Longtime Companion (1989)

Such a frustrating disappointment

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

How often do we come across a film as beautiful & heartbreaking as 'Longtime Companion'? I don't remember the last time I saw a film this affecting & emotionally resonant. This is cinema at its finest. This 1989 film is criminally underrated & features one of the finest yet overlooked performances of its time in the form of Bruce Davison.'Longtime Companion' Synopsis: The emergence and devastation of the AIDS epidemic is chronicled in the lives of several gay men living during the 1980s.'Longtime Companion' is about loving someone & how love can help someone's suffering lesser. We watch many gay men affected & devastated as the AIDS epidemic spreads, within their lives. We watch lovers being tested by an illness that comes & shatters their lives, we watch people suffer & die, but we also watch people not giving up on love & hope, even in such a bleak circumstance such as this. 'Longtime Companion' is about finding humanity & never letting it go. The power of Love is depicted marvelously here.Norman René, the Director of this brave film, also died from complications of AIDS in 1996. Talk about life & its unexpected turns! René's Direction is skilled. Though this was his Directorial Debut, the understanding & the ease in the way he has handled this film, is something to be witnessed. 'Longtime Companion' is pure emotion at its peak. René's Work is truly overlooked & I hope people reading this review, take out time & experience this film. You'll be richly rewarded & moved.Craig Lucas's Screenplay is emotionally empowering & arresting at all times. Rarely a film has defined Love & Humanity with such precision. Cinematography is perfect. Editing is crisply done. Art & Costume Design are well-done. Make-Up credits a special mention.And now coming to Bruce Davison. In a Golden-Globe Winning & Academy-Award Nominated Performance, Davison's portrayal of a humorous, loving & brave man is nothing less of an astonishment. Davison is par-excellence. Watch the scene where he gives a farewell speech to his lover on his death bed, you'll be moved beyond bounds. Davison is masterclass, from start to end. What A Performance! Of the rest of the cast, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, Mary-Louise Parker and Dermot Mulroney lend remarkable support. Others are great in their respective parts, as well.On the whole, 'Longtime Companion' is Essential Viewing. Two Big Thumbs Up!

I have not seen Longtime Companion in years but remember it as profound and moving. First AIDS-related movie I saw was "An Early Frost" with Aidan Quinn which predated "Longtime Companion" by a few years. Also, therenare these : "In the Gloaming" with Robert Sean Leonard and "It's My Party" with Eric Roberts and Gregory Harrison. Also, "And the Band Played On" with Alan Alda and Matthew Modine. All exceptional.

Longtime Companion is a remarkable film that has aged extremely well in the 25 years since it was made. Shot in 35 days with a million and half dollars and a handful of unknown actors (most of which went on to stardom or at least to known actor status), Longtime Companion tells the story of discrimination and disease - the AIDS crisis during the 1980s and its most affected demographic - gay men. The most important character in the film is the disease itself, as the story follows how it gains power to change attitudes and end lives.Like the characters in the film, I was there from the beginning and remember reading that first news snippet about 'gay cancer' in 1981. EVERYTHING that happened in this film is spot on - the blame, fear, hope and even humour of dying young from a fatal std. What makes the movie so good is how tight and intimate it is, remaining focused on a group of people who know each other or are connected in some way, and the many ways that AIDS enters their lives.My only complaint about the film is the final scene when there is a preachy 'movie of the week' wrap-up moment by three characters reflecting and wishing for an end to the disease. It is unsubtle in the wake of an otherwise effortless story of real dialogue and emotions. That, and knee-length board shorts as worn by fuzzy in 1981 were inaccurate. I recall they came in about 1984

The title is the newspaper obituary euphemism for a gay lover, and yet another discreet but frustrating reminder of how mainstream heterosexual society avoids confronting the AIDS epidemic. In an effort perhaps to offset public ignorance, Norman René's film of the same name almost resembles an AIDS awareness primer, dramatizing the deadly progress of the disease through the gay community since the summer of 1981, when 'safe sex' merely meant anything goes, but don't get caught. Like other American Playhouse productions the film is simple, unpretentious, and no less rewarding for being so straightforward. René and writer Craig Lucas have wisely resisted the temptation to make a 'Love Story'-style terminal illness melodrama, concentrating instead on the bittersweet pain and bravery of awkward hospital visitations and quiet deathbed encounters. Only the forced optimism of the final daydream rings false, unavoidably since the epidemic itself (still) has yet to be resolved by anything resembling a cure. The balance of the film is simply too honest to support such sentimental wish-fulfillment fantasies.