Some of My Best Friends Are...

Yes, 1970s gay life was no picnic but it was not as bad as presented in this dark movie. But I suppose it could be this way in some situations. Too bad it was not more balanced through use of some positive characters. I was surprised to see some long-time as well as up-and-coming entertainers in this movie: Carlton, Rue and Gil. And the filming technique resembled the handheld shooting technique of more recent horror movies.

... in that it is two years post Stonewall, but there is going to be time needed - about 17 years or so - before you can explore these kinds of themes more in depths as is done in "Torch Song Trilogy".

This film is set around Christmas time at a gay bar in New York City called, the Blue Jay. "Some Of My Best Friends Are..." had a very large cast and the story bounced around from character to character or relationship to relationship exploring the dynamics of the characters or the relationships as it pertained to their personalities, attitudes, and realities associated as gay men in 1971 (when the film was made).

There are several people that were familiar to me, but I couldn't recall their names. The four characters I did recognize were Rue McClanahan (a bar customer who likes to mock some of the clientele but realizes the bar is a safe haven for her since it's unlikely any patron will make advances to her), Fannie Flag (the coat-check lady that everybody loves), Gary Sandy (narcissistic stud who looked for some yum-yum on the side once he tired of his sugar daddy), and Gil Gerard (a pilot who comes off as straight, but loves being the 'rock' for his boyfriend). It wasn't a bad film, and I'd probably want to see it again to see if I could make other observations that might have passed over me the first time around. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but there is a fight scene toward the end of the picture, and the camera work with its quick movements in a tight space containing a lot of people is quite masterful.

It's Christmas Eve at a gay bar in Greenwich Village.

It's a portrait of a bunch of isolated people who, in one of the ending statements, have nowhere else to go. The range of characters run from flashy queens all the way to uptight New Englanders who don't do anything about their sexuality but talk about it. The bar is owned by a woman who presides like a mother at a party; her staff is mostly middle-aged men who go home to their wives. There's an undercurrent of sadness under the almost hysterical holiday partying. Like many of the cheap movies of the era -- of any era, really -- the cast includes actors years after their cinematic prime, like Carleton Carpenter, the current stars of queer cinema, like Candy Darling, and performers before they became well known, like Fannie Flagg, Gil Gerard, and Rue McClanahan.

In the end, Christmas Eve is no time to be alone, and these people are more alone than most.

This film now plays a lot of gay film festivals..billed as.... " The movie you love to hate"! Of course it now looks very politically incorrect. But there was a time that it really was like this. I know..I was there! P.S. It's so much fun to see so many people who went on to greater things. Michael Bluegrass

This is an important piece of cinema. Why? Because it exposes the overall gay experience in its different facets - in this film it is represented through the characters at a bar. They spectrum of characters is like the rainbow flag even if it may not be identifiable or labeled as it is nowadays it does not mean it did not exist, it just means it was all under a few banners of the rainbow at the time. The situations are real, the pain in overwhelming and what makes this masterpiece so poignant is that this may not all be happening at one bar during one night but the film is set up as such.

These are the events lgbt people experienced on a daily basis everywhere from unrequited love only answered in the dark to family troubles to straight identified men having their side lovers. It's all there as it it today all converged beautifully and cinematically in one bar for us all to remember and never forget how times have changed and how far we've come as a society.

A brilliant piece of cinema and case study of how life was for lgbt+ back in 1971. A fine and highly recommended film.