Wednesday, May 25, 2011
MACHO MEN WITH A PAST
Today's film was Bette Gordon's
This is about what happens to men of a certain age who have a history but have forgotten critical parts. They are partly frozen in time.
Five sailors have a life together in the Viet Nam era when something happens and four gang up on one and beat the shit out of him.
They all have guilt thirty years later but one, dying, asks another to help make amends which the second one sets out to do.
Each man is seen in his present circumstances as the seeker flashes on the past. We get to see the flashes grow in magnitude as each visit to one of the three others underlines what happened. How and why.
I don't want to seem to mysterious about this but anything said would be a spoiler.
This is a road movie, a character study and a kind of buddy film although they are not buddies anymore.
Stars are great in their present tense. Jamie Sheridan, Steve Buscemi, John Savage, Aidan Quinn and Campbell Scott as the older men. Very good. The young men are pretty good too. Fun to watch in a happier times.
I liked this very much. It is intense. A little melodramatic. Almost like a Greek tragedy.
I would be fine watching it again.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films, gay history
