LONGTIME COMPANION
A film review by Rodney Hoffman
Copyright 1990 by Daniel R. Greening
See this movie!
Monday night I attended the benefit premiere of the new film LONGTIME COMPANION. You may have read about it in the ADVOCATE, the Los Angeles Times or elsewhere. It's the one that follows a small group of friends from 1981 to 1989, as they learn of and battle AIDS.
From the promotional material: "LONGTIME COMPANION is a tale of courage and personal heroics; a chronicle of people who face an unknown and frightening opponent with love, hope and friendship. The film is the fictional story of a small circle of friends and changes in their world beginning from that fateful day in 1981 when the first New York Times article noted the outbreak of a 'rare cancer' in the gay community, known today as AIDS." (Directed by Norman Rene, written by Craig Lucas, starring Bruce Davison and others, produced by Stan Wlodkowski and Lindsay Law, distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Co.)
This is an important and difficult movie -- the first big-screen attempt to tell the story we all know. It is a true-to-life, unsparing chronicle of a generation of gay men. There's a lot there: Gay Men's Health Crisis, ACT UP, Louise Hay, hospitals, home care, friendship, love, anger, despair, and the full panoply of awful AIDS acronyms -- PCP, KS, Toxo, CMV, HIV, ....
It's not fully representative; how could it be? It does an outstanding job of portraying what has happened in the lives of many gay white men in the last decade -- those of us who "grew up" (metaphorically speaking) in the wild, exhilarating 70s only to crash into AIDS in the 80s.
Despite the subject matter, there are many funny moments. Some of them are brief lines, often alluding to some part of gay life.
And the final scene, which hit me unawares, is just right. It gave me chills.
I can't imagine how this movie will fare at the box office outside of the gay community, although anyone concerned about the world around us should see this film if only to learn about a story that's been largely ignored except for sensationalized accounts.
If you care about honest media treatment for lesbians and gays, if you are gay and you want to see all of our other stories equally well covered, support this one!
-- Rodney Hoffman
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