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Very disappointing...

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This film is extraordinary Lee interesting as well as funny and compelling. It's a must-see movie for everyone and tells several stories all at once during one evening. It's nice to see a movie that doesn't Focus just on age, dying, or some other phenomenon in modern society. Great movie, you'll love it!

Mart Crowley hit a home run in his first at bat. This was his first screenplay and first film production. What a job! The dialogue in this film is so crisp and so good that it is virtually impossible to catch all the one-liners and zingers unless you see the movie more than once. I really get annoyed when people say this is the best gay film of all time. That may be true, but this is a great film, not just a great gay film. Leonard Frey is absolutely perfect, Kenneth Nelson runs the gamut of every emotion known to mankind, and does it convincingly. And one vignette with Cliff Gorman has got to move you; whether you are heterosexual or homosexual. Each of the actors gives it everything they have. Happy Birthday Harold.

I too am of the generation this movie portrays even though the actors in the film were born in the 1930's and even 1920's. In watching it again recently I like other reviewers was struck by how many of these characters still exist today in the gay community. Today's young gays would probably think of them as old trolls but they are being dishonest if they do not admit that they are essentially the same way - bitter and self-loathing. We still for example, hear stories of the gay boy who gets run out of his small town or his family or commits suicide. And true, there may not be as many bath houses or tea rooms around but the internet hasn't stopped the promiscuity one bit. And it's still all about looks and youth and petty jealousy and backbiting and yes, racism too. Gays still talk about chocolate queens or rice queens or taco queens, etc. The only real change I can see is something that most gays do not want to acknowledge. The character Alan makes a statement that he really does not care what people do in the private lives as long as they don't force it on others. I think that is true today for many, many people. However, today, it does appear that gays ARE forcing it on society in a way that is unnecessary. I do not know anyone who doesn't think gays are not human or that gays do not deserve rights or who wants to beat gays up, etc. but I do know many who quite frankly are sick and tired of being told that being gay is fantastic or that two men (or women) raising children from infancy is perfectly "normal" and even preferable. In other words, the gay agenda has in many ways sought to supersede the heterosexual. All in all, the film is disturbing and it is sad to see how depressed the characters seem to be but I do not buy the idea that gays are all that happy today either and I really do not think it can all be blamed on society's treatment of the subject either.

It wasn't long after I first watched The Boys in the Band, in the mid-1980s, that I went out to find a book with a copy of the play script. I re-read the script so often that I can feel I can accurately say it is downright perfect script: the dialog is always believable, interesting, consistently gives keen insights into the characters' personalities, and has some moments of delightful humor. One of the most fascinating things about how the script "builds" is that the climactic moment occurs with the utterance of a single word. I remember once a large group of us were watching the movie together and when that one word was uttered, someone gasped out loud.Is the film as good as the written word? Yes, but only almost. I am disappointed at the way some dialog was cut out of the film, and I don't just mean a long monologue by Michael in an early scene. Even towards the end there were some brief but crucial bits of dialog that would reveal even more about the personalities of the characters. For example, some other reviewers here have commented on some vicious racial slurs that are uttered in the movie, but there is a crucial line cut from the movie that explains why Bernard tolerates the fact that Emory utters those slurs. Even the Cowboy has a great line in the play that was cut out of the movie. So I recommend that people interested in the movie also try to find any book that contains the script too, and gain even better insight to the characters than you'll see in the film alone.Lastly, I strongly agree with the other reviewers here that Friedkins' direction, the camera work, and the actors are excellent, but I do have a quibble about post-production, namely the editing. There are a couple of scenes in which the process of splicing together segments of different takes is too obvious.