The movie The Boys in the Band, based on Mart Crowley's 1968 play, appeared in 1970. I watched it on VHS sometime in the 1990s, and even with some leeway for being pre-Stonewall, I hated it. A party with a bunch of screaming queens oozing with self-hatred, sniping viciously at teach other, obsessed with straight guys who don't know that they exist, trying to seduce a strraight guy who stumbled in by accident. Yuck!
I just saw the 2020 Netflix version, and liked it a lot more. The tone was more upbeat and positive, thanks to some subtle changes to the script (the line "if only we didn't hate ourselves quite so much" is gone) and additions to the mise en scene. For instance, we see the characters interacting after the party, eating in a restaurant, attending Mass, cuddling in a cab, having sex, building a life in spite of their homophobic society.
Some viewers thinks that Boys is "gay misery porn," but remember, it's 1968. "Homosexuality" is a psychosis, so you are in psychotherapy searching for a "cure." Sodomy is an imprisonable offense, gay bars are illegal and underground, and there are no gay organizations except for the highly-closeted Mattachine Society. The world hates you. But you are still determined to live, so you throw a birthday party.
1. Michael (Jim Parsons), who is in debt up to his eyeballs and suffering from Catholic guilt, hosts the party. He gets a shocker when a straight college friend, Alan (Brian Hutcherson), calls out of nowhere and wants to stop in "for a drink." You never tell straights (the term "coming out" means acknowledging that you are gay), so he asks the other guys to act straight.
When Alan figures it out anyway yet doesn't run away screaming, Michael introduces a party game to compel him into coming out: you have to call the one person you have always loved and tell them. He assumes that Alan will call his other college buddy, now out, whom he was obviously in love with. But the plan backfires when Alan calls his wife.
So Alan was straight all along? Or is he still in the closet? Michael is devastated. But after the party, he goes to midnight Mass and feels better.
2. Donald (Matt Bomer, right), Michael's best friend and former lover, is visiting for the weekend. He doesn't play the game. But he does take a shower, giving us a nice beefcake scene that did not appear in the original movie.
3.-4. Hank (Tuc Watkins, left) is in the process of divorcing his wife so he can be with Larry (Andrew Rannells). Larry recoils at the thought of heterosexual-style monogamy, but still calls Hank during the game. They decide to try an open relationship.
5. Bernard (Michael Benjamin Washington), who is black and has to deal with racist jokes (even from his friends), has always loved the first guy he had sex with, the son of the rich family his mother used to work for. In a flashback, we see them frolicking naked in a pool, butts and cocks visible. He calls, gives the message to the mother, and is devastated.
6. Benard's best friend is the campy queen Emory (Robin de Jesus), who was outed and ridiculed when everyone at his high school discovered his crush on an older boy. Later he apologizes to Bernard for his racist quips, and they are shown having dinner together.
7.-8. Harold, (Zachary Quinto) the guest of honor, is a "32 year old ugly pock-marked fag Jew" who takes lots of weird drugs and constantly picks at imaginary facial blemishes. They seem to all love him, but he strikes me as threatening, observing and criticizing the events like a petty tyrant. I kept wondering what he had on them.
The Cowboy (Charlie Carver, top photo) is a dimwitted hustler hired as one of Harold's birthday presents. They get more romantic interactions than in the original movie, kissing, cuddling, and, in the last scene, having sex (Harold has a surprisingly nice butt).
The "call someone you've always loved" game still seems too cruel to foist upon your friends (and you can only play it once), but at least the self-loathing is gone.
My Partner: "It was awful! Gay life as endless misery!"
Me: "But it wasn't all misery. They had friends. They had lovers. Any day that ends with a naked man in your bed is a good day, in 1968 or 2020."
See also: Andrew Rannell and Adam Devine: bromance, bulge and butt pictures
I saw the Broadway production and thought it was thrilling night in the theater. And yes Matt Bomer is that beautiful in real life. The play's themes are still relevant to our times; looking for love in all the wrong places, body issues, the need to connect. The play works as portrait of the pre-Stonewall generation. The final image on stage the two men in bed gave it a sense of hope.
ReplyDeleteI think alternatives to gay misery porn started cropping up in this century. Before that, gay characters were all martyred saints.
ReplyDeleteThe other problem with the 70s is, this is the era when more than half of the sex, regardless of gender, was probably rape by today's standards. Nostalgia is never wisdom.
I did a study of gay characters on prime time tv in the 1970s and 1980s. THey start out villains and serial killer. Then about 1977 the shift to victims begins. By 1988, it has taken over. Then in the 1990s, gay characters become catty receptionists and gossippy best friends of the female lead
ReplyDeleteSounds about right, though the entire slasher genre has gay villains even in the 80s.
DeleteMy feelings about this play over time at first I thought it was horrid, then I caught the humor, now I see the humanity. It is very crafted play and will always work. Yes the telephone game is cruel and you wonder why they play- but it is a great dramatic device. I don't see it as gay misery porn and nobody in the play gets raped.
ReplyDeleteWell, the untold history of BITB is that it premiered on April 14, 1968, off-Broadway and ran for 1,001 performances. For MANY MANY gay NYC men, it was the first time they had ever seen hundreds of other gay men on the street with clothes. It rather directly led to the Stonewall Riots of June 1969...which made the play largely irrelevant by the time the movie was released. The play showed gay men as fully human and as mostly suffering from a society that did not accept them rather than mental illness. It was a shocking advance for its time and everyone involved is a hero.
ReplyDeleteThe DVD of the original movie has a very interesting three part documentary about the history and impact of the play.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of the few that liked the original movie. So many great lines! "Who do you have to fuck to get a drink around here?" "Mary, it takes a fairy to make something pretty." I loved the new version, for all the reasons stated. Wish I had seen it live.
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