Longtime Companion

In the segment marked, "July 3, 1981," people dance to the song "Do You Want to Funk?", released by 'Sylvester (II)' (qv) in 1982.

Willy comes out with a bottle of wine and holds it at the neck, pouring.

When the camera changes for a closeup of the pouring he then holds it by the base of the bottle.

In the movie, July 3, 1981 is shown to be a Sundayeveryone is reading the news about a new cancer among gay men and they're doing so in the Times Sunday paper.

In fact, July 3, 1981 was a Friday.

Howard and Paul live next door to Lisa in an apartment building.

In the opening scenes, Lisa and Paul each come out of their respective apartments into the hallway at the same time, establishing her apartment on the left and the boys' apartment on the right.

Later in the movie, after Paul and Howard have gone out to dinner, the same apartments are filmed from the opposite side (through the outside windows), but instead of being mirrored as they should be (with the boys' apartment on the left and Lisa's on the right), Lisa's is still on the left and Howard and Paul's are still on the right.

Portrait of a community and an American era. realistic image of fear, friendship and solidarity.

I bought the DVD and watched it the other night. cried like a baby.

As 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.

It amazes me that so many people gush and rhapsodize over this movie. There have been enough good gay-themed movies (Parting Glances, To Forget Venice, My Beautiful Laundrette, Maurice, Alive and Kicking, to name only a few) in the past twenty-five years; by comparison, how is it that people are able to project all sorts of virtues and emotions onto a thin, tiresome, badly acted (save Bruce Davison) problem play which has no subject other than AIDS IS BAD?!

How 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.

The 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.

I agree with most that has been said here about this touching film. I'm old enough to remember the silence that came from the White House as gay men were dying of AIDS while family and friends were grieving.

Craig 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).

Longtime Companion is a remarkable film that has aged extremely well in the 25 years since it was made. Shot in 35 days with a million and half dollars and a handful of unknown actors (most of which went on to stardom or at least to known actor status), Longtime Companion tells the story of discrimination and disease - the AIDS crisis during the 1980s and its most affected demographic - gay men.