Trailer: The Boys in the Band

Playwright Matt Crowley responded to critics of “The Boys in the Band” who said his award-winning play unfairly depicted gay men as miserable and self-loathing by saying that there were plenty of happy gay people; they just weren’t at this party. “The Boys in the Band” was ground-breaking in 1968 for its frank depiction of a range of gay characters, gathered for a birthday party that devolves into angry confrontations and confessions. The 1970 movie was a part of a new generation of films at the end of the claustrophobic Hayes Code era, when even the duration of (heterosexual) kisses was strictly monitored.

This new version, with the cast that brought the play to Broadway for the first time, is a look back, before Pride, before AIDS, and it looks like a sobering reminder of the pain of not being allowed to be who you are.