The Boys in the Band
|
|
The Boys in the Band is a 1970 film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay is by Mart Crowley, based on his off-Broadway play. The ensemble cast, most of whom also played the roles in the play's initial stage run in New York, includes Cliff Gorman and Laurence Luckinbill.
The story is about a birthday party staged by a group of gay men. An old college friend of the host drops in unexpectedly with disastrous results. The characters are miserable and bitchy towards each other and themselves. Yet, the film was groundbreaking as being the first mainstream Hollywood film to focus on the lives of gay men. The film almost got a X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America but after some scenes were deleted it was given a R rating.
Fans of Friedkin's subsequent action and horror films may be quite surprised at the tone and style of this film, which sticks very close to that of the play. Friedkin would go into direct the 1981 film Cruising that was widely panned as being a horrible and homophobic film.
Sadly, many of the cast members (other than Gorman and Luckenbill, who went on to who went on to successful film and television careers) have subsequently died of AIDS.