Longtime Companion
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Movie Reviews of Longtime Companion
Movie Review: Terrific Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Longtime Companion is an excellent film! Compelling story line and definitely creates an accurate reflection of gay life when Aids first broke in the US.Movie Review: Dark and Light
Summary: 4 Stars
This drama is filled with possitive messages but has a darkness to it that will make you angry, in a productive way.Movie Review: Still Relevent
Summary: 4 Stars
This moview will make you laugh and cry. It show that love and care that a group can give.Movie Review: Social document recalls dark chapter in gay history
Summary: 3 Stars
LONGTIME COMPANION
(USA - 1990)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Theatrical soundtrack: Mono
Initially conceived as a response to Hollywood's hypocritical reluctance to depict the AIDS crisis within mainstream cinema, LONGTIME COMPANION limped into production in 1989 on half the projected $3 million budget, generously donated by producer Lindsay Law and the American Playhouse company, only to face another uphill struggle as soon as the movie was completed. Until the Samuel Goldwyn company bought worldwide distribution rights (somewhat reluctantly, it must be said), most mainstream and independent distributors were disinclined to tackle a movie which concentrates exclusively on the devastating effects of AIDS on a group of middle-class gay men from the years 1981 to 1988. Apparently, it's OK if the drama involves a cute kid who was accidentally infected by a tainted blood transfusion, or if it features a teary-eyed heterosexual mom who inadvertently 'contaminates' her big butch heterosexual husband, but not if it's about a bunch of (gays). Aware of this sickening double standard, writer Craig Lucas and debut director Norman René held back on the explicit love scenes and aimed their film at the widest possible audience.
That it still works is due in large part to a fantastic ensemble cast headlined by Bruce Davison as the 'mother hen' figure who holds court over a disparate group of writers, actors, businessmen, and their various friends and associates. Davison was Oscar-nominated for his strong performance, though he's matched every step of the way by Campbell Scott (son of George C.) as a young man who struggles desperately to hide from the reality of the horrors around him after his best friend (Dermot Mulroney) becomes one of the first casualties. Beefcake is provided by Patrick Cassidy and John Dossett as a loving couple whose lives are torn apart by the disease, while Mary-Louise Parker portrays one of the few straight characters in the group, a woman whose life revolves around her dwindling circle of gay friends.
Lucas' insightful script uses these characters to describe the progressive response of the gay community to the unfolding crisis, from the casual dismissals which greeted the first reports of a 'gay cancer' which appeared in 1981, through to the fear and confusion which descended as the disease began to dominate daily life. Hope breeds a certain amount of naivety in some of the early scenes (one character's philosophy is basically 'think happy thoughts and everything will be fine'), until the threat is finally absorbed and accepted, culminating in militant action against an ultra-conservative Establishment which seems determined to ignore the unfolding situation.
Lip service is paid to some of the important social issues which arose from the AIDS epidemic, but the film refuses to become sidelined by politics - Reagan is mentioned but not criticized, and there's a brief tirade against a health care system which seems more concerned with insurance than patient welfare - and instead focusses its attentions on people whose lives are ravaged by circumstances beyond their control. Director René, who had worked almost exclusively in theatre beforehand, is reluctant to allow sentiment to prevail, to the point where even the heaviest scenes are almost drained of genuine emotion, and some of the many dialogue exchanges which make up the bulk of the film should have been tightened during the editing process. But the cast breathes life into a broad range of recognizable characters, and the film survives primarily as an invaluable record of a dark chapter in gay history.
If the drama seems a little dated by subsequent advances in the treatment of HIV and AIDS, and if the subject no longer commands the same level of attention which existed when the movie first opened, its educational value remains intact. One gets the sense from this kind of movie that, even when a cure is eventually found, very little will change in the short term. Too many wonderful people have died and taken all their priceless ideosyncracies with them to the grave, and too many others have lost precious companions and loved ones for the sudden discovery of a cure to make much of a difference. But when future generations are finally released from the tyranny of AIDS, movies like LONGTIME COMPANION will always be there to remind them of a time when the world wasn't such a carefree place, and when the kindness and compassion of devoted friends was no guarantee of immunity from loss and devastation.
Movie Review: A Powerful film that could have been better...
Summary: 3 Stars
I remember liking this film much more when I saw it the first time when it was released. I cried from the cathartic experience of watching beautiful young (and even beautiful middle-aged!) men die of this dread disease. It was an important film that NEEDED to be made.Re-watching it now, however, with 13 years distance, it comes off a bit heavy-handed and lacks plot and character development. I hope we can now study the film as a film with a slightly more critical eye. Most notably, "Longtime Companion" does an injustice to its characters by focusing more on the "topic" of AIDS, paying special attention to the fear and the "cures" that were beginning to circulate in the 80s. Characters get sick and die, but I get the feeling that we are supposed to care about them simply because they are victims of AIDS.
If I had known these characters like they ostensibly know each other, it would be much more emotionally powerful. There was much potential in the relationship between Willy and John that was only hinted at. Their "reunion" at the end of the film still packed an emotional punch, but I wanted more story-telling. I want to mourn with these men, but I guess I have to do so vicariously by thinking of the friends I've lost to AIDS. In some ways AIDS is a more developed character than many of these human characters.
Time skips by too quickly, and I also felt the ending was rushed and does come-off a bit forced. I'm not asking for a three-hour film or a miniseries, but I just didn't "connect" with many of the characters like I hoped I would.
A similar film I now find more compelling is "An Early Frost" which takes more time to develop its characters and has (for me) a stronger emotional core.
"Longtime Companion" is a good and powerful film but the director and writers needed to linger in the rooms and by the bedsides of these wonderful characters much longer.