STONEWALL
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.5 Alternative Scale: *** out of ****
United Kingdom, 1995 U.S. Release Date: 7/26/96 (limited) Running Length: 1:39 MPAA Classification: No MPAA Rating (Sex, nudity, profanity, violence) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Cast: Guillermo Diaz, Fred Weller, Brendan Corbalis, Duane Boutte, Bruce MacVittie, Peter Ratray, Dwight Ewell, Matthew Faber, Michael McElroy, Luis Guzman Director: Nigel Finch Producers: Ruth Caleb and Christine Vachon Screenplay: Rikki Beadle Blair based on the novel by Martin Duberman Cinematography: Chris Seager Music: Michael Kamen U.S. Distributor: Strand Releasing
"Stonewall" was an important name in both the American Civil War and the American gay civil rights movement. While, for the former, it was a person (General "Stonewall" Jackson), for the latter, it was a place (New York's Stonewall Inn). STONEWALL, the final feature film from British director Nigel Finch (who died of AIDS-related complications while editing the picture), deals with the place, not the person. Using fictional characters but real events, this movie takes its audience back to the summer of 1969 and the events leading up to July 27th's "Stonewall Riots", when a group of drag queens fought back against police brutality.
From the beginning, it's clear that STONEWALL is different from its more traditional, straight counterparts (films dealing with the black civil rights movement, for example). While the movie explores serious issues, it often does so in a playful, even comic, manner. There's a Greek Chorus of drag queens on hand to lip-synch old pop tunes that fit the current mood (some of these numbers recall similar moments from THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT). The script is peppered with biting one-liners and amusing anecdotes. Depicted from another point-of-view, STONEWALL could have been a real downer. As it stands, however, Finch has made this an upbeat, triumphant tale.
The focal point of STONEWALL is a tender love story between a small town hick named Matty Dean (Fred Weller) and a drag queen who goes by the name of La Miranda (Guillermo Diaz). La Miranda is typical of the New York transvestite scene -- tough, hardened, and jaded. By her own admission, she believes she's lost the capacity to feel anger or love. Matty has fled the homophobic backwaters of Hicksville to find that things aren't that much different in the Big City. Homosexuality is still illegal, people can be arrested for dressing "contrary to their gender", and engaging in sexual activity with a member of the same sex is regarded as either an illness or a condition of sexual deviancy.
Matty and La Miranda fall in love, but complications arise when one of Matty's compatriots in a pro-gay rights protest group, Ethan (Brendan Corbalis), wants to start a relationship. Ethan's apparent passion for the movement inspires and entices Matty, and La Miranda's burst of jealousy pushes his new lover further away. Meanwhile, as STONEWALL tracks this triangle, it also tells (in a somewhat abbreviated fashion) the story of another drag queen, Bostonia (Duane Boutte), and his conflicted, tough guy boyfriend, Vinnie (Bruce MacVittie), the owner of the Stonewall Inn.
Certainly, the most fascinating aspect of STONEWALL is its depiction of the gay culture thirty years ago. As homophobic as this nation is today, '90s views are nothing compared to those prevalent in the late-'60s. The Stonewall Riots were the watershed. Before that, gay America was afraid. Their credo was "If we bleed, we do not win." In a July 4 demonstration at Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the activists dressed conservatively and lobbied for tolerance. They willingly fostered the belief that homosexuality was an illness, courting pity in the hope that it would supplant hatred. However, after Stonewall, empowerment replaced submissiveness. The "freaks" and "deviants" took a stand, and soon gay rights' legislation was crawling across the country.
STONEWALL is not intended to be a history lesson; the time frame and setting are necessary to the story, but they are subordinate to the characters. Some of the subplots work; some don't. Bostonia and Vinnie's relationship is incomplete, especially in the shadow of the far better-developed interaction between Matty and La Miranda. The believability of these two anchors the film, preventing STONEWALL from ever becoming too outrageous or seeming too preachy. We sympathize with the cause not because of rhetoric, but because we care about the characters. Undoubtedly, that's one reason why this motion picture succeeds. Another is that, in addition to having a heart, STONEWALL isn't afraid to have fun, which is a welcome change from the agenda of many grim, gay-themed motion pictures currently floating around the international film festival circuit.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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