Bent

Kuranosuke Sasaki who is my favorite actor acted in the play "Bent". I wanted to see him, so I decided to watch it without taking it too seriously. However, after the play, I regretted watching it with a light heart because it was so tragic that my heart could not bear. Since I already knew the story, I also watched the film version. This is the story of gays under control of Nazis. It is famous that Jewish put on the yellow star, but for the first time I know gays are also the target of holocaust and have the pink mark on their chest. In the situation that human is not treated as human, gays survive with the dignity and love of human beings. I feel sad, dark, disappointed and don't like such an ending. However, I think this important story should be handed down from generation to generation.

I sat down to watch this movie, and I was completely drawn into it. By the end, i thought that only 15 minutes had passed instead of an hour and a half. The subject matter (homosexual persecution during the Holocaust) was approached with the right amount of dignity and respect. Bent, furthermore, has the most powerful and original love scene that I have ever seen. I do feel that it needed more character development, but regardless it is an intensely psychological and powerful movie.

What can I possibly say about this movie that would not bring me to tears. This movie was very powerful and thought provoking. I just could not understand the hatred for human beings, just because of what religion, sexual orientation, or whether they had a big nose. I just can't for the life of me figured that out. I guess I will never figure it out.

There were some very strong scenes in this movie that tugged at my heart. The ridiculous killing of men and women for no apparent reason other than what I said above. The never ending work the prisoners did was just unspeakable. The conditions, and also the ever popular "no touching each other". The latter is the most difficult to endure for two gay men captured and put to work in the concentration camps. In one powerful scene, that I have to admit I watched over and over about five times, during one of Max and Horst's (main stars) rock moving extravaganza's, they are allowed a three minute rest period while working a twelve hour shift. They are not allowed to look at each other, they must stand up straight looking ahead (some rest period huh). Well without giving away the scene. They have what we would call very graphic and arousing phone sex. And I have to tell you, I was right there with them. This scene really brought these two prisoners much closer together and very much in love. It was beautiful.

I have a couple of things that bothered me in this movie. I really hated the way the SS men spoke to the prisoners. I mean, one word sentences like "You" - "Walk" - "Friend?" - or "Watching You". I mean for a people who claimed to be the superior race, these guys were not intelligent at all. Also the fake train outtakes that were obviously superimposed into the movie. The scenes themselves were in black and white which told the audience that they were not from the original film, but from some other movie.

Overall, this movie was profoundly incredible. It is a must see for everyone, no matter what the content of the movie - gays, murder, sex, SS men, Hitler's BS , concentration camps. You have to watch this movie with an open heart and mind to actually feel for these people, not just because they were two gay men in love and pain, because they were human beings first and foremost. 7.5 out **********. See it, you will not be disappointed.

Only half way through this film did I remember having seen a small theatre production of the play in Los Angeles a dozen years ago. I only remembered when the rock-moving scenes began. I don't recall being particularly moved by the play -- it may have been a condensed 1-act version or something. I only remember thinking it was too "talky." But, the film was very powerful and moving and enraged me! I'm also older and more aware of prejudice on every level. Every gay person...or minority of any kind (race, religion, etc.) should see this film just to remind them (us) of just HOW BAD it can get and how "humans" can become such sick animals as the Nazis were in this film. I kept thinking: "Hey, how can they keep blaming Hitler, when he was not there ordering the guards to torture and ENJOY hurting people like that?" Powerful film!

When Martin Sherman's play first appeared (with Ian McKellen as Max and Tom Bell as Horst) it caused outrage and much discussion with its sympathetic and frank treatment of forbidden love in the age of the SS.

Here it has undergone a few changes but retains its stark power. Clive Owen (probably not my first choice for the role) plays Max, the homosexual who pretends to be a Jew so he is not at the bottom of the pecking order of prisoners. The way the SS force him to prove his sexuality is shocking whether on the printed page, in a theatre, or up on the big screen. Brian Webber plays his intellectual lover Rudy with some class and it is a brief but touching performance.

Lothaire Bluteau, who I had only seen before in 'Jesus of Montreal', was brilliant in the role of Horst, the prisoner with the pink triangle who awakens Max again from his imprisoned desires. There are quiet and intense scenes between the two that are almost unbearably moving to watch, and are done within this film extremely well.

Elsewhere in the cast, Ian McKellen himself plays Uncle Freddie (but those of us who saw him as Max would love to have seen that portrayal immortalised on screen), while Mick Jagger is surprisingly good as Greta (a role which could easily be played wrong but he's spot on).

This play/film is intended to make its audience confront their prejudices, to shock, move, and inspire them. I think it is an unmissable experience - a difficult one, but worthwhile.