Question About "The Boys In The Band" film (1970)
Question About "The Boys In The Band" film (1970)
#1Question About "The Boys In The Band" film (1970)
Posted: 11/25/22 at 6:00pm
I am watching the film released in 1970. I am wondering why the character of Alan broke down on the phone when calling his friend Michael. Alan's desperation made it sound like he was going to leave his wife and was a major closet case. Alan seemed to take an interest in Hank and was especially hostile towards the flamboyand Emory. Michael asks Alan why he was crying on the telephone and changes the subject.
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
#2Question About "The Boys In The Band" film (1970)
Posted: 11/25/22 at 6:36pm
You have to answer it for yourself. The situation is deliberately ambiguous and unresolved.
#3Question About "The Boys In The Band" film (1970)
Posted: 11/26/22 at 7:49am
Mart Crowley was such a clever man that he wrote it that way. May his sweet soul be resting in peace.
ManOfLaMuncha
Stand-by Joined: 6/17/22
#4Question About "The Boys In The Band" film (1970)
Posted: 11/27/22 at 7:43pm
Patti LuPone FANatic said: "I am watching the film released in 1970. I am wondering why the character of Alan broke down on the phone when calling his friend Michael. Alan's desperation made it sound like he was going to leave his wife and was a major closet case. Alan seemed to take an interest in Hank and was especially hostile towards the flamboyand Emory. Michael asks Alan why he was crying on the telephone and changes the subject."
they basically leave it up in the air to make you wonder...i recorded this also on TCM (saw it dozens of times), but TONIGHT "Brokeback Mountain" is on TCM, so it's a Turner Classic now!
#5Question About "The Boys In The Band" film (1970)
Posted: 11/27/22 at 8:30pm
My vague recollection from the original play is that Alan wants to tell Michael he's breaking up with his wife. But the telephone game late in the evening inadvertently puts Alan's marriage back on the mend. Have I made all this up because I want my gay drama with a side of happy endings?
Seeing the film on TCM this week was a gift; astonishingly accurate glimpse at a moment in gay history. Brilliant.
ManOfLaMuncha
Stand-by Joined: 6/17/22
#6Question About
Posted: 11/27/22 at 8:37pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzCIsWv0aP4
just found this on youtube about making the boys in the band in 1970, and attempts to give an answer to the original question on this thread~
#7Question About
Posted: 11/27/22 at 9:04pm
Do people prefer the 1970 film or the Netflix adaptation with the Broadway revival cast? I thought both were excellent.
I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.
verywellthensigh
Leading Actor Joined: 6/14/22
#8Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 9:29am
I didn't see the remake because some aspects of gay culture should be held sacrosanct. Another theater revival of BITB? Sure. A whole-ass movie? Completely unnecessary.
I skipped the Renee Zellwegger Judy biopic for the exact same reason.
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#9Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 10:07am
verywellthensigh said: "I didn't see the remake because some aspects of gay culture should be held sacrosanct. Another theater revival of BITB? Sure. A whole-ass movie? Completely unnecessary.
I skipped the Renee Zellwegger Judy biopic for the exact same reason."
Zellweger’s JUDY wasn’t a biopic. It only focused on the last few months of Garland’s life. And THE BOYS IN THE BAND has as much right to be revived as GYPSY, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, WEST SIDE STORY to A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Sacrosanct. Girl, you is stoopid.
#10Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 10:22am
BrodyFosse123 said: "verywellthensigh said: "I didn't see the remake because some aspects of gay culture should be held sacrosanct. Another theater revival of BITB? Sure. A whole-ass movie? Completely unnecessary.
I skipped the Renee Zellwegger Judy biopic for the exact same reason."
Zellweger’s JUDY wasn’t a biopic. It only focused on the last few months of Garland’s life. And THE BOYS IN THE BAND has as much right to be revived as GYPSY, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, WEST SIDE STORY to A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Sacrosanct. Girl, you is stoopid."
VeryWell explicitly said they had zero problem with the revival. It's remaking the movie they are referring to.
verywellthensigh
Leading Actor Joined: 6/14/22
#11Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 10:24am
WAAAAAAAA! SOMEONE HAS AN OPINION I DON'T AGREE WITH! I'M GOING TO THROW MY TOYS, FILL MY DIAPER AND CALL PEOPLE NAMES! WWWWWAAAAAAAAA!
#12Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 10:25am
GiantsInTheSky2 said: "Do people prefer the 1970 film or the Netflix adaptation with the Broadway revival cast? I thought both were excellent."
Didn't watch the remake. Rewatched the movie for the first time in decades when it was released on DVD. It's brilliantly made, but it's so vicious and unpleasant, that was enough of a revisit for me. I've read the script to the play as well, just to see if what was unpleasant was more Friedkin than the basic material. Had the same reaction. Not knocking the quality of the work, but it is very much not for me.
#13Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 10:52am
BrodyFosse123 said: "verywellthensigh said: "I didn't see the remake because some aspects of gay culture should be held sacrosanct. Another theater revival of BITB? Sure. A whole-ass movie? Completely unnecessary.
I skipped the Renee Zellwegger Judy biopic for the exact same reason."
Zellweger’s JUDY wasn’t a biopic. It only focused on the last few months of Garland’s life. And THE BOYS IN THE BAND has as much right to be revived as GYPSY, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, WEST SIDE STORY to A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Sacrosanct. Girl, you is stoopid. "
Read much?
#14Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 2:15pm
I really loathed the character of Michael. He was vicious with a capital V. I really liked Emory and Hank. I felt sorry for Tex. He was really belittled by some of the group. I think he was my favorite character, as he didn't have a bad thing to say about anyone.
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
#15Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 5:22pm
Sometimes it's hard seeing the mirror held up to our faces and seeing the ugly truths. Crowley was honest in what he was writing and not white washing anything - he was writing from his own experiences and he based these characters on people he knew. It ruffled many a-queen back in the day because they couldn't handle the truth in very much the same way they couldn't handle the truth when Larry Kramer's "F@ggots" was published.
Updated On: 11/28/22 at 05:22 PM#16Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 5:26pm
Patti LuPone FANatic said: "I really loathed the character of Michael. He was vicious with a capital V. I really liked Emory and Hank. I felt sorry for Tex. He was really belittled by some of the group. I think he was my favorite character, as he didn't have a bad thing to say about anyone."
Emory was the bravest character in the whole story.
ManOfLaMuncha
Stand-by Joined: 6/17/22
#17Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 5:35pm
CarlosAlberto said: "Patti LuPone FANatic said: "I really loathed the character of Michael. He was vicious with a capital V. I really liked Emory and Hank. I felt sorry for Tex. He was really belittled by some of the group. I think he was my favorite character, as he didn't have a bad thing to say about anyone."
Emory was the bravest character in the whole story."
In that youtube video that I posted the link for, they said Tex was the first of the actors to get sick and die from AIDS. Cliff Gorman and his wife took him in and took care of him until the end.
evic
Broadway Star Joined: 3/5/04
#18Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 7:12pm
I loved the original and detested the remake. The cast in the original was brilliant and stunk in the remake. If anyone is offended by how gays are depicted then you are in denial.
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#19Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 8:25pm
The director of the 1970 film adaptation had said he was proud of the film but his only regret was not bringing down several notches Cliff Gorman’s Emory. Since Cliff had played the role in the original 1968 Off-Broadway production, he was used to playing the role large for the stage. Friedkin felt his performance was on a different layer than the rest of the cast in the film.
Bob Fosse had done this with Joel Grey’s Emcee in the 1972 film adaptation of CABARET. Though Grey had not only originated the role on Broadway and had played it hundreds of performances (and winning a Tony Award), Bob Fosse had him play the character more subdued for the film due to the intimacy of the camera. Grey has said he literally had to scrap everything he was doing on stage and create a whole new Emcee for the film (winning him an Oscar).
#20Question About
Posted: 11/28/22 at 11:35pm
CarlosAlberto said: "Sometimes it's hard seeing the mirror held up to our faces and seeing the ugly truths. Crowley was honest in what he was writing and not white washing anything - he was writing from his own experiences and he based these characters on people he knew. It ruffled many a-queen back in the day because they couldn't handle the truth in very much the same way they couldn't handle the truth when Larry Kramer's "F@ggots"was published."
Whoa there cowboy with that "our." The Boys in the Band holds no mirror up to my face or the men I know. It doesn't connect to my world, at all. And as is obvious from protests when the film was released, it didn't reflect the lives of all gay men then, either.
Yes, I think Mart Crowely was telling his truth, and that he spoke for an experience shared by others. And his play is very finely crafted.
But to pull the whole "they don't like it means they can't take it" thing is some kind of gaslighting game. Some of us don't like it because it doesn't speak to our experience and doesn't really enlighten us about the struggles of others.
