Stonewall

1995 "The fight for the right to love"
7.1| 1h39m| PG| en
Details

A group of gay friends try to live with dignity and self-respect while events build to the opening battle in the major gay rights movement.

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Also starring Duane Boutte

Reviews

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
barbwirenv Having been the the Village in the 1960's, I can vouch for the accuracy of this film and the depiction of the Village during that era, except for a sort of inaccurate image of the exterior of the Stonewall bar.The characters are representations of real people (the head of the Mattachine Society, the leader of the Daughters of Bilitis, the mafioso and the queen coming out) that I knew in the movement back then.Being gay or trans gender back then was very rough: the scenes of police brutality are frank and graphic, especially the cops' dunking La Miranda's head under water... The cops did a similar thing to me.If you want to see how far the LGBT movement has progressed, see this film.
moonspinner55 A young gay man from the sticks comes to New York City in 1969 hoping for a better life, but finds the homosexual lifestyle just as stifled in the big city under police pressure, corruption and harassment. The legendary gay riots near the Stonewall Inn take up just five minutes of the film's running-time, the final five minutes. This low-budget, brightly-colored film is more interested in the lives that would soon be affected by the riots than in the aftermath of the violence--and so we get stock characters like the naive blond cowboy, the underworld group controlling the club, the straight-seeming activists for a Homosexual Alliance, and lots and lots of drag queens. Director Nigel Finch seems to make a concerted effort to equate homosexuality with drag behavior, and drag behavior with (ultimately) prostitution. Perhaps this was true of the times, but Finch's presentation (though not campy) has cartoonish leanings and nostalgic overtures that don't express anything more than what most people already realize: the cops were corrupt, the gays were not saints, and they clashed. There's a good movie to be made about Stonewall, but this one just scratches the surface. There are some sweet moments (a sing-along on a bus, a dance between a drag queen and a gay conservative), but just as many scenes where the tone intended hasn't a hope in hell of coming through. ** from ****
Blooeyz2001 I love this movie! The mixture of fact & fiction works very well. The music of the girl group The Shangri-Las immersed into the storyline is also an asset. These characters are so appealing & they feel like friends, so you just can't wait to see what happens next. The acting of Guillermo Diaz as La Miranda is so natural & relaxed it makes him so likable. Sexy Fred Weller as Maddy Dean is adorable. His character's faults make him all the more appealing. I get choked up every time I see him sing & play the guitar, with the others on the bus coming back from their rally, not exactly defeated, but far from being winners either. Mizz Moxie & Helen Wheels add just the right touch of campy, comic relief. Duane Boutte as Bostonia is excellent & insightful. His interaction with his homophobic homosexual lover, the Italian/American Vinny & owner of The Stonewall Inn, is passionate & sparks fly between them when they are confronting each other concerning their relationship issues circa 1969. The only character I'm not too crazy about is Brandan Corbalis as Ethan. I found him pretentious & condescending. Aside from his nice butt in the shower (if in fact that was his butt) there's nothing appealing about him really. The riot scene is fast & somewhat clumsy, yet it's electrifying & very exciting to view. All gay people should watch this film & get a feel for what happened on that hot summer night in '69. It gives you a sense of your history & what others before you endured. (The premature death of icon Judy Garland adds a bittersweet footnote to the precedings).
Boyo-2 Frederick Weller is the perfect embodiment of the frustrated gay male who is ready for a change, and a revolution to boot. He arrives in NYC, somewhat naive, and is befriended by a drag queen who introduces him to the city and its many characters. He is discouraged almost immediately but it starts a feeling in him that makes him uneasy about the way things are. At the time bars were getting raided constantly and there were other ridiculous laws, too, none of which sit well with him. He befriends another man who enlightens him about rallies, a peaceful march to Philadelphia, and takes him to Fire Island. But its all still bad, since he knows he's being treated badly because of who he is. Climax of the movie is the riot at the end, which wasn't much of one as far as I'm concerned, but the police finally found they were being stood up to, and they didn't like it.All the actors are excellent, especially Weller, who's inexplicably not a major star, and Guillermo Diaz as La Miranda, a not-as-tough-as-she-pretends-to-be drag queen. Its La Miranda's version of things, and when she says 'we're American as apple pie' as the last line of the movie, you can't help but believe her. Kudos to all involved. 9/10.