10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
Boys
Continued from page 8
hearty heroes. One never wishes to see oneself as fragile, flawed or fallible. Catholics cannot abide jokes about the pope, Latinos would prefer to not be portrayed as knife-wielding muggers or illegal menial laborers. We want to be the brilliant stars in our own stories.
However, Leo Tolstoy points out in Anna Karenina that "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Had all the men on Queer as Folk not been whiny, annoying sluts, nobody would have watched the American version.
Similarly, watching the breakdowns in Boys in the Band are what give it spice, in an emotionally-draining, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf sort of way.
Crowley himself brings up that comparison in the DVD's special features documentary on the play. He took it to a literary agent, who said she could never let it out of the office with her agency's letterhead on the
cover.
Crowley pointed out that a well-known producer had just taken up Woolf, and if he would put that on, he would have no qualms about Boys in the Band.
The playwright's comment about unhappy homosexuals was used for years to decry Boys as an outlet for his internalized homophobia, an accusation that is as unfair as the statement itself is untrue.
Certainly, during the course of the play, everyone is unhappy at one point or another. The possible exception is Harold himself, who is so monumentally stoned and intensely intelligent that the whole affair seems an intellectual pursuit more than a reason for emotional response.
Bernard becomes maudlin, but throughout much of the film enjoys himself immensely. Emory has his ups and downs, but by the end is his usual self.
Larry and Hank actually seem to emerge from the fray stronger and more secure in their love for each other than in any other point in the film.
November 7, 2008
•
www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
What really makes the film such a classic is Crowley's razor wit. There is no reason why this film should be quoted any less than Sunset Boulevard, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and All About Eve put together, except perhaps for the bad rap it got from activists in the 1970s.
Michael's witticisms are amusing, but Harold's lines are uproarious, like his comment that hiding his pot in an oregano jar led accidentally getting his mother stoned every time he made her a salad.
"But I think she liked it. No matter what meal she comes over for, even if it was breakfast, she says, 'Let's have a salad," " he notes.
Michael is the only one who seems to be truly unhappy overall. Again, Harold has the mot juste.
"You're a sad and pathetic man. You're a homosexual and you don't want to be, but there's nothing you can do to change it. Not all the prayers to your god, not all the analysis you can buy in all the years you've go left to live," Harold tells him in an intense, yet seemingly dispassionate, tone. "You may one day be able to know a heterosexual life if you want it desperately enough. If you pursue it with the fervor with which you annihilate. But you'll always be homosexual as well. Always, Michael. Always. Until the day you die."
At the end, however, the status quo of the mysterious relationship between Harold and Michael is restored. While stepping through the emotional rubble Michael has left in his wake, Harold turns and says, "I'll call you tomorrow."
The long-delayed DVD release seems to be part of an ongoing project of putting out all of William Friedkin's films, one at a time. A few years ago, it was the ultimate director's cut of The Exorcist. A year or two ago, it was Cruising, the disturbing gay murder mystery also decried by activists. Now, thankfully, it's Harold and Michael's turn.
A documentary featuring interviews with producer Dominick Dunne, Crowley, Friedkin, the two still-living cast members and iconic playwright Tony Kushner covers the three "acts" of the history of Boys in
Way-before-midnight cowboy Robert La Tourneaux makes a very happy birthday present for Harold (Leonard Frey) in the newly-remastered DVD of Boys in the Band.
the Band, the play, the film, and its legacy, 40 years later. There is also an audio commentary by Friedkin, who truly created a masterpiece of gay cinema, bringing Crowley's
brilliant writing to almost surreal life.
Were one to rate the film, newly remastered, on a scale of one to ten, it would certainly earn a "Buy it now!"
Friday, November 7
First Friday
DANCE
Extravaganza
nicke
Every Week
Wednesdays: Grillin with Katie!
Thursdays:
50¢ Tacos & Trivia!
4365 State Road 216-661-1314
Slash slash, bang bang
The eternal question of who would win in a fight between a samurai and an Old West gunslinger is answered in the second of two films bringing "the gay" to the Cleveland Institute of Arts Cinematheque in the first half of November. The two celluloid treats, however, bridge the divide between fiction and reality, intimate and expansive, East and West.
The first is Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, a biography of the cellist, singer-songwriter, composer and remix artist who revolutionized dance music in the 1970s and '80s before succumbing to AIDS in 1992.
Just 40 when he died, he left behind collaborations with people like Philip Glass and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. After his death, Kyle Gann of the Village Voice noted, "His recent performances had been so infrequent due to illness, his songs were so personal, that it seems as though he simply vanished into his music."
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell will be shown at 5:30 pm on Sunday, November 9.
The following weekend, the Cinematheque brings the latest from the bad boy of Japanese cinema, openly gay auteur Takashi Miike.
Sukiyaki Western Django is typical of Miike's style in one major respect: it's a madhouse of ideas and styles blended together by a man whose love of film is equaled only by his creativity.
If the Italian westerns of the 1960s were "spaghetti westerns," this may well be termed a "ramen western."
Two warring clans in a Western-style town each try to hire a gunslinger who rides in one day. However, his arrival might not just signal the end of the war, but of both factions.
Sukiyaki Western Django shows at 7:30 pm on Friday, November 14 and 8:45 pm on Sunday, November 16.
All tickets to Cinematheque screenings are $8, $5 for Cleveland Institute of Art students and staff and Cinematheque members. The theater is located at 11141 East Boulevard in University Circle, and can be reached at 216-421-7450 or online at www.cia.edu/cinematheque.
Estate Planning
Wills
Living Wills and Trusts
Powers of Attorney
. Probate Administration
Domestic Partnership Agreements
• Personal Injury
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Work Injuries
Wrongful Death
-Anthony Glassman
Maria L. Shinn, LLC
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Evening & Weekend Appointments Available
216.228.4791
1615 Waterbury Road, Lakewood, Ohio 44107-4820