Sticks and Stones

Sticks and Stones distributed by Something Weird Video, is a real product of it's time: 1970. Unless you were older than 12 during the 70's, the fashion will be surreal.

The movie centers on the relationship of Peter and Buddy who are throwing a party on Fire Island during the 4th. of July. There are several recognizable stereotypical characters most viewers will recognize.

It is difficult to determine if the distributor is ridiculing or trying to make a point regarding gay life in the 70's. There are ads for some of the other 'odd' films they sell. For the contemporary viewer, Sticks and Stones should be viewed as a supreme example of high camp. Get into a mellow mood and enjoy this interesting snapshot of a time before AIDS.

Many people have written that this film provides an interesting look at gay life in the 1970s.

But that is not the case. It actually depicts gay life in the 1960s, and that fact makes it an incredibly rare and special document in gay history.

Sticks and Stones was released in January of 1970, but it was filmed the summer before, in 1969. And if you don't think that makes a huge difference, consider this.

The summer of '69 was the summer of Stonewall. Indeed, since this film takes place on the 4th of July in 1969, it technically occurs only six days after the Stonewall riots, which erupted on June 28th, 1969. (I don't know the precise date Sticks and Stones was filmed, but it's clearly mid-summer of 1969.)

Historians of gay life argue that the liberation movement unleashed by Stonewall transformed gay life in cities like New York, transforming the closeted 60s into the wide open 70s relatively quickly. Within a year of Stonewall, thousands of people had come out of the closet, declared themselves to be openly gay, organized political groups and launched the vast project of gay liberation.

The immediate aftermath of Stonewall produced revolutionary ideas that would have been shocking just months earlier. Activists began marching in the streets chanting Gay is Good. The Gay Manifesto, an influential treatise of early 1970, declared war on both external homophobia and internal self-loathing.

The gay world of the 70s was a product of this explosive movement. But Sticks and Stones was filmed before any of it happened. So it's actually a reflection of the era that Stonewall was rebelling against.

At that time, virtually no one was 'out.' Even gay men who lived in the Village or the Castro often didn't admit to each other that they were gay. Many, perhaps most, assumed they were somehow 'ill.' Huge numbers went to shrinks to get cured.

As a result of this blanket of secrecy and self-loathing, there is very little documentation showing what gay life was actually like in the crucial years just before Stonewall, or how people lived and how they related to each other.

Which is one reason why Sticks and Stones is such an amazing document. It's an openly gay film made before almost anyone was openly gay. It takes us into the white hot center of a secret world - Fire Island – just before that world went public.

With its 'guru' and its rap sessions, it shows the clear connection between the hippie movement that dominated the late 60s (Woodstock happened just a few weeks later) and the soon-to-erupt gay movement.

With its sub-plot about an alcoholic boyfriend, it reflects the sad fact that Fire Island was absolutely drowning in booze, an unsurprising reaction to oppression. (People used to say that you were not a real Fire Islander until you had fallen off the boardwalk dead drunk.)

Reviewers forty years later can complain that the characters seem like stereotypes - the leather guy, the screaming queen, the pretty boy, the young innocent, etc. But they could hardly have been stereotypes in 1969, when such characters had not yet appeared in any major book, play or film, with the possible exception of the highly theatrical and artificial Boys in the Band.

A lot of the underground movies of the late 60s were not really scripted. Actors were given the outlines of a scene and a few key points and told to wing it. This gives things like the Paul Morrisey/Andy Warhol films of the same era a documentary, vérité feel.

Sticks and Stones has that feel. It is as though these are not so much professional actors as gay people chosen to play themselves. Which is possibly why almost none of them ever appeared in another film.

Instead, they now live on as embodiments of a vanished gay society on the cusp of monumental change. I highly recommend this film.

This ultra-rare gay party film shows us the hedonistic, no-worries, pre-AIDS world of Fire Island and is a fascinating time capsule of a film. This film also appears to be missing from Vito Russo's "Celluloid Closet" book on gay cinema.

The theme song "Let it always be summer" comes across as a kind of commentary on the characters, who desire to be young and attractive and enjoy themselves for as long as they can. The dialogue can be hard to hear at times, but there are some wonderful moments - the ultra-camp guy who tries to change a tire being one of the more memorable scenes - I was laughing along with him, not at him.

The English guy is so annoying and sensitive that I agreed with the back-cover blurb on the video box that you want to end up strangling him by the end of the movie - one of the key moments in the film is where he verbally attacks the camp guy, then feels guilty and apologises, launching into a maudlin story about strangling his own dog - something which he metaphorically is continuing to do... And his boyfriend has a wonderful range of bored expressions.

I also like the puzzled looks of real passengers on the New York train station as the actors invaded the space, swishing it up for the cameras. Not as heavy-going or full of "messages" as Boys in the Band, but worth a look.

This takes place on Fire Island back in the 1970s. A couple Peter (Craig Dudley) and Buddy (J. Will Deane) are throwing a 4th of July party at their house. Unfortunately their relationship is falling apart and they have to get ready for a house full of very strange guests. The rest of the movie chronicles the party and what happens between Peter and Buddy.

OK--I'm a gay man but I was 8 back when this was made. If this is a true view of what gay life was in the 1970s, I'm glad I wasn't around. From the puzzling opening credits which shows kids playing in the sand (???) this movie slides slowly into disaster. There's a guru (Robert Case) who talks nonstop about nothing of any importance. I wanted to gag the guy halfway into his first LONG speech. There's the young kid Danny who is there for his first time. There's the lesbian couple (who do nothing--except one strips for no reason). There's the leather queen. Worst of all is the effeminate man named Jimmy (Jimmy Foster). We're introduced to him and his friend (whose name I never got) when they get a flat tire. They basically scream and screech for 10 minutes and have NO idea how to fix a flat. I know some people find this funny but I found it offensive and pretty sad. The party itself is full of people you would never want to know. It's like being dumped in a party full of bad actors playing obnoxious people. With the sole exception of Dudley no one can act.

This may be valuable as a portrait of what Fire Island was like in the 1970s...but it's pretty dull viewing. This gets a 2 only for the frequent male nudity of some very nice bodies.

STICKS and STONES is a wonderful film. I have seen it at least half a dozen times. I was amazed to learn how little the gay scene has changed in the last thirty-five years.

Craig Dudley, who plays the lead, is an enormously talented actor. His voice is aesthetically pleasing and exceptionally charming. Jesse Deane does a good job of portraying his promiscuous lover. Jimmy Foster, who plays an extremely effeminate gay man, is hilarious.

On a scale of zero to ten, I would give STICKS and STONES at least a nine. Do yourself a huge favor by purchasing a copy of this extraordinary film!