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."
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."