In many ways this is a very simple premise. And yet it is equally a most effective one. For this landmark in gay cinema charts the friendship that develops between Robert, a 32-year-old man with AIDS and David, a 25-year-old volunteer who agrees to become his ‘buddy.’ As days go by and as their time together becomes longer and more meaningful, a tender relationship develops between the two men, as David begins to understand Roberts’ unapologetically political stance, to the point of parading outside the White House come the close of the film.
In short, this is but a variant on the odd-couple scenario and that of how two people can have such a profound effect on each others lives. On a deeper level however and in the directors’ own words this marked “a complex look at a unique love that transcends pain, fear and even death.”
Remarkably scripted by writer and director Arthur J Bressan Jr in five days and shot by all accounts in nine, this shoestring budget production notably dared to address the then taboo subject of AIDS and as a consequence, became the first cinematic feature to dramatise the AIDS crisis. —gaycelluloid.com
