Stonewall (1997/BBC Films DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: C+

 

 

Though the cover claims that this film on Stonewall is a musical, that is stretching it a good bit.  It is a comedy/drama BBC Films did get released in theaters back in 1997, but it made a limited splash.  It was at the time of the Gay New Wave, but was not considered the most key release.  Yes, there is music, but that involves lip-synching drag queens and some other soundtrack music.  That might make it a soundtrack-driven non-musical, but it is barely that.  By those standards, Saturday Night At The Baths, reviewed elsewhere on this site) would be a musical and it is not either.

 

Instead, this is a drama about relationships and harassment leading up to the famed Stonewall Civil Rights riots for Gay liberation, but the film is not enough about the time period or the events, even oddly trivializing the politics to its disadvantage.  We find out about mean police harassing gays, authorities who are gay and nothing really new, though Frederick Weller (a cousin of Robocop‘s Peter Weller) is good as a southern guy who’s come to New York to be political and the relationships he becomes involved with.  You don’t get much else.  However, this was Director Nigel Finch’s last film and it is watchable, but a definitive film about these events has yet to surface.  The other performances worked out well, though.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on film and shot in soft matte for 1.85 X 1 presentation, so you can zoom in if you have a 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 widescreen TV and enjoy the framing, though  one wonders why this is not anamorphically enhanced widescreen to begin with.  A Dolby Digital release, we only get Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo here, which is not bad, but not great.  There are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo