FOX has announced that the DVD of Making Love will be released on February 7, 2006.
Since they also hold the rights to two other classic gay titles, The Boys In The Band and The Lost Language of Cranes, let's hope those may soon follow.
Im a movie buff, ive heard of "The Boys In The Band" but i have never even heard of "The Lost Language Of Cranes", that one is new to me.
shareThe Lost Language of Cranes was a TV movie (1991) based on an early book by David Leavitt (his first?). Great book, so-so movie, IMO. Still, one of the first gay-themed pieces on the boob toob.
Not garnished? Not finished!
1991 = "One of the first" gay-themed TV films?
Try backing up the clock 20 years before: "That Certain Summer (1972)", 15 years: "Norman, Is that You? (1976)", or 6 years: "An Early Frost" & "Consenting Adult" (1985). These are just a couple examples. There were several others.
hey jmorris! thanks for letting us know! bj
shareRegarding "The Boys in the Band" -- I was in high school when the play was on the stage in NYC and that was my first exposure to any 'above-ground' gay theatre. --Of course, up 'til then the only gay shows I had seen were drag shows at the Cotillion Terrace in Brooklyn, not to mention numerous gay-bar follies around the city.
When BITB was made into a film, I had already been through Stonewall, I was a charter member of the Stonewall-born Gay Liberation Front (I stayed with GLF through it's entire short life), and I was a gay militant of the first order.
From a wide-eyed spectator of "Boys in the Band" on stage, I had become, at 19 years old, a gay revolutionary who was horrified by the sterotyping in the filmed version of BITB (which was very faithful to the play, BTW). I even wrote my English Lit college final-exam-paper on the subject. The professor who graded my final paper called me into his office, (I thought I was going to catch hell) and praised the paper to high-heaven and asked me if I wanted to get it published! Turned out that the Prof was gay-- which I hadn't known-- and thought that the outrage I expressed at the stereo-typical characterizations in BITB was nothing less than unheard-of. I gave him my permission, and my paper was puplished in two college journals, one gay 'underground' paper, and a handful of alternative weeklies. ...and I aced the English Lit course, as well...
Anyway, after reading these posts about "Making Love," and the mention of "Boys in the Band," I took out my videotape of "Boys" and had another look at it. --Just as an aside, I have the videotape that was released back in the 90's. At first they wanted a fortune for it-- figuring gay people would pay through the nose to see any film with a gay storyline/characters... Big corporations never stop trying to get their hands on some of that 'mythical' gay disposible income I keep hearing about.....
After watching it again, all I can say is that, yes indeed, it's full of stereotyping, but what a tour d'force it really is! -- It makes the sickeningly-SWEET "Making Love" look like the worst kind of Ladies Home Journal soap-opera!
"Boys" may be bitter-- unlike "Making Love," --but so is "Long Days Journey Into Night" bitter... so is "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" bitter..(straight characters throughout both-- which is only incidental to my comparisons)..but sometimes the bitter tea is the best tea....
The 'sweet' stuff only makes you (intellectually) fat....
Does anyone know what extras the DVD is going to have (if any?) Because I already have the film on VHS.... so I'm just wondering if it's worth investing in the DVD version or not.....
Unfortunately, the DVD will only have the added feature of the film trailer. Sad, considering that it could have at least included a mini-documentary of how much controversy this film had caused. Still, I suppose we should be grateful that this film is being released to DVD at all...
shareI bought the DVD when it was released on February 6, 2006. I also have a Video Disc from 1982 which I could not play for many years because the Video Disc player broke down. This is pre-DVD players. I noticed that the movie was out on VHS, and wondered for years why it was never released to DVD. I was there to get it as soon as it came out though!! I watched it tonight. The quality is pretty good on my 52" High Def TV. I saw that movie in the theater at least 10 times. The widescreen and clarity reminded me of seeing it at the theater again. The funny thing is I always had a crush on Harry Hamlin, but now that I'm older my attraction has turned to Michael Ontkean. I find him much more attractive than I did in 1982. Maybe he's the type of person who grows on you with time.
As far as extras on the DVD, only the trailer. For sound you have Mono or Stereo, and French and Spanish if you like. There were also a few trailers from other movies such as "Object of my Affection". That's about it.
Tapes are awkward and wear out with time. If you really liked the movie "Making Love", you might want to invest in the DVD. Then you'll get to keep it for the rest of your life and always have a relatively clear version of the movie with direct access capability. The DVD is not that expensive. I picked it up at FutureShop in Canada for $12.99
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FSM2107990&catid=14705
No extras?? That is really sad - a lost opportunity! I read an interview once with the screenwriter Barry Sandler. It was fascinating, but in it, he mentioned that there were other scenes filmed that they decided not to include. There was scenes of Zack coming out to his brother and father, but they felt it took away from the story too much. Barry stated he wrote this as "Claire's story".
Now how great would those be as extras? They could have left the movie as is, but included a section for Alternate and Additional Scenes. No extra work, the scenes are just laying around, waiting to be used. Barry, wherever you are, how about a chance at getting a look at these!