Torch Song Trilogy

One of the best gay-themed films of all time. Definitely in the top five!

A notable film on several levels. First, it was way ahead of America in being a relatively mainstream film that treated gay men as people of depth, value, humor and worth making a film about.

This movie caught me from start to finish! Despite the fact that the objective is to understand the close and abrupt relationship between Arnold and his eccentric mother, especially due to his condition of homosexual and transvestite, this movie also brings up very good themes about such controversial issues in the 80's as the physical abuse of gays and the issue of adoption.

"That stance is progressive, not least for its time, repelling the usual guilt-tinged torment of being homosexual, Arnold is blatantly asking something almost impossible from his mother, whose worldview is completely at odds with her son's, yet, even so, they manage to squeeze some semblance of understanding that can only be germinated by unalloyed mutual love, that is, for my money, what the film really strikes home, and both Fierstein and Bancroft are firing on all cylinders, their confrontation sequences are textbook takeaways of the internecine standoff between a conservative mother and her flamboyant gay son, however antediluvian the prejudice seems to today's eyes, the essence is nothing if not limpid, acceptance excludes any form of concession, and Fierstein's astute and acerbic script takes no prisoners.

A beautiful movie that has become timeless. Arnold trying to justify his life.

A beautiful movie that has become timeless. Arnold trying to justify his life.

I discovered the play "Torch Song Trilogy" on stage in Stockholm 1986. I immediately fell in love with it and saw it five times (even though it was 5 1/2 hours long).

Watching this many years after I originally saw the film, one thing I notice is how so many of Firstein's one liners have become common statements. This wasn't cliché: Firstein himself wrote many of the comments that now are commonly held as gospel for queer people everywhere.

Award winning writer actor Harvey Fierstein portrays a shy and loveless cabaret artist who comes to terms with his bisexual lover, with the man of his dreams, and finally (in a heartbreaking confrontation sure to leave a lump in even the most stoic of throats) with his homophobic, harpy mother. The strengths of the film are those of any adapted stage play, but this isn't just another theater piece arbitrarily transferred to the screen.