X
- 1970
- R
- National General Pictures
- 1 h 58 m
- 1970
- R
- National General Pictures
- 1 h 58 m
Summary Tempers fray and true selves are revealed when a heterosexual accidentally intrudes on a homosexual party.
Directed By: William Friedkin
Written By: Mart Crowley
- 1970
- R
- National General Pictures
- 1 h 58 m
- 1970
- R
- National General Pictures
- 1 h 58 m
The Boys in the Band
65
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
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Where to Watch
Summary Tempers fray and true selves are revealed when a heterosexual accidentally intrudes on a homosexual party.
Directed By: William Friedkin
Written By: Mart Crowley
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
65
57% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
43% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
65
57% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
43% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
This film, directed by William Friedkin and based on Mart Crowley's breakthrough play, is often dismissed (sometimes by people who haven't seen it) as sappy and dated. But on second look, it's one of the important films of the 1970s.
Whatever a person's opinion of the play's accuracy, William Friedkin's 1970 film adaptation remains gripping, translating a story that takes place in a cramped apartment into a movie that rarely feels stagey.
The sizzle of the bon mot-tossing ensemble, intact from the stage original, is bracing and fuels the film’s momentum, along with Crowley’s lacerating dialogue.
William Friedkin directs the adaptation of Matt Crowley's off-Broadway play about a group of gay men in Manhattan speaking increasingly frankly as a birthday party wears on. Sufficiently effective that you wonder what Friedkin was thinking with Cruising. [09 Nov 2008, p.N16]
Crowley has a good, minor talent for comedy-of-insult, and for creating enough interest, by way of small character revelations, to maintain minimum suspense.
One cannot deny the historic importance of The Boys in the Band – for better or worse, this is the starting point of queer cinema. But, quite frankly, one wishes the genre had a more dignified and less bitchy way of launching – these are not the type of gay boys you want to take home to mother.
William Friedkin's direction of this 1970 film adaptation (made the year before The French Connection) doesn't do much more than underline the flaws in the material: every scene is shaped to build to the same forced hysteria.
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Production Company
Cinema Center Films,
Leo Films
Release Date Mar 17, 1970
Duration 1 h 58 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline Today is Harold's birthday. This is his present.
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Laurel Awards
• 2 Nominations
Kinema Junpo Awards
• 1 Nomination
