Boys On the Side

Once upon a time, it was 1970. We were here, queer, outta the closets and in the streets. In the Boys in the Band, we were also on the big screen showing the country "exactly" what it meant to be a Big Apple Faggot: self-mutilating, self-pitying, self-loathing, vain, shallow, hateful and miserable people.

the huz and i sat down last night and watched it, again. i'd seen it once, a number of years ago and he'd seen it a couple of times over the years (and always maintains how much he dislikes it). after 2 viewings, i have to admit: i like the movie. like one of the characters say, halfway in, "it's like watching a car wreck; you don't want to look, but can't look away". i like it the way i like Desperate Housewives and Dynasty: marginally good looking, barely 3 dimensional, people doing awful things to each other while drinking heavily and trading wickedly funny verbal barbs at each other; it's like watching Queer As Folk: the Movie, with that '70's sense of "beautiful" (even ugly, paunchy people, with crooked teeth and bad noses, were sex symbols); and, just like QAF, i'm sure both gay and straight people watched it and took it as gospel truth ("god, how can they call themselves 'gay' when they're so unhappy") but, that's the power of the mass media. i'm also pretty sure it spawned a whole generation of faggots that walked out shaking their heads thinking "if that's what it means to be queer in the city, i'm stayin' in muncie" (if it even made it to muncie) and haven't been heard of or seen since (except in truckstop and department store restrooms).

this movie was the anti-Stonewall.

it's also a wildly entertaining, compelling and thought provoking melodrama and definitely in the Top 10 Must sees of Gay Cinema experiences; if for no other reason than as a reminder of who we were, who we thought we had to be, and who we should never become.