VHS Videos: Torch Song Trilogy Video

Average Rating:

Rating: - a wonderful tragicomedy
This is a wonderful adaption of Harvey Fierstein's Tony Award-winning play about the life and loves of the drag queen Arnold, played by the magnificent Fierstein himself. Dispite of all the tragedy (for instance the violent death of Arnolds gay lover Alan), this movie is full of warm and uplifting humor. At the end, the movie presents a honorable portrayal of a fully functional patchwork family: Arnold and his bisexual friend and former lover Ed, who take care of the adopted son David (Eddie Castrodad).
The actors (Fierstein, Matthew Broderick, Brian Kerwin and the great Anne Bancroft as Arnolds harsh morher) do a very good job. It's a good "9 out of 10" gay film - and I would give him rather 5 than 4 stars.

In addition to Fierstein's brilliantly honest script and self-depreciating performance, the film also offers knock-out performances by Anne Bancroft as Fierstein's Jewish-Mother-From-Hell and Matthew Broderick as his much younger and somewhat unlikely lover; although not in the same league with these three, supporting players Brian Kerwin strikes the right note as Fierstein's tepidly bisexual ex-lover and Karen Young is quite good as Kerwin's understandably neurotic wife. Although the film script does depart from the stage script, it remains faithful in spirit, and the film as a whole is reasonably--although not outstandingly--served by director Paul Bogart.

The film abounds with quotable lines ("I'm the pretty one") that will keep you laughing, but although it concludes on a "hope for the future" note TORCH SONG TRILOGY is not all grins and giggles by a long shot: the dramatic underpinnings are deadly serious, and at least one or two scenes will leave most viewers as shocked, angered, and heart-broken as the characters it so vividly displays. While the film isn't BOYS IN THE BAND, I think it is the only gay-themed film to date that actually approaches the artistic and emotional impact of BOYS IN THE BAND; more over, most viewers will probably find it more accessible, and many will be surprised to by a realization of much TORCH has influenced cinema's portrayal of gay characters from the 1980s right up to the present. It deserves considerably more praise and attention than it has received. Strongly recommended.