Good 80's Films: Longtime Companion

1989 Drama
From The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Directed by Norman René

Starring
Campbell Scott
Patrick Cassidy
Stephen Caffrey
Bruce Davison
Mark Lamos
Dermot Mulroney
John Dossett
Michael Schoeffling
Brian Cousins
Mary-Louise Parker

It will be remembered by some as the first feature film to put a face to AIDS.  Four years earlier there was a highly-rated TV movie, An Early Frost (Aidan Quinn, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara), that centered on a young man coming out to his parents and revealing he also had AIDS.  It was generally conceded that television would turn the corner long before the big movie studios would... until this film.  Even then The Samuel Goldwyn Company wasn't exactly one of the major studios.

Longtime Companion is a film that attracted the attention of many... especially the LGBT community but also others suffering from the disease.  I knew of some very caring straight people and many parents of those afflicted who saw it, too, and I think we all found the film informative, meaningful, sad and touching.  Critics were eloquent in their praise.

It's certainly not an upbeat film although it has a lot of lovely things to say about friendship and loyalty and caring for those less fortunate.  Wild horses couldn't have kept me from seeing it and I was pleased that I accomplished it in Los Angeles with a group of my buddies.  We all had an investment in seeing it, some perhaps, more than others.  The film meant something to me then and it means something to me now.  

The story opens in 1981... in the beginning.  It involves the lives of a gaggle of gay Manhattan friends, most of whom are at a 4th of July get-together on Fire Island.  Front and center are three couples.

A gym instructor, Willy (Scott), is just entering a live-in relationship with an entertainment attorney, Fuzzy (Caffrey), as the film opens.  David (Davison), a rich man who lives off his investments, is devoted to Sean (Lamos), a writer on a popular soap opera.  Not in the clique are Howard (Cassidy) and Paul (Dossett), although they happen to live next door to Lisa (Parker), who is Fuzzy's sister.  Paul is an up-and-coming business executive and Howard is auditioning for a role on the soap that Sean writes.

I'll hold on while you digest that.

Ok, good.  Well, then let's add another couple. Michael (Schoeffling) and Bob (Cousins) add some atmosphere in a half dozen scenes although the light doesn't shine on them as much as the others.  Getting them all together in the early scenes provides Fire Island  brunches, mimosas, tank tops, dancing at open beach bars, tanning, oiled bodies and checking out the local attractions.  Hey, we want this to be realistic, don't we? 

The story quickly finds Lisa calling one of the boys with news of an article in the Times about this new gay cancer.  She reads some of it and the scene switches to two more of them talking and picking up where she left off.  It cleverly introduces the audience to that earliest speculation while meeting our protagonists.

The single greatest take-away, of course, at the time of such phone calls was the fear and confusion.  How could this be happening?  What is causing it?  Rampant sex?  Unprotected sex?  Drugs?  Poppers?  Who will get it?  What will happen to them if they do?  What about medicine?  The film spans from 1981-89 and by those latter few years some things weren't so questioned because we knew some of the answers and most of us knew people who had died.  There have been some other fine films that have picked up the story after 1989.

There's also a single guy, John (Mulroney), Willy's best friend, who is the first in the circle of friends to die.  It started with pneumonia and quickly escalated.  Through Willy, we get to see how a person became nervous about being around infected people and we wondered if it could be spread through touching or kissing or just being in the air?  The hand sanitizer and face mask businesses saw an increase in sales.

In those days monogamous, coupled gays may have felt a little safer but what about their pasts?  Many thought using protection may be the way to go.  And could that claim of monogamy be trusted?  Some went the route Willy and Fuzzy chose... no sex at all.

Interestingly, Fuzzy and Willy (those names on a Christmas card would have me giggling) survive.  On the opposite end are David and Sean.  Both of them pass away.  Sean first discovers a spot on his leg and then on his neck.  He gets so sick that he deals with dementia.  David is a most attentive partner and caregiver and it is heartbreaking watching him tell Sean to let go.   The film is told in vignette style with the passing of time shown on the screen by flashing the year.  David dies during one of those time lapses.  Therefore when we slide into a new time frame, we are suddenly at David's funeral.  We didn't know he was sick and now he's gone.  Just like real life.

Howard and Paul don't have it so good either.  Paul dies of AIDS-related brain cancer and Howard is HIV+ but not sick.  He is let go from his soap because, although his character in the show is gay, they deem it unacceptable to employ a real gay person who has AIDS.  

The ending was especially touching.  Willy, Fuzzy and Lisa are on the beach (see the poster) and about to walk up the stairs to leave when Willy imagines scores of gay friends descending the stairs, friends that have died of the dreaded disease.  They hug and chat... until Willy comes out of his reverie.

I had never heard of director René when I first saw the film but he gave it exactly the right touch.  He himself would be dead seven years later at age 45 of AIDS.

The cast is first-rate... all of them.  It never felt like acting to me.  It also worked better because they were not huge stars then (or now, as a matter of fact).  Mulroney has the smallest part but is arguably the most well-known.  I confess that, other than the subject matter, I went because of Campbell Scott and Patrick Cassidy.  I've always found Scott to be a good actor (never forgetting his lineage) and I found Cassidy to be the hunk of the month... every month.  Caffrey also got my attention but I've never seen him in anything else.

The title is a euphemism used by The New York Times when mentioning survivors in gay obituaries.  The paper resisted saying lover or partner so it became longtime companion.  Actually, I rather liked it.

Next posting:
The final good 80's movie