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The Boys in the Band | |||||||||||||||||
 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Studio: Paramount Catalog: DVD Release date: 2008-11-11 Media: DVD released in theatres: 1970 Running time in minutes: 119 DVD aspect ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Format: Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC DVD Region code: 1 released in theatres: 1970 Ean: 0097368878549 Upc: 097368878549  Tip: compare prices with similar DVDsDirector:
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 Written on November 13, 2008 Summary: Turning ... Revolution complete. At long last, Mart Crowley's "The Boys in the Band" is available on DVD (I can finally discard the VHS tape I have held onto for so long fearing it would warp or degrade over time). The play the film was based on was penned just over forty years ago, and the film was released thirty-eight years ago. Because the camera work, direction, and acting are so contemporary in feeling the film sometimes feels like it was made yesterday. But then, as I was watching it and enjoying it, I realized that when I saw the movie when it first came out I was about half the age of most the characters; now I'm twice their age! The film is remarkable on a number of levels. First, this story about a group of gay men was brought to the stage just a year before the Stonewall riots in New York, when the gay community led by its most frequently maligned subgroup (the drag queens) openly rebelled against police harassment, a rebellion that ushered in the gay liberation movement. Most large cities today have Gay Pride parades and celebrations in late June marking this historical event. Even with backlash from the religious right, Western society in general has continued to move in an increasingly tolerant direction. So it may be hard for younger people, or indeed, for anyone who has come of age since Stonewall, to identify or accept the level of paranoia, bitterness, and self-loathing the characters in this film sometimes display. But, allowing for the theatrical device of exageration, these characterization reflect a reality that existed. And, as anyone who came of age prior to Stonewall can attest, Crowley does a good job of capturing the compensating loyalty and humor upon which gay men (the film, alas, only tells the male side of the pre-Stonewall era) relied for coping in a hostile world. After Stonewall there was a period when "Boys in the Band" fell out of favor and was unjustly accused of perpetuating stereotypes. (Crowley himself has gone on record as apologizing for the play's depiction of the self-loathing homosexual. In the featurettes included on the DVD,however, he seems to have moved beyond his earlier embarrassment and is again taking pride in his materpiece.) Another thing that makes this film remarkable is that the producers refused to replace the original off-Broadway cast with big name Hollywood stars. Also, director William Friedkin resisted the temptation to "open up" the play for the screen. (Anyone who has seen both the brilliant off-Broadway stage production of "Steel Magnolias" and the banal film version should give a big "thank you!" for this.) Without statically filming a staged production of the play (and by taking full advantange of the skills of DP Arthur Ornitz), Friedkin was able to exploit the claustrophobia and building tension of nine people trapped in the birthday party from hell. (In fact, the only scenes shot outside of host's apartment are the character-establishing shots of each of the party guests leaving his adaptive environment in New York City and making his way to the party. These accompany the opening credits and are a luscious and all-too-brief reminder of what New York was like in the good old days.) The film has also been criticized for being too vicious, with the characters being much too hell-bent on tearing one another down. But to these critics I would respond that "Boys in the Band" is a late example of a well-established trend in 1960s theater (consider, for example, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "The Lion in Winter"). This mean-spiritedness is the shadow side of the much-touted American optimism and I think it has as much to do with the American culture's emergence from the buttoned-down 1950s as with anything specifically attributable to closeted gays. It wasn't just gay men who were learning (albeit imperfectly and ineptly) to express themselves in the 1960s--it was everybody. This mean-spiritedness has its roots in post-WWII playwrights Miller and Williams and its successors in Shepherd and Mamet. Its causes and effects are clearly something worth depicting and thinking about. The DVD includes three excellent featurettes (Act One: The Play; Act Two: The Film; Act Three: 40 Years of Boys in the Band) which include interviews with Crowley and Friedkin as well as the two surviving members of the cast (Laurence Luckinbill and Peter White). The director's and screenwriter's commentary is a little less gratifying (both Friedkin and Crowley speak at length on a number of interesting issues, much of which was also used to create the featurettes and consequently not new information after you've watched the featurettes. Also, Friedkin's and Crowley's comments come from separate interviews so there is no interaction between these two men who obviously respected each other and enjoyed working together. Crowley's comments on Natalie Wood's support and friendship were especially interesting and worth hearing.) But all in all, the DVD producers have done an excellent job of packaging and presenting a groundbreaking and compelling work. Written on November 10, 2008 Summary: FINALLY!!! The ***BOYS***Come to DVD!!! It's about time THE BOYS IN THE BAND DVD has been released. Fans can rejoice! Based on the Mart Crowley play, THE BOYS IN THE BAND was such a bold film when it premiered in 1970. The movie was about a group of friends who happen to be gay men, that gather together to celebrate one of their birthdays. As the night progresses--and the booze and the pot flow--the party starts to tailspin downward into a devastating series of events that leave most of the guests emotionally shattered. Each time I watch the movie, it takes my breath away. It's riveting! The dialogue is both caustic and humorous; the acting is top notch; and Friedkin's direction is right on target. And the film looks better than ever on DVD. It's been remastered and there are special features included. I love the pop art cover, featuring each of the "boys," within the subtle colors of the rainbow flag. Anyway, it seems like people either love or hate this movie. If you haven't seen it, I would definitely suggest renting it. This is one of those classic "gay" films that are a must have, not because they are gay, but because they're that good. ==========SPECIAL FEATURES========= Feature-Length Audio Commentary By Director William Friedkin 3 FEATURETTES: ACT ONE--THE PLAY--14-Minutes Interviews with writer Mart Crowley, Executive Producer Dominick Dunne, Actors Laurence Luckinbill "Hank" and Peter White "Alan" and writer Tony Kushner about the how the play (The Boys in the Band: 40th Anniversary Edition) came about. ACT TWO--THE FILM--24:40-Minutes Interviews with the above people and Director William Friedkin on the making of the film. ACT THREE--40 YEARS OF BOY IN THE BAND--5:30-Minutes Legacy of BITB and tribute to the actors who have passed away. ======================================= I wish there was some more special stuff like a deleted scene between "Hank" and "Larry" where they kiss and makeup after an emotional confrontation, but it's not included. But the DVD is well worth it and fans of the movie will be sure to buy it and put those VHS tapes to rest! Written on October 17, 2008 Summary: A landmark film I first heard the play on LPs in the listening room at my college library in the late 1960's. It was my first exposure to what seemed at the time to be "real" gay people in a play written by a gay man, and I listened to it over and over. When the movie came out, I went with friends to see it in a nearby large city (the film didn't get wide distribution). The theater was almost empty, but I sat totally enthralled throughout the entire film. I've seen it many times since then, and of course I realize why younger gay people are put off by it, because it's so far removed from their reality. Not only that, but today there are hundreds of films that portray positive gay characters who effectively confront a variety of situations. But in the context of its time, this was a breakthrough film. Up until that time, there had been very few films with openly gay characters, and when a gay character did appear in a mainstream film, it was as a figure to be feared, scorned, pitied, or derided. There had never been a Hollywood film in which all the main characters were gay or bisexual. It's true that many of the characters in the film were extreme stereotypes, but at least some of them were portrayed sympathetically, and that was a first. The dialogue may seem campy and dated, but it has a certain wit and intelligence that haven't faded. Furthermore, whether we want to admit it or not, the film accurately depicted the self-loathing that plagued certain gay men of that generation. Before blaming some of the characters in this film for failing to accept their homosexuality, let's not forget that suicide among gay teens continues to be an issue of concern. Clearly, even in more enlightened times, very few people find it easy to deal with their homosexuality. So the film can serve to remind us not only of how far we have come, but how far we still have to go. Reading some of the other reviews here, it's good to know that I'm not the only one upon whom this film had such a powerful impact. While it was many years before I was able to acknowledge my own sexual orientation, this film was one of the first steps that allowed that process to occur at all. For that reason alone, it will always be a landmark film for me, and not just a historical artifact. Written on October 8, 2008 Summary: This Film Was One of the Milestones on My Young Life There is a part of me that is tempted to believe that the type of debate concerning the film The Boys in the Band , which has taken place over the last three decades, is a unique occurrence in the queer community. I'm not really sure why I would ever believe that. The ultimate reality of our society is that our perceptions are shaped by our experiences growing up. Based on how we perceive the world some of us believe that proverbial glass to be either half empty or half full. Given that the film is one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures, I do tend to think of it in a positive light. But of course there are those who let the negative aspects of the film prevent them for seeing the writing itself as a milestone in American cinema. Much of the controversy surrounding the film resurfaced recently with a brand new print of the film having recently been released nationally. One still has an opportunity to rent it at your larger video stores. Mart Crowley wrote the play Boys in the Band in1967, the summer of which he says life "came crashing down" around his ears. He managed to get his play to Broadway producers Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder, who in turn passed the work to another popular playwright had written the Broadway theatrical sensation of1963. The play was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and not surprisingly the playwright, Edward Albee became interested in Boys, which has since been--very understandably--compared to Woolf. Eventually Boys in the Band became enough of a hit on Broadway that it was made into a film in 1970. It was directed by William Friedkin, a little known director who followed Boys with The French Connection, The Exorcist and eventually Cruising, which also caused great controversy within the queer community with it's rancid portrayal of the gay leather scene in New York. There are usually at least three popular reactions to Boys in the Band among many gay men. First, there is an overwhelming opinion that the film is depressing and it shows gay men in an unsympathetic light. Secondly it supports negative gay male stereotypes. Lastly the extent that the play airs the dirty laundry of "gay male culture" makes even some of the most liberal amongst us squeamish. The way my perceptions of the Boys were formed by my experiences growing up involves my seeing the film the year it was released--as I was in the midst of dealing with my identity as a young man who was attracted to other men. I must've been about 16 and I remember the almost unexplainable desire I had to see this film which I knew I wasn't supposed to see because of my age. I felt like an undercover agent who had to sneak into the theater. Instead of the horror and disdain that so many other gay men seem to have experienced as they viewed the film, I watched in awe at the different types of gay men parading in front of my eyes. The film follows what happens during a single evening when a group of nine gay men get together to celebrate a birthday and are infiltrated by a supposedly straight friend of the party's host. As a young African American male I was especially drawn to the fact that the film featured what seemed to me to be a fairly well-adjusted, well educated, handsome black gay man among the group. There didn't seem to me to be anything stereotypical about Bernard. It was a milestone to not only include a gay couple but the issues that Hank and Larry were grappling with are issues that gay men constantly deal with today--to boink or not to boink outside the confines of a committed relationship. Even as a teen I was able to look beyond the admittedly heavy handed direction by William Friedkin to appreciate Crowley's writing and his fairly complex cast of characters. I was too fascinated by the "boys" to think of them as unsympathetic and too engrossed by the storyline to find the film depressing. One would have to be from the "Ostrich School of Reality" to ignore what seems to be the negative aspects of Boys. Written on September 17, 2008 Summary: the truth of the game is---mesmerizing! With no reservation, I can say that it is one of the most captivating movies I have ever seen. One could even expand the "gay" theme to touch the universal--when a person is "different"--and therefore suffers the pain of prejudice. Mr. Friedkin's direction is outstanding and the actors are--superb! Proudly recommended. |
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| List price | $26.98 | $19.98 | $19.97 | $20.97 | $19.99 | $19.99 |
| Lowest used price | $19.15 | $12.90 | $11.60 | $14.34 | $11.64 | $12.45 |
| Lowest new price | $17.98 | $8.49 | $12.21 | $13.89 | $11.49 | $12.06 |
| Collectible price | - | - | - | $20.97 | - | - |
| Catalog | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD |
| Release date | 2008-11-11 | 2008-01-08 | 2008-10-07 | 2008-11-11 | 2008-10-28 | 2008-11-18 |
| Media | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD |
| released in theatres | 1970 | 1976 | 1945 | 1951-11-08 | 2008-10-28 | 2008 |
| Running time in minutes | 119 | 91 | 110 | 171 | 82 | 90 |
| DVD aspect ratio | 2.35:1 | 1.66:1 | 1.33:1 | 1.33:1 | 1.78:1 | 1.78:1 |
| Audience Rating | R (Restricted) | R (Restricted) | Unrated | NR (Not Rated) | NR (Not Rated) | Unrated |
| Format | Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC | Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC | Black & White, Subtitled, Full Screen | Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Special Edition, NTSC | Anamorphic, Color, Compilation, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen | Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen |
| DVD Region code | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Ean | 0097368878549 | 0085391203513 | 0883929002955 | 0883929026623 | 0807839003765 | 0807839003710 |
| Upc | 097368878549 | 085391203513 | 883929002955 | 883929026623 | 807839003765 | 807839003710 |
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