It's two years past Stonewall and now certainly a story like Some Of My Best Friends Are could now be put on the screen. Still it was only a very few straight
players who would cast in a gay film. You will see however a couple of adventurous souls you might recognize from the cast.
This film if anything shows Stonewall was for the young. The young gay men
hanging out at the Blue Jay bar on Christmas Eve aren't content to live life as was
ordained by the sexual orientation and their elders up to now. Not sure of
where the direction is going, but the younger ones don't want to settle.
The older ones are scared. Not just of the dominant straight society oppression. If anything they're afraid that the young with their agitation and
demonstrations will bring down unwanted attention. The older gay men in
this film are deeply closeted and are afraid of the door being even slightly
ajar.
The fact that back in the day the gay bars were mob controlled was certainly
noted. One of the great changes in the past 50 years was first the fact that
the mob ran fewer and fewer of these establishments. And then as the community developed non-alcoholic venues bars themselves began to decline.
Probably a good thing because drinking establishments everywhere by their
nature bring gloom after the high wears off.
Some Of My Best Friends Are is kind of an expanded version of gay life in the
early 70s that Boys In The Band showed in the middle 60s. One wonders how
that group of gay men would have taken to Stonewall.
