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Summary: Breath taking.
Review: This is the first gay movie I ever saw and was totally absorbed by it. I never saw drag queens perform, (fabulous!), never saw men kiss on screen before, (wow!), and never realized there really was gay life outside the small rural area that I was from. It was, and still is the best gay themed movie I have seen, an emotional roller coaster of laughter and tears.If you are gay, or someone you love is gay, this is the movie to watch.
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Summary: A GREAT GAY MOVIE
Review: This movies is incredible. when i first came out i was amazed there was a movies that portrayed gays in such a positive light. unlike most movies torch shows us that no matter who you are that we all have a problem finding that elusive perfect love. mathew brodrick should be commended for portraying arolds lover after he portyayed the son on broadway. i have had this movie for years and never get tired of watching it.
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Summary: My favortie all time movie
Review: This was my favorite movie of all time. I am a 51 year old mother and grandmother, am not gay, but love to be in the presence of truly gay men. I have one who is my very best friend, and I wish I could find more. But this little town I live in is SICK when it comes to that.I have been searching EVERYWHERE for this movie. The copy I had got eaten up by my old VCR. This is the first time I have come close to locating another copy. You can't by it thur the usual means. Anne Bancroft as Harvey's mother makes this movie. But no one can out do Harvey. He is so unique and funny and I just love everything I've seen him in. Which I must say, is NOT ENOUGH!!! Of course Matthew Broderick is great also, but my hat still goes off to Harvey!!!! THE GREATEST OF ALL TIMES!!
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Summary: Jeffrey on DVD but not Torch Song?
Review: Torch Song Trilogy is a far superior and intelligently made movie than Jeffrey. However it STILL is not on DVD. Why? Why? Why? Read the other reviewers for information on this excellent film about a Gay Drag Queen's loves and sorrows, including a stellar tour de force by Anne Bancroft as Harvey Fierstein's homophobic mother. This movie will make you laugh, cry, happy, and sad. It's superb. The best movie ever dealing with Gay issues. It also pre-dates AIDS, what a blessed relief! An honest and sometimes brutal film. IT DESERVES TO BE ON DVD!!!
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Summary: A great movie from a wonderful play
Review: Torch Song Trilogy is so called because its acts were originally presented one-by-one, months apart, at the off-Broadway La Mama Theater. It is done with a sparse set and few props, letting the incredibly funny, amazingly touching script fuel the play.
The movie version is done much more realistically, and it works! Things that are merely discussed in the play are shown to viewers. The cast is wonderfully realistic (Brian Kerwin is a bit stiff, but it works for the character of Ed.) and the script is just as good as the stage play. So many books and plays are adapted into something that is barely recognizable, but Fierstein makes his own script into something even more special.
The story benefits from the larger scope allowed by the movie.
We get to SEE the drag club, the bars, Arnold's (bunny-motif) apartment, Ed's country house and other locations merely hinted at in the play. The scenes that take place during and after the visit to the country house are somewhat confusing on stage, performed in a huge bed, but are beautifully edited in the movie. Best of all is Arnold's best friend, Murray, only talked about in the stage production. But in the movie, he's brought to magnificent life by Ken Page, filling the screen with his usual warmth and wit.
Harvey Fierstein has said that he hopes TST is like an Indian dress, made beautiful by all the little mirrors that decorate it. And truly, it is seeing and hearing *ourselves* that makes this script sparkle. You don't have to be a female impersonator to understand love and loss and laughter. This is NOT just a movie for gay men.
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Summary: A three-act life
Review: While this film is somewhat dated now, it does a very interesting job at showing gay relationships in emotional complexity -- the world of the drag queen, the world of those who are not quite out, and the problems faced by couples in terms of basic everyday human relationships.Arnold (Harvey Fierstein) is the central character, a drag-queen/playwright who is never quite accepted by his family (the mother, played by Anne Bancroft, is wonderfully performed). He goes through a three-act story (Trilogy) showing his first encounters with Ed (Brian Kerwin), the not-quite-out school teacher; his long-term relationship with Alan (played by a very nervous looking Matthew Broderick) which ends in tragedy, and finally the adopted son/mother/reacquaintance with Ed. The one-liners are rattled off with ease, and the scenes are developed in fairly predictable yet well crafted ways. This is a film derived from a stage play that, for the most part, predates the AIDS crisis, so this is not mentioned at all in the film. It does deal with discrimination and violence in peripheral ways, but this isn't central to the story, except for the inter-family relationships, primarily with Arnold and his mother. A great film!
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Summary: A movie with every emotions!
Review: You can really feel every emotions. It cleans your soul. Too bad it's not on DVD.......WHY!
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Summary: you don't need to be gay to love this movie
Review: you don't have to be gay or even friends with gays to appreciate this movie. It's theme is universal...each person's search for love and acceptance in the world we live in. Harvey Fierstein is absolutely wonderful as Arnold and Anne Bancroft shines as his mother. I own the video and can't wait for it to come out on DVD.
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Summary: You Don't Have To Be Gay To Love TORCH SONG TRILOGY
Review: You don't have to be gay to love this surprising and unpretentious little movie, which should appeal to the hidden sense of "outsider" in most viewers. The story of an overweight, overly emotional, gravel-voiced and very unglamorous drag queen who seeks true love in a society that prizes appearance over values, TORCH SONG TRILOGY is a hilarious and often poignantly touching film with a break-out performance by Harvey Fierstein, who adapts his Tony-award winning stage script and performance for the screen with considerable aplomb. In addition to Fierstein's brilliantly honest script and self-depreciating performance, the film also offers knock-out performances by Anne Bancroft as Fierstein's Jewish-Mother-From-Hell and Matthew Broderick as his much younger and somewhat unlikely lover; although not in the same league with these three, supporting players Brian Kerwin strikes the right note as Fierstein's tepidly bisexual ex-lover and Karen Young is quite good as Kerwin's understandably neurotic wife. Although the film script does depart from the stage script, it remains faithful in spirit, and the film as a whole is reasonably--although not outstandingly--served by director Paul Bogart. The film abounds with quotable lines ("I'm the pretty one") that will keep you laughing, but although it concludes on a "hope for the future" note TORCH SONG TRILOGY is not all grins and giggles by a long shot: the dramatic underpinnings are deadly serious, and at least one or two scenes will leave most viewers as shocked, angered, and heart-broken as the characters it so vividly displays. While the film isn't BOYS IN THE BAND, I think it is the only gay-themed film to date that actually approaches the artistic and emotional impact of BOYS IN THE BAND; more over, most viewers will probably find it more accessible, and many will be surprised to by a realization of much TORCH has influenced cinema's portrayal of gay characters from the 1980s right up to the present. It deserves considerably more praise and attention than it has received. Strongly recommended.
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