Love & Death on Long Island
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Fiona Loewi, Harvey Atkin, Jason Priestley, John Hurt, Sheila HancockBrand: Lions Gate
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-22
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Love & Death on Long Island
Movie Review: Another Bittersweet Tale Of Desperate & Unreciprocated Gay Lust Over A Young Handsome Str8 Man!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Though this kind of story has been done to death on film
& in literature, and is certainly nothing new in the history of
"Gaydom", where the fascination, infatuation, lust and longing for the Str8,
buff, handsome, ultra masculine sexy college jock, cub, otter, or military man
of gay dreams is still alive & well!
Why do people always want the most what they can't have?
An age-old question...but why?
Why do otherwise intelligent & often accomplished gay men allow
themselves to be baited, taken in, consumed by their on lusts, manipulated
by their own loneliness and/or lack of self-worth into jumping for the Str8
guy fantasy, which is always just out of their reach and will always end in heartache!
It's a sad saga which has gone on since the dawn of recorded history and
continues today in the internet age where the Str8 carrot is still being
dangled (pun intended) in front of the collective gay consciousness!
All that having been said...
Late one night, about 2 yrs ago, I was watching Showtime and came upon this
movie "Love & Death On Long Island" which was just beginning.
John Hurt was amazing as the 19th Century-esque English writer (Giles De'Ath),
a closeted gay man who was once married to a woman and is now widowed.
He lives a sheltered exsistence in the guilded age, even though (in reality)
it's the late 20th Century! He's completely out of touch with the modern world,
lives in a stately manor, and is cared for by a maid, who occasionally
gives him bits & pieces of what is going on in the real world.
He doesn't even know what a VHS or a VCR is for god's sake! (-:
Anybody who's familiar with the work of John Hurt knows that he is a
master of creating these odd duck / fish-out-of-water characters.
You get a sense that his character is a very priggish, jaded and tired,
once very lauded writer who's hey-day is far behind him.
He has been in self-imposed seclusion for 20 yrs prior to the start of the story.
Anywayz, in an attempt to connect with modern times and get some
semblence a life, he ventures to a local movie theatre where he finds,
by pure chance because he actually went to see another film, but went
inside the wrong theatre, HIS NEW REASON FOR LIVING!!--In a very handsome
but otherwise forgettable actor, a kind of James Dean/ Johnny Depp knock off
(named Ronnie Bostock), played adeptly by Jason Priestley, who stars in a
series of B-Rate, mindless, low-brow, frat house comedies ala
PORKY'S/THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN/AMERICAN PIE.
Hurt's character becomes instantly & madly infatuated with Priestley's character
to the point of unhealthy obsession!---He buys EVERY MOVIE that Priestley's
character is in and watches them over and over!---He fantasizes wildly like a
school girl over his rippling young body, his golden tawny mane of hair,
his sexy deep brooding eyes, his pouty sullen "dream boat" demeanor....
He paws over countless Hollywood magazines and other materials to learn
as much about this Ronnie Bostock as he can!
I mean, sure he thinks the dialogue and plots of his films are ridiculous,
and his acting skills are marginal at best, but he deludes himself into
thinking that with a little "tutelege" and the sage experience of an older
wiser wealthy learned man (himself), that this young virile greek god of an
actor can realize his true potential as a master thespian of Olivier's proportions!
(Ha!--The trips of the human mind!)
So he decides to leave his sheltered, guilded, 19th Century world behind
and move to (Chesterton) Long Island, NY, where he has found out that
the object of his desire lives with his actress-model girlfriend, played by Fiona Leowi.
He needs to, has to...be near him, touch him, breathe him in, HAVE HIM!!
He must infiltrate his studly god-like world, vanquish the girlfriend
and (in his most desperate of fantasies) make him see that what
THEY SHARE is something which defies convention, but alas is DESTINY!!
He does this slowly and methodically....first finding out where he lives,
then falsely befriending the girlfriend, who he merely tolerates in order
to get closer to his goal, patiently plotting and mapping out
in his sad & desperately delusional mind of the magical day when he will
meet his handsome prize, kick the girlfriend out of the beachfront condo,
and live happily ever after....just the two of them and the dog! (-:
Finally, he does meet Priestley's character and the two become friends.
He flatters and cajoles his quarry, strokes his healthy ego, makes him feel
more talented than he actually is, makes promises to write an opus of a
script which will put him on another level as an actor, etc.
But you also get a sense that Priestley's character isn't as naive as the
characters he plays...yet he's intrigued by this strange older diminuitive british
scholarly man with his flowery language, who seems to say all the right things
that he (on some level) wants to hear.
You also get a sense of the girlfriend not being as taken in by Hurt's
character's masquerade as she seems either. You get a sense that they are
both kind of letting him play himself out and reveal his true hand to them.
Fast forward to the climactic scene in the diner where, after he and Priestley's
character have just spent a day of hanging out, talking, laughing, and driving
the autumn backroads of Long Island together, he finally reveals the true nature
of his interest in his young protege, his career and more!
It's just Hurt and Priestley sitting together facing each other and the
subtle power of the scene is amazingly riveting!
Hurt is very dismissive of Priestley's girlfriend's signifigance in his life,
which you can see, really angers Priestley, but he keeps it in check.
She really is a very nice and beautiful woman and has been really
cool & tolerant of Hurt's character....but to him, she's a mere pawn in
his game nonetheless.
Let me just say that you definitely get to see what a really good actor that
Jason Priestley is in this scene, because it's all in his facial
expressions and body language as he reacts to Hurt's character's disparaging
revealations. You see a sense of betrayal, dismay, a little disgust,
seething anger at his manipulations and intentions...you almost think
that Priestley might even take a swing at him at one point.
But then, you also see a sense of compassion, empathy & even pity in his
demeanor that this poor lonely aging gay man is so empty & so desperate
for love in his miserable life that he actually moved a world away just to
try to seduce his ideal vision of male perfection!
So sad that he didn't really see Priestley's character as a real
3-D human being with thoughts, feelings, a mind or a life of his own!
He's just an objectified fantasy to him...he can't see the real guy inside.
Priestley's character alas, lovingly rebuffs Hurt's character's
affection/intentions with a firm touch and squeeze on the shoulder
as he exits his life for good! Maybe they might have been freinds...
But it's all so sorted and messy that it's ruined now, and the masquerade is over!
Then you hear Hurt's voice narrating a very long bitter and a bit condescending
letter that he writes and faxes to Priestley as he heads back to England,
and perhaps, to commit suicide.
Priestley reads the letter privately in his condo with his girlfriend
occupied outside in the background, and shakes his head in pity....
You can almost hear him saying "Poor tragic guy!"
He then recalls what a sham this whole "friendship" thing was and
rips the long fax/letter up angrily, save a parabole of the fake script
that Hurt's character writes for him where Priestley's character quotes
a great poet's words at a funeral sequence in the midst of one of those
ridiculous movies that he plays in!
Priestley's character apparently uses this in an attempt to show
his depth as an actor...we don't get to see how it was recieved by his fans.
But that's how it ends.....with a meeting/parting handshake.
I felt really bad for Hurt's character...but that's how these things
usually end when you put all of your hopes, dreams, energies and passion
into someone who can never truly be yours because that's just not who they are!
The true LTR is ultimately the one you have within yourself...
One-sided lust/love for someone is always a painful thing!
But I thought they could've at least let Hurt's character catch a glimpse
of Priestley in the buff...swimming & running nude on the L.I. beachfront
with his dog, oblivious to just how beautiful, delicious, & hella-hot
his tight defined masculine body is to behold! (With Hurt's character lingering
just out of sight, drinking him in!) (-:
That would've at least been some consolation to the fact that
Hurt's empty fantasies just couldn't be a reality!
Well, needless to say, I found this film to be quite intriguing and well done.
Kudos to John Hurt and Jason Priestley for their great performances.
Summary of Love & Death on Long Island
LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND - DVD MovieAn older artist, shunned by the white-hot media of the contemporary world, begins to glow again when he meets a handsome, not-altogether all-American boy. In 1998, two writer-directors brought extraordinary care to this subject, creating films that appeared on several top 10 lists. Gods and Monsters won an Oscar for Bill Condon's screenplay and a nomination for Ian McKellen's acting. Richard Kwietniowski's Love and Death on Long Island was forgotten during the award season. John Hurt has rarely been better as Giles De'Ath, a renowned British author of dry, laborious text. By sheer accident he sees a Porky's-type comedy at the theater: Hot Pants College II. About to leave, he spies on screen his very idea of beauty: a near-talentless American actor named Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestley, in another deft, underseen performance). So starts De'Ath's very long trek out of his shell. He is so out of touch that when he purchases a VCR (to see the original Hot Pants College, no less), he doesn't realize he needs a TV set to view the picture. By film's end, he will meet his idol and jump into an abyss. Kwietniowski's debut film has uncommon sensitivity in the realm of fantasy and dream makers. As with Gods and Monsters, its homosexual undercurrent can play comfortably in front of straight viewers looking for crisp writing, fresh perspectives, and great acting. --Doug Thomas
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