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Home >> DVDs >> Comedy >> Boys in the Band
Product Information
1319023
Boys in the Band
 
Extraordinary. Groundbreaking. Controversial.
 
 
Features: DVD
 
William Friedkin's groundbreaking 1970 film about a group of gay friends at a birthday party who dissect their lives and relationships when a married straight friend unexpectedly appears.
 
"...a breakthrough film in the gay film genre..."  Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier
"Dynamic film version of the play. Friedkin's best directing job."  Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress
"Groundbreaking, yet entertaining too."  Luke Y. Thompson, New Times
"...this depressing -- but always entertaining -- gay birthday party is an amusing period piece indeed."  PopcornQ Review
"...lively, edgy, groundbreaking..."  Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

 


Editor's Note

Based on Matt Crowley's play of the same name, THE BOYS IN THE BAND is a hilarious farce that focuses on the personal mores and identity politics of a group of gay friends at a private birthday party in Manhattan. Released one year after Federico Fellini's SATYRICON, BOYS reflects director William Friedkin's youthful admiration of the personal European films many American directors were emulating at the time. Michael (Kenneth Nelson) is throwing a birthday party for his scathingly self-deprecating friend Harold (Leonard Frey), and the exclusive circle of friends invited are all gay men, all of whom suffer some form of the identity crises imposed by an intolerant society that requires complicit suppression. The release from social preoccupations behind closed doors results in an alcohol-induced claustrophobia, and when an unexpected visit from Michael's straight college friend takes everyone by surprise, unspoken personal revelations come boiling to the surface. With the sort of lively and rabid repartee of an Oscar Wilde play combined with the dark, psychological stalking of Edward Albee/Mike Nichols WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, THE BOYS IN THE BAND is Friedkin's most accomplished, and final, European-influenced, auteurist effort before he turned to genre and self-described commercial filmmaking.


Plot Summary

William Friedkin's THE BOYS IN THE BAND is the film version of Mart Crowley's popular Broadway play. Relationships are strained and tempers are tested in this moving and important film, which used the original Broadway cast. The story revolves around a birthday party that is thrown for a gay man by some of his gay friends. The accidental invitation and subsequent arrival of a straight friend causes everyone to rethink their roles in relationships.

 
Features
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono
Interactive Menus
Scene Selection
 
Technical Info

Release Information
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 11/11/2008
Running Time: 119 minutes
Original Release Date: 1970
Catalog ID: 887854
UPC: 00097368878549
Number of Discs: 1

Audio & Video
Original Language: English
Available Audio Tracks: English
Video: Color

Aspect Ratio
Widescreen  

 
Cast & Crew
Cliff Gorman
Robert La Tourneaux
Maud Adams
Keith Prentice
Peter White
Kenneth Nelson
Leonard Frey
Reuben Greene
Laurence Luckinbill
Frederick Combs
Gerald Greenberg - Editor
Arthur J. Ornitz - Director of Photography
Mart Crowley - Producer
John Robert Lloyd - Production Designer
Mart Crowley - Screenwriter
Carl Lerner - Editor
William Friedkin - Director

 
Awards

Golden Globe (1971)
   Kenneth Nelson, Nominee, Most Promising Newcomer - Male

 
Memorable Quotes
"As my father said to me when he died in my arms: 'I don't understand any of it; I never did.'"----Michael (Kenneth Nelson) to Donald (Frederick Combs)


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