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Mart Crowley, author of The Boys in the Band says that he is amazed we are still talking about it 40 years later.

And that is what this documentary is about.

Making the Boys (2009)

The play and the film seem to be timeless although the story is quite specifically about the pre-Stonewall time.

A roomful of typical gay men have a birthday party and talk, talk, talk.

Of course a lot more happens. Old loves and present loves are revealed, wounds become deeper or are healed. Talk talk talk.

This play was controversial when it came out. It was the first time anyone anywhere told the story or more or less real gay men. Of course it was theatrical, not naturalistic, but it vividly showed gay characters having a real life.

At first it was viewed as a great coming out experience and affected many closeted men. Also young gay men who didn't yet get that they were not alone in their differences whatever they were.

In only a few years after it was made into a film, Stonewall occurred and gay liberation bloomed. In that period, the play became an emblem of the old way of life. Not correct. Not happy.

I never saw it that way myself.

Meanwhile the play was produced all over the world in many languages. It was very popular in Japan.

Then in the last decade, it has come back into vogue. A document of our history. A true depiction of a life which may not be normal any more but still with all the same identification for gay men whether they are aware of its history or of gay history (many young gay men are not).

The documentary is really Mart Crowley's artistic life. It is very good.

Good enough that I will be watching the film again.

I have my own history with this movie. At first, when I saw it, I found it frighteningly stereotypical. I was not out. Even to myself. All this changed during the 70s and no more than five years later, I was out and about as a gay man.

In another decade, when I was a gay father, in a settled relationship with another man and so on, I saw it again and saw it as history. Enjoyed it. It was no longer a threat. I found that it was about me just not in that way.

More recently, I am able to watch the film and just totally enjoy it and leave all moral and political judgement aside. It is a wonderful drama and true to from the tip of its hairs to the bottom of its gay feet.

I can identify with all these men.

Crowley has become a gay hero. Long may he wave. There is a new production in NYC and it is, as he says, amazing we are still talking about it 40 years later.

Lots of historic gay film here. Fire Island parties, closeted at the time stars, many many inside stories. Beautifully done. And it is still controversial. Watch Edward Albee's sour grapes assessment of the play as he purses his lips and sneers at a work that did more for his own theatrical story than any other. He is credited with having forged the way with his own play about a straight marriage (Virginia Wolf) which has forever been identified as a closeted story about a gay relationship and did serve as a template for Boys.

I plan to watch it again next.

Labels: films