Rock Hudson's Home Movies

Writer-director Mark Rappaport and actor-narrator Eric Farr lead us through selected clips of actor Rock Hudson's movies from the 1950s, '60s and '70s, highlighting the subtext in the dialogue passages with gay conjecture. An amusing idea, but not enough research was done. For instance, there's far too much coverage of the Rock Hudson-Doris Day-Tony Randall comedies--what about 1965's "Strange Bedfellows", which had some dandy lines rife with innuendo? There's some amusing footage of an unnamed movie where Burl Ives (in a bath towel) acts like Hudson's jealous lover (it was 1962's "The Spiral Road"), and the film-ballet of scenes involving Hudson removing his shirt or putting on his pants (usually in front of other men) is funny. Unfortunately, the film clips appear to be third-generation, VHS-recorded sequences that look even worse when they're freeze-framed for emphasis, and Farr's wilted delivery doesn't bring out Rappaport's intended sting. *1/2 from ****

This amateurish documentary is a hodge podge of Rock Hudson's life and films cruelly twisting context and clips to suit the tedious narration. Some weird person pretends to be Rock Hudson speaking from the grave and then misuses the clips sought to prove whatever it is the narration has him speak. It is an awful documentary with creepy a host and a mean spiritedness about it all. The misuse of clips is particularly annoying. The terrible quality of the clips makes it worse. This doco is a disgrace. The truly galling thing one is left with is the shoddiness of the source materials and the overall tone of sleaziness is appalling.

Fine if you want to watch the clips, Hudson had a surprisingly large body of work.

Misleading at first, the narrator (who is indeed creepy) suggests that he is presenting Hudson's words that he himself wrote. After 15 minutes I realized not a chance that he wrote this drivel.

The creator of this so called documentary doesn't have much/any respect for the audience and their judgement, or for Hudson himself it seems.

And the premise of people being 'shocked' at his sexuality is a myth. I honestly don't know anyone who reacted in that way. Hudson was a good entertainer in the vehicles he appeared in, not many of which were high brow. But he enjoyed his work, and flashed his lovely smile frequently to show that.

It is senseless to denigrate his life by trying to reduce him to a sexual stereotype, There is a danger in suggesting Hudson was laughing at the general public for being so easily duped. I just don't think he was like that.

This film is unwatchable... The picture quality itself is very poor (2011 DVD). The title is misleading... there are no Rock Hudson home movies... This is a selection of poor quality video clips from Rock Hudson films with an actor supposedly speaking for Rock. I very much doubt he would have agreed with ANYTHING this so called documentary has to say (it says nothing about Rock but speaks volumes about the director of this garbage).

I bought this as I thought it would give an insight to Rock Hudsons private life and thoughts, it does nothing for the man or the actor. He was a man of his time and should be appreciated for the roles he created on screen... Avoid this nonsense.

With poor quality clips from Rock's movies, a narrator speaks as though Hudson himself is narrating it, letting the world in on his biggest secret.

It's like watching a year 6 portrayal of celebrity culture in Old Hollywood. As a viewer, it's embarrassing watching it. Imagine admitting you had anything to do with it!

If you're unfamiliar with Hudson's body of work, it's a good place to start... but if you're a fan, give this a wide berth. This film is nauseating.