing new or interesting was revealed. It was a second rate true crime documentary that even the subject matter couldn't overcome. It is too bad that the only interesting character in the film appears only in photographs.