A landmark film, not only in that it is the first film to deal with the AIDS crisis, but also in its portrayal of gay men and their friends. Sitting on the cusp between earlier depictions of gays as murderous or suicidal and later caricatures of funny, sexless "best friends", the men shown here are very real and very honest in their decade long struggle with death and illness. I defy you to watch Bruce Davison's heartbreaking farewell speech and not be choked up on some level of emotion. And Mary Louise Parker add a special touche. This movie has arguably the greatest final scene in gay cinema.
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timleemail14 February 2001
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gbheron24 September 2000Longtime Companion chronicles the lives of a group of gay men during the 1980s. The focus of the film is AIDS, unknown to the men when the film opens in 1981, but by the end of the story in 1989, it has become the central defining event in the lives of the survivors. Shot in almost documentary style the story is told almost matter-of-factly. But the reality of the lives of the men in the story is not matter-of-fact; they are dying and dying in the prime of their lives. It's heart-rending. In this, the movie succeeds very well, raising awareness of the effects of AIDS, and putting a human face to its victims.
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domino10037 August 2003Watching "Longtime Companion" for the umpteenth time. It still makes me weep. To watch the well knit group of friends at the genesis of AIDS is heartbreaking. Best performance is Bruce Davidson's portrayal of a man that, at first denies the disease, then has to deal with it on a personal level. In a way, this film pretty much describe the general feeling of many individuals that, at first, denied that AIDS would affect them, then have to face it head on. The issues of the film reflect society's views on the disease and the backlash that followed due to the lack of knowledge of how the disease spreads (One character's hospital visit is a perfect example).
***SPOILER ALERT!!!*** (If you haven't seen this film yet, don't go further!!!)
People talk about the ending, when the 3 remaining friends (Campbell Scott, Mary Louise Parker and Stephen Caffrey)are on the beach, you can't help but cry, because their friends had died from AIDS. In a way, it reflects what anyone that has lost someone close to them: If only the disease never existed, my friend would still be here. Poignant, touching and heartbreaking film. Bruce Davidson was robbed of a richly deserved Oscar. -
irishcoffee63013 August 2003I saw this film one night on my local PBS station not knowing what it was about. When the film opens on a crowded disco soundtracked Fire Island (1980) and I realized it was a gay themed film I was about to turn it off being a hetero male, I figured nothing here to relate too. WRONG. I stuck with the film and probably have to rate this as one of my top 10 movies ever. WOW did this film floor me! It follows a group of gay friends and lovers (and a hetero gal pal)through the AIDS plagued 80's decade. This film is truly written with insight and compassion. I found all the characters interesting and realistic with the actors portraying them excellently as well (especially Campbell Scott and Bruce Davidson). The scene with Davidson bringing his lover to his death is heartfelt and emotional but the scene at the end with the 3 survivors walking now on a silent deserted Fire Island beach as all their friends(and others) who died from AIDS milling about as they remembered them brought a lot of tears to my eyes. It is how all of us as humans try to remember those we love who have passed. I recommend this movie to all people both gay and straight because it is a film that transcends these labels and speaks to us as just humans,all in this mystery called life, as one.
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cspjenkins3 May 2003I was a physician in New York City from 1989 until 1992, and saw a tremendous number of people with AIDS. I feel that this movie, although it may appear to be dated, is an excellent portrayl of events that were all too common at that time. It gives a good sense of the confusion, misinformation, sense of being lost, and of not knowing what to do for those suffering and for their friends and companions. The actors did an excellent job in showing this. I believe that this movie is still important and merits being shown often.
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bkoganbing23 March 2013As the famous Blondie ballad The Tide Is High opens Longtime Companions the song got me thinking. The Tide was high for LGBT people in 1981 as we began winning more and more battles for civil rights ordinances in various municipalities across the country. Then life and the tide ebbed radically as a bisexual man brought a virus over from Africa that had been decimating population on that continent and it spread like a prairie fire amongst us. Longtime Companions focuses on the intertwining lives of several gay men and how the plague virus affected both the infected and those around them.
I lost so many people in the next 15 or so years I feel like an Ishmael at times, left alive to tell the tale. That's what Longtime Companions does, it tells the tale of the loss of so much from the most famous names of all like Rock Hudson to the most insignificant in the cosmic scheme of things. How much art, music, science, human freedom, name the field could have advanced if these people had lived their allotted normal lifespan. Those who survived and especially those who worked in the field have a responsibility to be Ishmaels.
Longtime Companions boasts a great ensemble cast that functions like a well tuned Rolex watch. Some of my favorites are Patrick Cassidy the soap opera hunk who loses his job and eventually his fight for life. Campbell Scott who throws himself into the fight after losing his Longtime Companion. Most of all lovers Bruce Davison and Mark Lamos and there will be no dry eyes as you see Davison guide Lamos from one world to the next.
Two things standout for me in the Eighties which decade this film covers about AIDS. The first was in 1983 and my first exposure to someone with the virus. In my working life with New York State Crime Victims Board and after I had come out at work, I got a call from a bedridden man in Tribeca whose home health attendant had just robbed him blind of everything and he called us because the cops at New York's 1st precinct refused to go to even take the report. As our office was downtown and my dear friend Ermano Stingo lived there as well, we both went to this man's flat, a rather dingy place overlooking the Hudson River that was pretty well emptied of most of what was there save this bedridden man with lesions going into his last stage of life. Sad to say both of us saw that sight a lot more over the next decade. I filled out my paper work for a claim, witnessed his signature and Ermano went to the 1st precinct to file the report on the victim's behalf. To this day I wish I could recall his name, but Ermano is also now in another world.
The second thing was the hearings for the New York City gay civil rights law. At the many forums the City Council gave us and our opposition to testify for the bill, I remember a lot of the homophobes walking in with surgical masks covering their faces as if that would prevent them from catching the disease from the opposition which they all assumed were sufferers or carriers. How ignorant they were and still are and worse how they did not want to be dissuaded from their firmly held beliefs. A frightening time for all.
To understand AIDS and its impact on LGBT people and society as well you have to see Longtime Companions. And this review is dedicated to both my claimant in the Tribeca flat and to the first person that I knew that died of AIDS, a bartender named Bobby Lynn who worked in a long since gone gay bar in Brooklyn Heights. -
mjneu592 December 2010The title is the newspaper obituary euphemism for a gay lover, and yet another discreet but frustrating reminder of how mainstream heterosexual society avoids confronting the AIDS epidemic. In an effort perhaps to offset public ignorance, Norman René's film of the same name almost resembles an AIDS awareness primer, dramatizing the deadly progress of the disease through the gay community since the summer of 1981, when 'safe sex' merely meant anything goes, but don't get caught. Like other American Playhouse productions the film is simple, unpretentious, and no less rewarding for being so straightforward. René and writer Craig Lucas have wisely resisted the temptation to make a 'Love Story'-style terminal illness melodrama, concentrating instead on the bittersweet pain and bravery of awkward hospital visitations and quiet deathbed encounters. Only the forced optimism of the final daydream rings false, unavoidably since the epidemic itself (still) has yet to be resolved by anything resembling a cure. The balance of the film is simply too honest to support such sentimental wish-fulfillment fantasies.
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This film is a brilliant look at a group of people who band together to get through the crisis of AIDS in the 1980's. I was touched with the drama shown as members of the group die, the riveting emotion shown as lovers and friends suffer from the effects of the disease.
This film is truely an excellent portrayal of companionship, and love.
Showing the world, that gay men are equal to straight as ever, and that everyone is exposed to life ending diseases. We learn that its important to love life every day, because there may not be a tomorrow. These are great rules to live by. Well Done! -
moonspinner556 January 2007Craig Lucas adapted his own play about the confusion and panic over the on-set of the AIDS disease in the early 1980s, as seen through the lives of a circle of gay men in New York. Lucas dives headfirst into the story with minimal introductions, pinpointing the initial awareness of AIDS and the different reactions to personal crises; he doesn't get into the anger--the rage--of the illness, but instead focuses on the quiet sorrow, giving the film a somewhat soft, blurry edge (it isn't a preachy film, which is good, but neither it is gripping). The wonderful cast of actors (with kudos to Mary-Louise Parker as the proverbial indefatigable gal-pal) provides warmth and emotion even as Lucas' screenplay takes curious short-cuts. The early scenes aren't shaped, and much of the handling seems static. However, as we come to know these men, the picture's obvious good intentions give way to moving human drama, leading to a conclusion which transcends sentiment. It's a sure-footed sequence, exceptionally well done. **1/2 from ****
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brunoetc23 October 2007When I watched this for the first time, I like many that went through this time period, identified with most of the characters in this movie at one time or another. I had my sister watch this movie (a devoted Pentecostal) she said it was the sadist thing she had ever seen. I felt that she got the message, Gay or Straight, this was a tragedy that had happened to everyday people, and still is happening, and not just to "those people". She, like many, never wanted to see past the homosexual thing. With this film she saw a clip of life, albeit a condensed version, of how something so out of control entered, affected and was handled by people like herself both gay and straight. I told her that was the way it I felt it was for many of us dealing with this disease that had taken so many of my friends and colleagues. I also liked how this movie didn't victimize, or make a villain out of any of the characters nor did it make anyone a saint either. I felt the topic was handled with good taste, considering how it was something most people didn't want to think about. With the majority of the audience being straight and secure in the fact that this only happened to other people who were deserving of what they got. I also felt that this movie showed the truth although a bit Hollywood and too polished (not a docudrama, definitely a movie) it did a good job of making a difficult subject much more palatable and sympathetic to folks that had never had it happen to them or to those they love. The progression of the movie conveyed the feeling most had in regards to how fast things happened. One day someone was here the next they were gone. I also felt that the actors, many non gay, did brilliant performances not playing stereotype's but keeping it real as it should be. Since most gay men and women I know don't act all that different from everyone else. I for one am tired of gays being portrayed as only hair stylist and drag queens, much as I am sure African-Americans were tired of their stereotypes of only being the hired help or as ignorant simpletons. This was not the best movie I have ever seen, but I feel it is one of the best dealing with this subject matter. The end of this movie still gets to me, every time I see it, if only that could happen like that, I too "just want to be there"
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gavin69421 September 2017The emergence and devastation of the AIDS epidemic is chronicled in the lives of several gay men living during the 1980s.
I was not particularly aware of cinema in the 1980s, but my sense today (2017) is that this is an awfully important film. HIV and AIDS did not really become something mainstream films tackled until "Philadelphia", but this film was ahead of that curve being quite open and honest.
It also deserves praise, not just for exploring the issue of HIV, but for presenting gay men without reducing them to some kind of stereotype. All too often it seems "gay movies" play up the camp factor. This is fine, of course, but tends to further the idea that the gay community and society as a whole are mutually exclusive, which is anything but the truth. -
rivkah1222 February 2001This is a truly heartbreaking film about how a group of friends is affected by the onset of AIDS. It takes us from the belief that AIDS is a "gay cancer" to present day (meaning early 90s), when gay activism for increased research is becoming common. This film will anger you at the fact that Reagan denied the existence of AIDS for so long, refusing to even mention it, and that that omission may have furthered the spread of this disease.
This is a brave film, one that doesn't flinch from eroticizing the relationships or from the horrors of dying from AIDS. ***Spoiler***Watch in particular for the almost wordless scene in which Bruce Davison (rightly nominated for an Oscar) sits by the bedside of his dying companion.
The cast is nearly pitch-perfect, including Campbell Scott, whose own relationships with his lover and friends are challenged by his own fear and misunderstanding of AIDS. The scene where he visits one of his friends in the hospital but is afraid to use his friend's bathroom speaks volumes about the misperceptions of AIDS in the 1980s.
The movie ends with an epilogue that has been criticized as too hopeful, almost tacked on. I would disagree with that. The ending doesn't minimize what came before it, but holds out hope that with activism and attention to and funding for research, a solution may yet be found. -
suzy q12329 March 2001Not a great film, and it seems kind of naive now in retrospect, but
I'm sure for it's time it was important. Basically it follows a group of
gay men from the time of the discovery of AIDS, till the present. You
get the picture. We follow their lives and loves and all that, over the
course of eight years. This was produced by American Playhouse,
and has their classy footprints all over it! As Emanuel Levy says in
his book, 'Cinema of Outsiders', Longtime Companion "is a tad
too tame and earnest in showing how a hedonistic community
becomes a therapeutic one. The film implies that AIDS improves
everyone's character; No one panics, no one deserts his sick
lover, no one gives way to despair." Still, I liked the actors and the
effort made. -
johnxmackay26 December 2001Yes, yes, it's an early gay film and it's a film about AIDS. But beyond that, it's just a so-so film. It's just not very fun to watching people dying... and that's just about what the movie is about. Gay men dying of AIDS. On the subject, I would much prefer AND THE BAND PLAYED ON and other notable documentaries which are more effective.
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benson86513 January 2005i bought the DVD and watched it the other night. cried like a baby. i remember the fairly gay crowd i saw it with originally in the movie theater. two scenes are especially going to stay in my mind forever. the ICU scene and the bedroom scene with Bruce Davison telling someone that its okay and let go. i can believe why he was nominated for an Oscar, i am amazed that he didn't win. does anyone remember who did??
The film faithfully depicts an era of gay life that shocked some people and was applauded by others. its frankness was one of its best features. it was not a soap opera but a slice of real life, both joyous and tragic. as thousands still die every year, apparently a lot of people missed the point. it had no apologies and its many relationships: brother and sister, partner and partner, friend and friend are as vital today as then. gay in those days was based on sexual experimentation, it is unfortunate that the results were/are so deadly. i really suggest young people today find this film and pay attention. and if you haven't seen this, rent it/buy it/watch it. you won't soon forget it. -
m-de-werd3 February 2015It is more than 20 years ago that I saw this film for the first time. Yesterday I have seen it for the second time and again I was deeply moved by it. For a part it is because of my personal memories of the beginning of AIDS. I had my coming out in 1981, but it was in 1984 that I first heard about the "new disease" – Europe was a few years behind in this respect. Like the people in the film at first I didn't take it seriously, but then I was struck by insecurity. Is it risky to kiss somebody, because HIV is found in saliva too? Looking back I have to be glad that my coming out was not ten years earlier. Otherwise Longtime Companion might have been my story too. Although I knew some people who have died of AIDS, none of them was a close friend of mine.
But apart from this personal aspect I think Longtime Companion is a wonderful film, probably the best about AIDS. Like the first time there were two scenes that moved me to tears: the final scene with the fantasy, where the survivors meet those who have gone. And of course the scene, where David tells his dying love to let it go. I didn't know that Bruce Davison got an Oscar nomination for this role, but he had deserved to win. -
GusF11 July 2021The first major theatrical film on the subject of AIDS, this is a superb and moving exploration of the devastating effects of the pandemic on a close-knit group of gay men. The film spans the first turbulent decade of the AIDS crisis when it went from being a little known, poorly understood disease to one which permanently changed the way that people all over the world thought about sex. Consisting of nine sections covering the period 1981 to 1989, it is wonderfully written by Craig Lucas and directed by Norman René. Tragically, René was diagnosed with HIV shortly before filming began but kept his condition to himself as he knew that he would never be insured otherwise. He died of AIDS in 1996.
The film begins on July 3, 1981, the day that an ominous article was published in The New York Times: "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals." This was the first time that what would later be called AIDS received any attention in a mainstream newspaper. The article, printed on page 20, draws varying reactions from members of the New York gay community. David Elders, played by Bruce Davison, is a little concerned but his longtime boyfriend Sean, played by Mark Lamos, is entirely dismissive of it. He jokes that the story was probably invented by the CIA to discourage gay men from having sex. Their friend Willy Wolfe, played by Campbell Scott, thinks that it is most likely caused by taking poppers. Considering that he doesn't do drugs, it doesn't particularly worry him.
Played by Stephen Caffrey and Mary-Louise Parker, Alan (universally known as Fuzzy due to his beard) and his lifelong friend Lisa, the film's only major female and straight character, are disturbed by the findings. However, they never imagine the impact that it will have on either the gay community or society at large. None of the group let it throw a dampener on the 4th of July party at Sean and David's beach house on Fire Island.
This crucial opening sequence succeeds on every level. It does an excellent job at introducing the various characters and their relationships (both romantic and platonic). Above all, it gives the audience a taste of the gay community's pre-AIDS days. Furthermore, there is a major sense of foreboding as the shadow of AIDS has fallen on the group for the first time, albeit in an indirect fashion. In many respects, the party represents one last blast before the pandemic devastates their lives.
In April 1982, Willy's best friend John Deacon, played very well by Dermot Mulroney, is admitted to hospital with pneumonia. He had shut himself off from his friends for weeks and hid his condition as he was embarrassed and ashamed. John deteriorates quickly and dies before the term AIDS is even coined. His death has a profound effect on Willy in particular, bringing the disease (then called GRID) home to him in the way that he had never expected.
Howard Palin, played well by Patrick Cassidy, is cast in the soap opera "Other People" on that fateful day in 1981. Sean is one of its writers. After a year on the soap, his character Mark becomes the first openly gay character on daytime TV. Howard is bothered by this development, not because he is concerned about being outed but because he fears that he will be typecast and will never work again. Similarly, in 1983, Sean isn't terribly enthusiastic about writing the first gay kiss scene on daytime TV as he believes that he was told to write it because he is the only gay writer on staff. That night, Sean has far more serious concerns as he discovers a mole that he has never seen before on his neck. David attempts to reassure him that he has always had it and that neither of them could have AIDS since they haven't slept with anyone else for years.
By September 1984, Sean's concerns prove to be justified as he has been hospitalised. By the following March, his condition has deteriorated to the point that he has dementia and may lose his sight. David, who is independently wealthy, devotes all of his time to caring for Sean. He helps with writing the scripts for "Other People" and hides the extent of his condition from the network. In his only film appearance, Mark Lamos gives a wonderful performance as Sean. It is heartbreaking to see this once vibrant, witty, warm man having lost control of his faculties to the point that he urinates in public and doesn't even realise that he's doing it.
By January 1986, Sean is in a state of near catatonia and the pain is unbearable. He says "Let go, let go" over and over again. In the most moving scene in the film, which is beautifully written, performed and directed, David sits with him and holds his hand, telling him that he can let go. He dies soon afterwards. Bruce Davison is fantastic in this scene, giving the best performance in the entire film. It very deservedly earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor but I think that Lamos deserved one too. David himself dies in May 1987, his own symptoms only manifesting after Sean's death. This is an excellent twist as it shows how unfair and capricious life can be sometimes.
Howard and his boyfriend Paul, played well by John Dossett, are on the periphery of the main group but still receive a great deal of screen time. In 1984, Paul is hospitalised with toxoplasmosis. He is devastated but finds himself comforting Howard as opposed to the other way round. Several months later, Paul has suffered several seizures and must answer questions to ensure that he is compos mentis. However, he maintains a brave front by making jokes, refusing to feel sorry for himself. By this time, Howard's career is suffering. In a horrible, though unintentional, parallel to René's situation in real life, he was fired from a film as the studio did not want to insure him because of rumours that he has AIDS. By September 1988, Howard has actually been diagnosed with it and hosts a Living with AIDS gala to raise money for people in his situation. He does this not only to fight the disease but to show that people with AIDS are not victims. It is implied that Paul has died by then and that Howard was inspired by his boyfriend's strength.
Willy and Fuzzy, who began a relationship after the party in 1981, are both very disturbed by how many of their friends and acquaintances are dying of AIDS and become increasingly paranoid. These feelings are excellently communicated by Scott and Caffrey in their performances. When Sean gave him a kiss on the cheek after being hospitalised in 1984, Willy immediately went to the bathroom and spent several minutes scrubbing it off. This very effective moment is the only time that the film directly addresses the many myths about AIDS and how it spread that existed in the 1980s. Fuzzy regularly checks his lymph nodes to see if they are swollen. They are so terrified of AIDS that they eventually agree to keep their relationship celibate. Although Fuzzy is initially very dismissive of Lisa's suggestion to volunteer at the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the two of them and Willy come to devote much of their time to it.
In the final scene set in July 1989, Willy, Fuzzy and Lisa try to imagine what it would be like if a cure for AIDS was discovered with Lisa commenting that he would be like the end of World War II. This is then followed by a very moving fantasy sequence in which they imagine everyone that they knew who has died of AIDS being alive, including John, Sean and David. This is a beautiful sequence which shows how the world could have been if AIDS had never existed. The very appropriate song "Post-Mortem Bar" by Zane Campbell plays in the background. As suddenly as it began, the fantasy ends and the surviving trio are brought back to the harsh and unpleasant reality of their situation.
The film also features Tony Shalhoub and Dan Butler in early roles as Paul's doctor and the film executive Walter respectively. Michael Carmine, who plays the AIDS patient Alberto, died of the disease in real life shortly after the film was released. Michael Schoeffling and Brian Cousins play Michael and Bob, the two most peripheral members of the group who don't really contribute much to the film.
In the three decades since the film was made, AIDS has gone from an invariably fatal disease to a chronic one. Two people have been cured of HIV. While an AIDS cure is not imminent, it is becoming increasingly likely, which even the most optimistic doctors could not have predicted in 1989. If anything, this makes the events of the film - and the millions of deaths that have occurred in the real world - all the more tragic.
Overall, this is an excellent, deeply moving depiction of the impact of AIDS on the American gay community. It shows that terrible pain and suffering can often bring out the best in people, something of which the onset of COVID-19 has reminded us. I would highly recommend that anyone who enjoyed the film should watch the miniseries "It's a Sin", which tells a similar story from the perspective of the British gay community of the 1980s and early 1990s. -
This film is a rather pedestrian but highly affecting depiction of the impact of AIDS on a group of mutual friends living on the East Coast. Long Time Companion's strength lies in its sincerity and directness. Unlike the hokey Philadelphia, Long Time Companion looks at its characters dispassionately--neither blaming nor excusing the behavior which led to their contracting AIDS--and simply records their fates as they decline into the later stages of the illness and death. The concluding scene is utterly devastating and makes it well worth watching the rest of the film. Convincing performances, especially by Bruce Davison.
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MarieGabrielle31 January 2006and this film should continue to make an impression over time as well. The performances by Campbell Scott, Mr. Davison and Mark Lamos deserve special mention. There is also a pivotal role with Dermot Mulroney, before he was big box-office.
Many reviewers have mentioned the theme, so I will not belabor the point. I will mention that, other than the film "The Band Played On", this film addresses the human issues involved with AIDS, or any illness. It has a message without being trite or preachy, or melodramatic. This is difficult to pull off, if you watch other movies of this genre they often do not ring true, or the performances are over the top. This movie makes the audience feel part of it, those of us who grew up in the 80's remember the Reagan jokes, the first "Dynasty" episode to address the AIDS issue, and so on. There was a lot of denial at this time, and I am not so sure there still isn't, in some sectors of society.
At any rate, you should rent or buy this movie if you haven't been able to catch it on cable. I am hard pressed to think of other movies which have addressed this issue in a sensitive, realistic way; "Torch Song Trilogy" with Harvey Fierstein and Matthew Broderick was an excellent film, but did not address the AIDS issue directly. If anyone can think of any please recommend them!. -
savichmike200117 March 2006Although topical, this movie is not dated in any way. Set in the late '80s and '90s, the film evinces timelessness in terms of dialog, music, style, set design, and costuming. In fact, the only thing that "dates" the movie is the absence of cell phones and flat-panel monitors. Unfortunately, the biggest miss is excluding larger social institutions and their reactionary background: the President, NIH, etc. But, perhaps, that is the point of the film: to keep the effects of the disease personal and gut-wrenching. Far better than "An Early Frost" and your typical made-for-TV, "disease-of-of-the-week" films. Truly great acting from a well-put together cast of believable and empathetic characters.
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Irishchatter26 February 2018It really is a tearjerker when most of the men died from aids. This movie really does remind you of the great pretender Freddie Mercary who died from the disease.
All of the guy actors were great including Mary-Louise Parker who was the only actress in this film to be hanging out with the lads. Man, when each men were dying especially the Sean character, it broke my heart that they were having dementia, becoming weak and never waking up. I never experienced someone who died of Aids in my life but seeing how Aids effects people, it just is so so sad and you feel really hopeless for not helping that person. Even typing this review my eyes are starting to water again.
Brilliant movie, it is very sad but it shouldn't be unmissable, it is just blooming well done folks, 8/10! -
Dr_Coulardeau14 October 2012A historical film from the time when AIDS struck New York City right in the core of the big apple, its artistic community. It follows the plague from July 3, 1981 to July 19, 1889 and it shows how the community was disoriented and panicked by this unknown and unheard of disease.
It took two years for the word AIDS to become common and to have the first gay kiss on a TV soap opera. They came out on the TV screen and caused more fear than surprise. Surprise would have been good in a way since people would have woken up without a hangover, but fear was the hangover.
The film concentrates on the gay community and people close to it not on the people around, the rest of the society that did not behold but stigmatized. So we do not get the horrible rejection that the gay community lived through at the time. We only follow it from behind gay eyelids.
Compassion at first meant there was some hope it could be stopped or cured with antibiotics or something. Then paranoia started settling in the minds like a real cancer in the psyche. It ate the souls and the thinking ability of everyone or nearly because it no longer was a disease but a disease that killed with certainty.
The next stop was hypochondria. Gay men started checking themselves and believing they were every single one of them the next victims. They were the hosts of a morbid fascination that injected the death process of their friends into themselves. Morbid empathy that could kill the living spirit of anyone in no time. And yet little by little the tools of some resistance came up from the minds and hands of some volunteers. And It was needed because people with AIDS started being fired because they had no insurance and they found themselves in overcrowded hospitals that did not know how to cope with the problem and only checked more or less the insurance coverage every patient had or did not have and Medicaid was by far not enough even to accompany the beneficiaries to the end.
And the absolute blank in which the gay community was for several years made most people unable to see how it was propagated, made them believe it was some kind of punishment or curse on the gay community from What did he say Ronald Reagan at the time? It is not quoted in the film. So they punished themselves with "No sex please we may have AIDS." Or even worse "No kiss please, we may have the virus in our saliva." At this point the film goes down to rock bottom and touches it with the death of Sean slowly hypnotized into letting everything go and dying in peace, with no cry, without resisting, though not without tears and suffering at the loss this death meant for him and for the one he left behind. And David who accompanied him through his last night is buried in his turn fifteen months later and his friends tell him good bye in the church of his affiliation. And we are in June 1987. What the friends say from the pulpit is the first step out of the quagmire, the first step forward in the minds of the gay members of this gay community. And now they can start resisting and fighting back and requiring the treatment, health care, and that is necessary for the still living ones to be able to learn how to live with AIDS.
Shows are organized to gather support for the sick people and the community, demonstrations are set up targeting the health services and the city hall of New York, the Mayor in particular. And they clash with the police, and they demonstrate again. "It seems inconceivable, does it? That there was ever a time before all this." When you start forgetting what the past was you start becoming able to look at the future and they did. Remembering is important but certainly not to nostalgically regret what it was.
Three survivors are on the Atlantic beach and they get ready for the next demonstration and they speak of a cure and they want to be there when it happens. Then a vision of the whole crowd they used to be runs down onto the beach and they are all there, here, with the three survivors. The ghosts of course of those who have gone away, or maybe the three survivors are already ghosts meeting with those who went before them? A last shot comes back to the three survivors. They want to be there when a cure is found, and 25 years later a cure is still not found but you can live with AIDS, and rather quite many years now. Thanks to that first generation of pioneers.
The film is from 1989. It was sad but also full of hope then and today it is still sad and still full of hope but we are convinced that even in catastrophic situations death is not the only one to win and it can even be defeated.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU -
guil1215 December 2001Following in the footsteps of AN EARLY FROST, here is yet another film with an AIDS theme to reckon with. Unlike FORST [which actually dealt with a gay couple and their parents] this deals with the gay community and several lover relationships. What I like about this film, and I did like FROST, was the honesty in telling the story of relationships. We are introduced to a group of gay friends and their mates, who spend much time together in vacationing on Fire Island, the gay resort, and in the hospital visitng each other when stricken with the unknown disease that has become a plague amongst us today. The actors brought their own individual depth to each character. I couldn't find a bad performance in the lot. Notably Bruce Davison stands out. He brings such an understanding and compassion to his work. You really believe him as he becomes his partner's companion in the last days of his life. The scene when he tells him it's okay to leave, was awesome. How can you separate the good actors from acknowledgement. Campbell Scott and Stephen Caffrey, Patrick Cassidy [and that famous kissing scene on the soap he was acting in] gave such a wonderful scene when he's in his lover's hospital room and begins to break down. The face of his lover as he listens to him cry broke my heart. John Dossett, Mark Lamos and Dermot Mulroney [and I'm not sure what actor played what role] all gave so much honesty to their work. A great ensemble of players, a delicate and honest script about a controversial disease that has by this time taken the lives of millions of young people [gay and straight], excellent direction and well photographed, I highly recommend this to everybody to see. You'll come away with a different attitude about not only gay life, but the killing disease.
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Vincentiu29 December 2006It is difficult to definite this movie. At first sight it is a movie about AIDS and the impact of illness in gay community. In fact it is only a chronicle of a time of hope and fear, jokes and firelight. "Long time companion" is slice of Reagan era but a definition of the special vision about life. Small existences are parts of powerful chains of friendship and love. A newspaper's article shatters the peace of a community. Rumurs,anxiety, confusion. And a huge waiting. The shadow of "homosexual cancer" is present like ambiguous threat. The firs victims and the glamor of film : the compassion is form of fear but this status is source of resistance. A realistic touching way to describe the relation with illness and with others. I saw this film like the root of "Angels in America". Like a pleading not for tolerance (is it no a subtle form of hypocrisy?) but for the way of empathy. And the great merit of Norman Rene is the art to create a gorgeous gallery of winsome portraits, to present their everyday existence, the enjoys, sorrows, emotions, fight, mutual assistance. A very beautiful, intelligent and impressive movie.
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namashi_18 September 2017How often do we come across a film as beautiful & heartbreaking as 'Longtime Companion'? I don't remember the last time I saw a film this affecting & emotionally resonant. This is cinema at its finest. This 1989 film is criminally underrated & features one of the finest yet overlooked performances of its time in the form of Bruce Davison.
'Longtime Companion' Synopsis: The emergence and devastation of the AIDS epidemic is chronicled in the lives of several gay men living during the 1980s.
'Longtime Companion' is about loving someone & how love can help someone's suffering lesser. We watch many gay men affected & devastated as the AIDS epidemic spreads, within their lives. We watch lovers being tested by an illness that comes & shatters their lives, we watch people suffer & die, but we also watch people not giving up on love & hope, even in such a bleak circumstance such as this. 'Longtime Companion' is about finding humanity & never letting it go. The power of Love is depicted marvelously here.
Norman René, the Director of this brave film, also died from complications of AIDS in 1996. Talk about life & its unexpected turns! René's Direction is skilled. Though this was his Directorial Debut, the understanding & the ease in the way he has handled this film, is something to be witnessed. 'Longtime Companion' is pure emotion at its peak. René's Work is truly overlooked & I hope people reading this review, take out time & experience this film. You'll be richly rewarded & moved.
Craig Lucas's Screenplay is emotionally empowering & arresting at all times. Rarely a film has defined Love & Humanity with such precision. Cinematography is perfect. Editing is crisply done. Art & Costume Design are well-done. Make-Up credits a special mention.
And now coming to Bruce Davison. In a Golden-Globe Winning & Academy-Award Nominated Performance, Davison's portrayal of a humorous, loving & brave man is nothing less of an astonishment. Davison is par-excellence. Watch the scene where he gives a farewell speech to his lover on his death bed, you'll be moved beyond bounds. Davison is masterclass, from start to end. What A Performance!
Of the rest of the cast, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, Mary-Louise Parker and Dermot Mulroney lend remarkable support. Others are great in their respective parts, as well.
On the whole, 'Longtime Companion' is Essential Viewing. Two Big Thumbs Up!