Stonewall

2015 "Where Pride Began"
5.3| 2h9m| R| en
Details

Kicked out by his parents, a gay teenager leaves small-town Indiana for New York's Greenwich Village, where growing discrimination against the gay community leads to riots on June 28, 1969.

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Reviews

Console best movie i've ever seen.
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
ClusterOfCells I went into this movie with no expectations considering the horrible reviews it received and was pleasantly surprised by an excellent movie. The plot finds all the right notes, the actors own their roles and the interactions between the characters simply feel 'right' with a few scenes hitting quite close to home. The movie simply tells the coming-of-age story of a gay man from rural America in the 1960s, interwoven with the events of the Stonewall riots and I can find no fault in either storytelling or acting.There is one scene which doesn't quite sit right and may be - given the limited historical sources there are - inaccurate, but otherwise this movie is of quite surprising quality considering the director's other work. It is very, very unfortunate that it seems to have fallen prey to a bandwagon effect.Recommended without reservation.
zif ofoz What's with the bitchy reviews here? One reviewer even complains about a 'dull sex scene'! Did the negative reviewers expect porn? This film is about humans coming together to fight for their human rights, social and civil rights. And it's not a documentary! The movie itself is not a great and wonderful achievement in cinema art. What's great about it is the powerful message it brings into todays world when it is most needed.The message -- no matter who you are or where you come from and you know right from wrong - when you see or experience injustice, abuse, discrimination, take a stand and fight back. That's what is being brought to light in this film.The gay community are not outcast to be used and tossed out as trash by people of hypocritically high religious, political, and social standing. There are religious persons, political leaders, and greedy capitalist businesses that wrap themselves in the American flag, arm themselves with Jesus, the Bible, and guns and would be pleased and fulfilled with self gratitude to see the LGBT community tortured, destroyed, and killed. That's what this movie is about! It shows victims of life being forced to the bottom of society because they love differently. And once you are at the bottom 'to survive' is your goal and then you are labeled 'trash'. Your only defense is to fight back and crack a few skulls of the oppressors that pushed these people away and make them stay hidden. And that includes the family, the good religious families that see no wrong in destroying their own.Near the end of Stonewall there is a scene when Danny Winters tells Ray that when he was fighting back, pushing the cops away, screaming that they are people with rights - he felt most alive! He felt like a human with purpose! In other words he had found himself and he's not a bad person (as the people back in Indiana would have him feel about himself). And his trip back to visit friends in that cold hearted backward thinking state was a cathartic moment for him as then he realizes he's on the right path.Why so many are trashing this film is suspect. Did they actually watch the movie? This film will stay in your thoughts for quite sometime if you actually think about what life was and still is for the gay community!
gradyharp Gay themed films are n abundance right now and (lesbian couples, transgender stories, more gay characters in many films) so it seems only natural that yet another film be made about the beginning of gay rights in the US. STONEWALL does that and despite the emphasis on political corruption attempting to steal the thunder from the brave gays who initiated the change to Gay Pride it works for the most part.Many viewers will avoid the film because of the depiction of gays as being homeless, feminine street hustlers – too much so that it becomes a distraction form the other aspects of the story – but at least the message and the dates and the history are there. The plot revolves around the 1969 Stonewall Riots, the violent clash that kicked off the gay rights movement in New York City. The drama centers on Danny Winters (Jeremy Irvine), who flees to New York after an aborted coming out with Joe (Karl Glusman) and being ousted by his homophobic father (David Cubitt), leaving behind his sister Phoebe (Joey King). He finds his way to the Stonewall Inn, where he meets Trevor (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) before catching the eye of Ed Murphy (Ron Perlman), manager of the Stonewall who colludes with corrupt police and exploits homeless youth. Danny becomes close to a group of Nellie hustlers – especially Ray (Jonny Beauchamp) – and it is his association with this gay element that he eventually joins and fights for gay rights.The cast is strong, the script by Jon Robin Baitz is less than impressive, but director Roland Emmerich manages to make the blend of history and human tragedy credible. Not a great movie, but the intentions are worthy.
apache67 First off, I am gay. I was mercilessly bullied as a child back in the late 70's early 80s. It's nothing new.I have read books, articles, and seen documentaries on the Stonewall riots......having said that, the LGBT community's lynch campaign regarding the film Stonewall has once again proved that as a group we are so self indulgent and petty, so mired in our own little dramas that we cannot see the big picture.We should have lined up by the thousands to see this film (so starved we are about representation of our history, especially since integration) good or bad, accurate as we would want it to be or not. Instead what we have done is gleefully, shrilly and self-righteously and most of all in the most ignorant of ways, we have torpedoed it. What we have also done is send Hollywood a message that we as a group do not want to see movies about our history because we are so focused on being divisive as a group, and so intent into looking out for our own self as opposed to our collective well being.We always have been selfish, petty, vain, superficial...in the 70s right after Stonewall, the athletic muscle boys scoffed and ridiculed the political queens because they were too busy being liberated and getting laid.Black America stands together and supports each other....Tyler Perry can crank out countless drivel with his Medea movies and that demographic will flock. Any instance of police brutality towards an African American and that community ,rightly so, will make their voices heard.For us that is not the case. Countless gay bashings and no one ever riots in the streets.Two films have been made about the single most important event in our history. One in the 1990's and this last one. And what is our reaction? To squash any chance for some kid in the mid west to see it and have a spark of interest set off to get him or her and everything in between to go read up on the actual event.POSSIBLE SPOILER: The film is not bad, it's not great, the script is a little weak, but everyone is represented. Martha P. has her moment in the limelight. A Hispanic character very much resembling Sylvia Rivera comes very close to throwing that first brick. And the lesbian dragged out kicking and screaming that howls anguishedly "Why are you just standing there, why doesn't anyone help me?!" is featured prominently.So there's a white kid from the Midwest that provides the narrative for the story.Big deal. One thing for sure, this could have been a chance to provide awareness of this event, and like self righteous idiots we have screwed this one up. You can be sure now that Hollywood will steer clear of anything dealing with LGBT issues. Good luck making that movie on whatever fluid sexuality topic now. We've killed it. A round of applause.