William Friedkin Remembers THE BOYS IN THE BAND
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Thomas Conner interviews William Friedkin upon the DVD release of the 1970 drama The Boys in the Band, which was adapted by Mart Crowley from his own 1968 off-Broadway play about a group of some very sad and very bitter gay men — and one token (self-proclaimed) straight guy — who get together for a birthday celebration. "I knew a lot of people like those people," Crowley later said of his whiny characters. "The self-deprecating humor was born out of a low self-esteem, from a sense of what the times told you about yourself."
I saw the film years ago and I actually liked it. Not sure if I’d feel the same today, so I probably should check out the DVD, which features an audio track with commentary by both Friedkin and Crowley. And I can’t help but wonder if Crowley would have come up with a radically different play (and, as a result, a radically different movie) had he waited another couple of years — the Stonewall riots took place in 1969 — to write it.
"With a screenplay peppered with many memorable lines" writes Raymond Murray at TLA Video, "The Boys in the Band is a pre-liberation classic which is dated but hilarious and at times surprisingly offensive to current gay sensibility. It’s also an important step in the depiction of gays in film."
In the cast: Kenneth Nelson, Peter White (who remains active), Leonard Frey (who would be nominated for a best supporting actor Academy Award the following year for Fiddler on the Roof), Cliff Gorman (who delivers the film’s best performance), Frederick Combs, Laurence Luckinbill, Keith Prentice, Robert La Tourneaux, and Reuben Greene. As per the IMDb, five of the film’s principals (Frey, Nelson, La Tourneaux, Combs, and Prentice) have died of AIDS-related complications.
Here’s one snippet from the Conner/Friedkin interview:
Q. What reservations did you have about doing a gay film in the late 1960s?
A. Personally, none. I had a harder time setting up The French Connection and Exorcist than Boys. … I knew that gay characters had not been portrayed on film in any significant way at all, so I knew this would push the envelope in a lot of places around the country and to a lot of people. I was most surprised that most of the negative attitudes about it came from organized gay groups. All that’s changed over the years. You look at [online] postings about it now and the reviews are fantastic. They view it as the way gay life was at the time and is no longer. A lot of critics felt it was trying to keep gay people in a kind of ghetto, in the closet, but now look back and see that it really opened doors to gay characters on TV and in all walks of life as people in the culture.
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3 Responses to “William Friedkin Remembers THE BOYS IN THE BAND”
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Dated perhaps, but still gripping and very moving. Also, dated perhaps for big cities in more “liberal” countries. In many parts of the world, gays still go through the same self-loathing that those characters go through in The Boys in the Band. In fact, I know people right here in my hometown (not that small) that are just like them.
I remebver people talking about the movie back in the 70’s and always wanted to see it so I was happy to find it in full on YouTube. It was a great play and a great movie. I have not experienced such intellectual stimulation for a while.
I have been trying to get a list of alternative American movies of the 1970’s (I don’t mean schlok horror, hippiesploitation movies and stuff, but genuine attempts to explore asspects not found in the main cinema) on the net but cannot locate one. The closest is the title of this website.
I remember one movie where I think it was a Jewish guru who had taken to living in a sack on a rooftop in New York and was famous for his philosophical work ‘Hoffnungs Lozikeit’ I can never track this movie down and can’t remember the title.
I know that there were lots of movies made under the freedom gained by the pot culture but cannot find a list anywhere on the net. Some of these movies were shown in few cinemas and it would be great to bring them to light once again.
Blessed are those who put up films on YouTube, Woody’s ‘Small Time Crooks’ for instance which I have watched several times.
Marlon Brando plays a Jewish guru in the 1968 comedy “Candy” directed by Christian Marquand. Could that be it?