The Boys in the Band (1970)
Directed by:
William Friedkin
Written by:
Mart Crowley
Distributed by National General Pictures
Runtime: 2 hours
Released on March 17, 1970
Starring
Kenneth Nelson
Leonard Frey
Cliff Gorman
Laurence Luckinbill
Fredrick Combs
Keith Prentice
Robert La Tourneaux
Reuben Greene
Peter White
I had heard of “The Boys in the Band” as being an important part of Queer Cinema history for a long time. When I took a Queer Films course at the City College of San Francisco, I remember it being discussed. We did not, however, watch it. I saw it on the shelves at my local library and felt like it was time for me to give this classic Queer film a watch and see how I felt about it.
I went into this film with a very open mind because of it being attached to Queer Film history. If you are someone that is look for a film that does not code gay males, but is very realistic at the same time, this film will give you LIFE! It is a film about friendship, truth, hurt, pain, and trauma. It is also about hating yourself and trying to learn to love yourself as well. There are some many layers to this film.
The setting is within an apartment for basically the entire film. Characters come in and out of that setting, which sets the stage for the entire film. There are many dynamics and secrets that come out over the course of the film between all the characters. The film really focuses on how the queer community interacts within themselves and how they feel they have to respond when someone that is not queer comes into their safe space. This really is a huge part of the overall plot of the film. We see what these queer people do when they feel like they are pushed into a corner. The elements that come off of this were a mixed bag for me. There were good moments, character interactions were superb.
There is a bitter moment by one of the main characters of the film that ends up in a game that he creates. This bitter moment makes the film feel like it is dragging out in parts. It is the main bad part of the film. I do not enjoy when aspects of the plot drag out a film. The reason for this though actually ends up being surprisingly a good thing over the course of the entire film. We get a lot of character development and understanding of each character simply because of this game. By the end you feel like the characters are real, which is powerful since the film is a 70s film about gay males predominately. During this time period, this was a population that still was largely seen as degenerates and deplorable. This was a film that was trying to humanize the population that I belong to. This game helps to do that, as it shows that each one of these characters have love and humanity within them. That depth was beautiful to watch, but the way it initially made me feel really made it difficult to sit through for a chunk of the film. I believe though this was a choice that was made on purpose, as often we as queer people do feel uncomfortable sharing parts of ourselves. It embraced so many layers of the queer identity that I had to rate it highly. I definitely recommend this to anyone that is wanting to watch an earlier entry into the Queer Film repertoire.
The film “The Boys in the Band” was directed by William Friedkin, who is also famous for directing “The Exorcist”.
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