Streamers

the honesty is the basic virtue of a film who is a precise image about army, homophobia and war. a form of manifesto. but more subtle and unmerciful and giving the no doubt message in the right terms. a film about masks and vulnerability. about prejudices and about silent. in fact, a film about freedom. simple, direct and out of excuses. and this did it special. because it propose a uncompromising view about a situation who is far to be a secret. because it did not verdicts. only a coherent picture of an institution, about fears of few young men and the dialogue who becomes a large corridor. and the acting is real inspired.

There's a fair amount to like about this film but in the end it is kept too close to a stage play to fully live on its own. The acting-normally a strength for Altman-is just slightly too large, pitched for the camera and the overall production suffers from this. Only Mitchell Lichtenstein seems to play Richie for the camera and not the cheap seats in the back. (it helps that Richie is the most compelling character). Worst of all Altman-opening and closing segments aside-does little to separate this from a filmed play. His other 80's work found a cinematic motif to lean into and kept cinema alive-i.e. the monitors in Secret Honor, the mirror flashbacks in Come Back to the Five and Dime...etc. And the film ends up feeling quite stilted.

Some of this stilted vibe is the text of the play. It is exceptionally didactic and angry. I am not even sure if all the character beats make psychological sense because the characters seemed to be forced into the situations to comment on the US war on Vietnam. I am not thrilled with the film's treatment of gayness, or homophobia as well but some this is dated.

I do like really like the opening and closing...it is striking and sets the umm stage well for the tone of the film. The film has weird resonance with M*A*S*H as well. Streamers takes the protest elements of that film along with taking the military down a peg but removes the fun and gallows humor.

I'm glad I saw this-it isn't boring which is more than I can say for truly bad films.

I agree with some other reviewers that the huge flaw in this movie is the script. Maybe in live theatre this dialog is compelling, but on screen it is just bombastic. The highly formal and eloquent prose is beautiful writing, but it keeps the characters from coming alive. Nobody anywhere talks like these characters.

This could have been a powerful movie about important issues that I happen to care about a lot; it comes across instead as an acting exercise, in which very talented actors carefully read expertly crafted lines. The direction is great, as it is in every Altman movie, but I wish he had not stayed so close to the play. He usually trusted his actors more than the scripts, and not doing so in this movie was a mistake.

Every crisis is a fight's form. And the crisis is the only way to know that you are alive. "Streamers" is tale about Vietnam, self discover, fear and sentiments. About trust and friendship. About intolerance's power. And about the resistance in face of same other reality. The homoerotic aspect is only an ingredient in this great expectation and heavy uncertainty. Four boys and a war. And the struggle to adjust the news rules at the familiar past. The threat is not the war or the death. Not the superiors or the others soldiers. The threat is only your person. Each gesture, each emotion, each word may change not an opinion, a nuance in the attitude/words of the other, the self respect or the values of your life but your soul. The world is your desire's projection. And if this these is fallacious? A movie about a interior world- gift and cross.

As has been already said in so many words, this movie is a bit "stagey," with Altman sticking so close to the play instead of taking advantage of the movie aspect. Perhaps as a result, this might have been great to watch on stage, but it took forever to watch on TV. And it is very dated, with lots of racial and sexual orientation slurs. The acting was very good but again hampered by strictly following a script for a play. The setting in the barracks becomes tedious before the halfway mark, and the relatively few actors or especially extras in the background make it look too minimal. Historically, this is probably worth watching, but it is a bit tough to get through.