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Summary: Wonderful, Marvelous
Review: A Truly great film that is worth owning and you never get tired of!!
Rating:
Summary: A must for your video collection
Review: A well rounded film. Rare to find such a story and very well told. This is one of the first films that I saw on the subject and it was my first gay film purchase. I have enjoyed viewing this film over 20 time easily. I hold this movie in very high regard and feel it is a must for anyone that enjoys rainbow style films.
Invest in this film and you will enjoy it many times.
Rating: 
Summary: A Honest Heartfelt Story
Review: Ahead of it's time, "Torch Song Trilogy" is perhaps the first realistic potrayal of gaylife I had seen. Part touching, part hysterical, this film evoks emotion on all levels. It was refreshing to see Mathew Broderick, at the height of his career, playing a gay character. I do remember he was in the play on broadway as a kid. I view this film as the "Steel Magnolias" for the gay crowd. Ann Bancroft as the mother steels the show.
A great evening movie for any audience. Each time I watch it, I learn something about myself.
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Summary: the real-life struggles of an aging drag-queen
Review: an aging drag-queen (arnold) finds himself struggling to deal with the concepts of love, life, and loss. Ann Bancroft gives an amazing performance as Arnolds mother. While sections of this film become cluttered with symbolism, the overall experience is outstanding!
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Summary: THE FILM THAT SAVED MY LIFE
Review: AT 13, ALONE...HARVEY GAVE ME SOMETHING THRUGH HIS FILM...HOPE.HE WILL ALWAYS BE MY ANGEL AND AT 29...HE'S STILL MY INSPIRATION
Rating:
Summary: The best gay film of all time
Review: Every person that I turn on to this movie absolutely loves it and eventually adds it to their dvd collections as a result. Even after watching TST many, many times (and believe it or not, it is playing now!) I still believe it is the very best gay themed movie of all time..and I have seen them all...Superb acting, laugh-out-loud funny and very touching...Bancroft and Fierstein shine! If you are straight (or gay in some cases) and can't stand gay people, don't even bother renting or buying this film. But, regardless of your sexual orientation, if you are a mature, openminded person, and respect all people for who and what they are, you will enjoy it. Get it. You'll love it!
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Summary: "True Grit"
Review: Fierstein bleeds himself dry for the celluloid throughout this episodic movie...jumping alternately from playful kitsch to melodrama to "fall on your arse silly" to somber malaise. The film never retreats from emotionality for long. It's fun, yet at times it's not fun. As a third-rate drag queen looking for love in the Big City, Fierstein is unsightly, and (hence) just marvelous! Forget Hollywood's Hall of Shame of gay stereotypes--Harvey offers true, vintage homo agony: it's more than entertainment, it's social studies! Watch this movie!
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Summary: The No.1 Classic Gay Drama I have Ever Watched.
Review: Finally, I have seen a gay movie which is not merely about the misery of being dumped by a gay lover or trying to come out in a family. Torch Song Trilogy is a biographical work about the life of the protagonist drag queen, Arnold. The movie starts humourously with the mother's discovery of the son hiding in a closet and trying to beautifying himself with her make-up. The mother yelled, "What are you doing in the ---". Then the mother knew what was going on. The movie can be basically divided into three parts (that's why it's titled trilogy) - his career as a professional drag queen (or politically correct - a female impersonator), during which he knew a bisexual man; his falling in love with a middle class boy who is still uncontaminated by the world. He, however, was sadly, killed by hateful discrimination. Finally, the movie has a touch of adopting a (gay) son and brings out the issue of gay parenting. The movie ends with a fight, not a reconciliation, between the mother and the gay son. Each part of the movie tells you the life and the bumpy road Arnold was living through at the moment. The movie does not depict it in a pitiful way, or else, it lets the plot bring out the emotio spontaneously to the audience. The dialogues are clever, symbolic and witty. The acting is professional and does not go over the top. The director deals with the fantastic scripts carefully and the final scene of Arnold holding the three most valuable things in his life in a chair is simply self-effacing. Torch Song Trilogy is a gay classic drama. There is nothing pretentious. The movie does not ask for your pity for Arnold's tragic life, but your understanding of what he has been through.
Rating: 
Summary: Something lost in the translation
Review: Harvey Fierstein was once a playwright of strength and wit, and a comedian of skill. His screenplay "Tidy Endings", based on a one-act stage play and filmed with himself and Stockard Channing, was one of the first notable pieces to capture the human side of the AIDS epidemic; his book for the stage musical version of "La Cage Aux Folles" was widely held to be the best thing about the show (except, perhaps, the anthemic showstopper "I Am What I Am", for years the mainstay of many a drag show and now reborn as a women's cosmetics commercial). He appears to have settled these days for being solely an actor, but sadly he only seems to have scored work in a string of grotesque campy caricatures -- most people would only know him as the makeup-artist brother in "Mrs Doubtfire", or (worse!!) as Jeff Goldblum's drama-queen assistant in "Independence Day". I'm sure that's more a comment on Hollywood's insecurity with gays than on Harvey's abilities or sentiments, but this is a man who was once a virtual poster-boy for gay liberation. He had a golden moment in 1983, when his three interconnected burlesques on gay life and relationships, collectively known as "Torch Song Trilogy", won him two Tony Awards on Broadway: one for his script, and the other for his performance in the leading role. Five years later he managed to bring the Trilogy to the screen, though at the time gay life was a subject that closed doors and left many phone calls unanswered. Kudos to Harvey for getting this made, but the end result looks like it's jumped, staggered and dragged itself through quite a number of hoops in the process of getting studio release. For the film version, Harvey rewrote, toned down and gutted his own four hours' worth of script into a distilled hour and a half of screenplay. Clearly, it's possible to cover many more ideas and tones in a trilogy of plays than in a single screenplay that must appeal to at least a segment of a mass market to be successful (or even accepted); to some degree, Harvey had to make the screenplay "safer". Sadly, perhaps inevitably, what gets lost in the process of translation is much of the humanity of the original; here, we're left with a barrage of witty, self-bitchy, one-liners and an over-compressed plot. Because a lot of the little moments are gone -- moments that made Arnold (Fierstein) so adorable in the stage script, and made much of his own particular take on life seem to be so sane -- many of the reasons for characters' attitudes and choices in the film version aren't as clear as they need to be. Some of the cut scenes (such as the hilarious depiction of anonymous sex in the back room of a gay bar) were trimmed by Fierstein himself as a responsible act in the face of the growing AIDS threat (refreshingly, in this film AIDS is not a defining feature of gay culture); other moments in the original script, I suspect, were sacrificed to appease nervous studio executives. What survives, if not classic comedy, is at least well worth seeing. Fierstein's performance is masterful, very funny, and at times quite moving; Matthew Broderick gives a brave, honest and very likeable performance; and Anne Bancroft is, for once, well-cast in a role that's large enough to prevent even her from chewing it up and spitting it out. The other two principles are more of a problem. Brian Kerwin, playing Arnold's on-off bisexual-or-maybe-not lover, is pale and uncertain, rather like his character Ed (though perhaps the fault is actually Fierstein's -- I'm not sure that in fact Harvey even likes this character in his writing); and Eddie Castrodad, as Arnold's adopted son David in the third act, is just too self-consciously precocious to raise the emotional response the script needs and is striving for. As a record of Harvey Fierstein's Tony-winning performance, this is sadly a pale ghost; something has been lost in the translation. Perhaps this work's most lasting value now lies in being a moment of gay social history. But for those whose hearts aren't closed to gay men, "Torch Song Trilogy" is worth seeing as sheer entertainment as well, and it may even draw an emotional tear to mingle with the tears of laughter.
Rating:
Summary: A welcome DVD release of a great film!
Review: Harvey Fierstein's classic film about a gay man's funny, moving quest to create his own family finally arrives on DVD! Adapted from his series of three plays, Torch Song Trilogy focuses on the life of Harvey's alter ego, Arnold Beckoff, a drag performer. In chapter one, Arnold's career is moving along well, but he dreams of having a family of his own - a family who, unlike his parents, will love and respect Arnold for who he is. Arnold meets Ed (the studly Brian Kerwin) in a bar, and they begin a relationship, but Ed, a self-identified bisexual, is not quite as comfortable with his gay side as Arnold would like. Ed's internalized homophobia and desire to keep up an outwardly heterosexual image prove too much for the couple, and Arnold finds himself single again. In chapter two, Arnold becomes involved with Alan (Matthew Broderick), a former hustler now working as a model. Arnold is leery of the handsome young man at first, but Alan's persistence wears him down, and the two become a couple. The pairing is successful, to the point where they begin the process of adopting a child together. Meanwhile, Brian has married a woman, who contacts Arnold and Alan, inviting them to spend a weekend in the country. Tensions run high, with each of the foursome checking out the competition, and the weekend turns out to be eye-opening for all involved. Back in the city, life appears to be working out for Arnold and Alan, but as the men prepare to bring their adopted son home, tragedy strikes, in the form of a gay bashing, and Arnold's world once again comes crashing down. Chapter three finds Arnold, his new 15-year-old gay son David, and now-separated houseguest Ed, preparing for a visit from Arnold's widowed mother (Anne Bancroft). Arnold and his mother finally let out all the anger and frustration that have built up over the years, battling over such basic issues as honesty, respect, and the devaluing of the emotions of others. While many issues of their relationship are left unresolved, mother and son come to an understanding, and part with an increase in caring and respect for each other. At the conclusion, Arnold is left to contemplate the joys and sorrows of the past, and the promise and possibilities of his future. This film is a gay touchstone. No matter what stage of the coming out process you are in, the messages of self acceptance and standing up for your right to be loved and respected for who you are should be affirming and motivating. Through Arnold's experiences, it is made clear that life is most fulfilling when you find your identity, choose your path, and insist that others deal with the real you, rather than allowing others to dictate your public persona. I just received my copy of the new DVD from Amazon, and I am very pleased with the release. The copy I received is a widescreen transfer of a very good print, and is the same version of the film that I saw on the big screen. In addition, the commentary track by the always-entertaining Harvey Fierstein is wonderful - filled with anecdotes about the history of the plays and film, tidbits and gossip about the film's cast and crew, and descriptions of scenes that were cut from the film due to time constraints. I would love to have seen those deleted scenes and alternate takes included on the DVD, as well as existing footage of the original plays, and/or the award shows in which the stage productions were winners. These are minor quibbles, however - on the whole, the release is an excellent one, and I highly recommend it to those who are already fans of the film and of Harvey Fierstein, as well as to those who have not yet had the pleasure of seeing Torch Song Trilogy.
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