In 1989, playwright and screenwriter Craig Lucas and director Norman René set their sights on creating a movie that would chronicle the first years of the AIDS crisis. The project would face an uphill battle getting made and finding distribution since Hollywood wasn’t very keen on bringing a story about gay men dealing with AIDS to the big screen at that time. Taking its title from the term used by The New York Times’ obituaries section to reference the surviving partner of a deceased gay man, Longtime Companion premiered in May of 1990. The film follows a group of friends over an eight-year period from 1981 to 1989, with the movie beginning on the day The New York Times published the first article about what would go on to become the AIDS epidemic.
Yahoo! Movies interviewed the film’s screenwriter Lucas and several other people involved in Longtime Companion including actors Dermot Mulroney, Campbell Scott, Mary-Louise Parker, and Bruce Davison (who won a Golden Globe and received an Oscar nomination for his work in the film) to discuss the making of the film and its impact. Among the many difficulties the project faced, Lucas shared that the property association of the Pines in Fire Island was initially resistant to allowing them to shoot scenes there. It wasn’t until he threatened to tell the press that a place run by gays didn’t want to be associated with a movie about AIDS that the cast and crew were given the green light to film.
Casting also proved to be tough. Hollywood actors weren’t jumping at the chance to play gay like they are nowadays. Interestingly enough, Alec Baldwin had agreed to be in the movie at one point, but had to back out because of scheduling conflicts.
Watch the original theatrical trailer for Longtime Companion below:
https://youtu.be/UQkZGpKy_mU” width=”420″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”>
Many of the film’s main characters pass away as the movie progresses, but to counterbalance the sadness of those moments, Lucas and director Norman René incorporated humor as much as possible. “Norman felt very strongly that when people are under duress, they survive by laughing and seeing the absurdity in the situation they’re in,” Lucas explained.
Sadly, Norman René passed away in 1996. He discovered he was HIV-positive shortly before filming on Longtime Companion began. René did not disclose his medical condition at the time since it would have prevented him from getting the required insurance for the shoot.
The film was a critical and commercial success upon its release; however, it still faced some backlash from activists within the LGBT community who felt the movie wasn’t political enough and lacked diversity in its representation of people with AIDS. Nevertheless, Longtime Companion remains an important part of queer cinema.
Unfortunately, the movie has become hard to find these days. It is not available in DVD or digital format, nor can it be found on streaming websites such as Netflix. Ira Sachs, assistant to the director, stated, “What’s interesting to me is the disappearance of the film. I feel like it hasn’t been canonized in a way that I would like it to be. It is a really accurate depiction of a time and a group of people and a crisis.”
Watch the final scene of Longtime Companion in which three of the characters wonder if a cure for AIDS will ever be found. In a time when advances in HIV medication are being made, it is a poignant scene that still resonates.
Brian JC Kneeland
Actually – An Early Frost was 1985 – so it is an even older FIRST MAJOR Motion Picture about AIDS!
Richard Goodnight
Great movie
Kangol
Such a great film. That was a terrible time in the A!DS pandemic. So many gay and bi men and trans women were dying until the new A!DS c0cktail drugs appeared in 1993-1995.
This film captured that terrible time of loss beautifully. Everyone should see it.
Jonathan26
That scene on the beach always makes me cry.
John Kuehnle
Have it on dvd, seen it many times.
Craig Houghton
Best ending of any gay themed movie ever.
Chris-MI
I remember watching this in the theatre and it having a profound effect. I was just thinking how it might be interesting to watch it again and see how it plays in hindsight, when I read it’s not even available? Wow. I assume it’s some sort of copyright spat as people being willing to pay money for something usually gets it out of the vaults.
dvlaries
I saw it with my best buddy in a little Philadelphia boutique theater that June. We both escaped HIV, but he’s gone now after a 2009 car accident. I miss him. I believe I still have a pay channel or PBS showing of it committed to VHS. My favorite character was “Fuzzy.” Yum.
ryantbo
This movie hit me as I was coming out in the 80’s and had lost a fellow actor and friend from our rep company in Columbus, Ohio. I sat in a dark theater with members of our company and cried my eyes out several times and was sobbing at the end. This movie hit on every emotion I was feeling as a gay man and coming up in the era of AIDS.
Years later I was hired as the executive assistant to Mark Lamos, who is in the film. I got to meet so many of the wonderful cast members.
In my list of classic gay films – this is right at the top
ryantbo
@dvlaries: you can also get on DVD I have a copy
ryantbo
@dvlaries: Damn it is out of print and pretty expensive on Amazon. Maybe Ebay? Got mine when it 1st came out
NJjoe
One of my all time favorite films on AIDS of all time.
@dvlaries:
Maybe you saw it at the Ritz as I did. My favorite character was “Fuzzy” as well. He was indeed so yummy. I loved his performance doing “Dreamgirls.” It’s classic.
The one thing I love about the film is the friendship aspect. They stuck together like glue even when exchanging quips at each other. That’s a good portrayal of friendship.
Jeff Bruggeman
Everyone should see this movie!
Justin Hernandez
@Brian JC Kneeland: An Early Frost was a made for TV movie. It was great, but Longtime Companion was the first film that got a distribution deal to play in movie theaters.
Judi OMelia
Great movie..went with my friend Charles who was dying of AIDS and who had great dignity and shared with everyone that asked. I loved him dearly…and he taught me how to iron without ironing the wrinkles in. I cried like a baby during this movie because it broke my heart
Glücklich
@Jeff Bruggeman:
It’s on my list. Hadn’t heard of it until now. I’m sure I know someone who has a copy to loan me. Or even the library.
NJjoe
It should be given a 25th Anniversary release. I mean it actually made money than lost regardless of earning $1.6 million over their budget. I DVD release would make money with it’s highly regarded reputation and Oscar nomination. Everyone I know refers to this film. Re-release it!!!
timmycrawford1967
@Brian JC Kneeland: I had always thought that “An Early Frost” was the first film to come out about HIV-AIDS. Thank you for comfirming that for me, JC. THIS film, however, ranks right up there at the top as well.
MarionPaige
Interesting …
Wikipedia says Parting Glances was filmed in 1984 and released in 1986. The aids musical Zero Patience was filmed in 1993.
The final scene of Parting Glances also takes place on a beach, which is curious.
“Longtime Companions” probably served a good purpose in its day but, I prefer Zero Patience by John Greyson. Attaching “major Hollywood Film” to Companions doesn’t make it the better story.
MarionPaige
I found this quote about the movie musical Zero Patience
In examining the film from a queer theory perspective, author Michele Aaron cites Zero Patience as definitional of one of the New Queer Cinema’s central attitudes, the “def[iance] of cinematic convention in terms of form, content and genre. Aaron goes on to cite the film’s musical format as “further subvert[ing] the ways we might expect to be ‘entertained’ by such serious matters as AIDS, media representation, and the legacy of moralism and sexuality.”
Mykaels
Oh hell, I have not seen that movie in like 10 years, and the last scene made me cry like a baby. Damnit!
IvanPH
This is the first gay film i have ever seen. I was very young then and didn’t even now that it was a gay film, what gay is and that i am gay.
Jessica Wicks
There was another well done made for tv movie about HIV. As Is starring Colleen Dewhurst and Robert Carradine came out in 1986, one year after An Early Frost.
Stache99
Damn and I saw it at the Beverly Center Theater when it came out. Great film and so sad.
Glücklich
Oh dear. All the stories of sobbing. So this is more of a watch-in-bed, batch of baklava, bottle of Jack, box of kleenex flick versus catch up on a plane.
Kangol
@MarionPaige: Parting Glances is very good too. The film dramatizes how AIDS was affecting gay men but maybe mentions it specifically only once or so.
Steve Buscemi’s performance as Nick, the character who is living with AIDS, is unforgettable. Highly, highly recommended, and we could definitely use more LGBTIQ films at this level of quality.
Bruce Jensen
Good movie love it
Brian
Gay man dying of AIDS. Horrible stereotype.
It’s interesting how Hollywood’s liberals make movies about gay men but only if the roles require that they die of an illness or have been murdered (Brokeback Mountain).
CL Lassiter
Brilliant movie.
MarionPaige
@Brian: “It’s interesting how Hollywood’s liberals make movies about gay men but only if the roles require that they die of an illness or have been murdered (Brokeback Mountain).”
It’s not just Hollywood. At one point, a Gay News Blog essentially consisted of Gay Bashings Du Jour. A so-called “serious gay news site” was chock full of Gay Victim stories.
scotshot
@Brian:The subject of the film is very relevant to the era and still is today.
Please, go back to your Trollhole and STFU. Phony gays are so very pedantic.
GymJockTX
I loved this film, and still do. The acting was marvelous, and the characters seemed real to me. I saw it the first time in a movie theater in Miami in June of 1990, and cried like a baby at the final beach scene. By then, I’d already outlived a lot of my gay pals who’d lost their lives to the virus. The film still retains its special poignance for me. It was, and is, a truly beautiful testimonial to my tribe and our unique gifts, talents, foibles and challenges.
DavidIntl
Australia has just provided yet another large-budget AIDS love story – with the unfortunate title of “Holding the Man”. I went to a pre-opening screening, and it is indeed powerful. But honestly, I am really waiting for the day when we will have a major film in which the gay characters aren’t caricatures, and maybe even live happily ever after, instead of dying tragically. Or better yet, a film in which their homosexuality is merely anecdotal, and not central to the theme of the film. For most of us, our orientation is not the only thing which defines us as people, or the only interesting story we have to tell.
wpasadena
I have to admit that I didn’t like the film when I first saw it. But, as in the film, AIDS began to take the lives of friends and acquaintances, the scenes began to resonate. I cry when I think of how Bruce Davdison’s character told his lover that that it is okay to let go of the pain…that is okay to die. I cry when I think of the imagined celebration of characters both living and dead…and then cutting to reality: survivors walking on a lonely beach. Sure, it is a Hollywood movie, but it is movie released during the Reagan era, when the government and many others turned their backs to us. I now applaud this movie.
Tommyjune
I am a 63 year old gay man who is HIV-. This movie is one of the bests retelling of those early horrific days when “something” started happening. I volunteered at the AIDS hospice in Boston in the 1980s. We lost an entire generation of gay men. I lost track of how many funerals and memorial services I went to. It is unfortunate that today’s generation of young gay men have no sense of history.
Jimmy Weddle
Remember Well
Stache99
@wpasadena: Yeah, what a powerful scene. Almost too real for me.
Another one Iiked which came out a few years later was Philadelphia. The ending scene had me balling.
https://youtu.be/y7x5gNut1I8
Thom Spillman
Wow….time flies…I was wreck in the theatre watching this movie. So well done.
Tobi
I drooled over Adam “a twink in wolf’s clothing” Nathan something rotten when I first watched Parting Glances, which I saw before both An Early Frost and Longtime Companion.
Brian
I’m sorry but I am sick of gay victim story-lines. Are we so self-loathing that we have come to accept this constant stereotyping of the male-male existence?
It never ceases to amaze how self-loathing we really are. For all the talk about “gay liberation” and “coming out of the closet”, the reality is that we are trapped in the closet of self-pity. We always want to play the victim, enjoying the stereotypical illnesses that are thrown our way by the mainstream media.
Bauhaus
@Brian:
How long is it going to take before you broach the fake sexuality and evil ways of women? That’s next, right? I’m mean, you’ve got the “liberal agenda, gay identity, male-male, gay liberation” speak, firmly planted. Just get it over with, so we can get used to your new name.
NJjoe
@Brian:
You obviously didn’t live through the crisis…It wasn’t pretty by all means. It’s part of our history.
It’s a very good depiction on what was going on at the time. “LC” is not a victim-stereotypical film. It’s a about real life for gay men in the 1980’s. I lost a terrible amount of friends around this time, so stereotyping “LC” is not in my vocabulary on this one. “LC” was far from self loathing.
Catch Netflix, there are plenty of gay films on there from love stories, documentaries, to serious settings. Maybe the fluffy “Another Gay Movie…” series is up your alley. Talk about stereotypes!
BornSerious
@Brian JC Kneeland: I thought the same thing but then remembered that “An Early Frost” was a made-for-tv movie.