THE BOYS IN THE BAND
1970 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Documentary
Mart Crowley’s 1968 play was initially lauded for being one of the first realistic portrayals of gay life on stage, but was subsequently rejected for depicting homosexual men in an unflattering light (“If we could just learn not to hate ourselves quite so very much!” sighs one of its characters). Yet recent revivals have found it more sympathetically reappraised, making it an apt time for this film version to resurface.
Set in an apartment on New York’s Upper East Side, William Friedkin’s drama (released the year before his breakout with The French Connection) shows a group of friends coming together to celebrate a birthday.
Their number ranges from the buttoned-down Hank (Laurence Luckinbill) to the outrageous Emory (Cliff Gorman), giving jaundiced host Michael (Kenneth Nelson) plenty of targets for his waspish remarks. When the ostensibly straight Alan (Peter White) turns up uninvited,
however, the mood quickly sours as secrets and resentments start to emerge.
Reuniting all of the original stage production’s actors, Friedkin delivers an unflashy, faithful recreation of a play that’s now as much a monument as a landmark. (The director’s sole regret, voiced in an accompanying three-part documentary, was that he didn’t dial down Gorman’s camp excesses.)
The result is a valuable record of a significant theatrical milestone, albeit one inescapably rooted in a pre-Pride era of silent shame. Neil Smith