Longtime Companion (1989)
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Source: JustWatch
Physical Media
In the 1980s, when a gay man died of AIDS, newspapers would not name the person he loved as his partner. The obituary might use this careful phrase: longtime companion.
In 1990, a film took that phrase, the polite words that let a paper bury a man without admitting who he was, and made it its title. LONGTIME COMPANION was the first major movie to face the AIDS crisis head on.
It nearly wasn't made. When writer Craig Lucas pitched a story about gay men and the epidemic, one producer told him, "Don't say another word. We're not interested," and hung up the phone. Hollywood would not touch it, so public television paid for it.
The film opens on the July day in 1981 when the New York Times ran its first small notice of a "rare cancer," then returns to one circle of friends each year as the disease takes them one by one.
Bruce Davison earned an Oscar nomination, the Academy's first for a film about AIDS - predating Tom Hanks in Philadelphia by three years. Davison was especially praised for the scene in which he tells his dying partner it is all right to let go.
Norman René, who directed it, died of AIDS in 1996.
About the Film
…a motion picture for everyone
- Directed By
- Norman René
- Runtime
- 99 minutes
- Released
- October 11, 1989
- Certification
- R
- Country
- United States of America
- Starring
- Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephen Caffrey
More Credits
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Language
- English
- Origin
- US
- Studios
- American Playhouse, Companion Productions, The Samuel Goldwyn Company
- Written By
- Craig Lucas
- Produced By
- Stan Wlodkowski, Lindsay Law
- Cinematography
- Anthony Jannelli
- Music
- Greg De Belles
- Also Starring
- Dermot Mulroney, John Dossett, Michael Schoeffling, Brian Cousins, Mark Lamos
- Box Office
- $4,609,953
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What isn’t much remembered is that Davison’s career had been founded largely on his willingness to portray edgy, immoral, or unpleasant people. He was a sharp, forceful actor. LONGTIME COMPANION was something of a departure from that. He played a quiet, mild-mannered, wealthy, privileged man, the less flamboyant by far of the pair, retiring, less talkative. But he was steady, he had a heart, he did not shrink. The force of his love, after retreating for most of the movie, was a galvanic revelation. He just loved, and felt, and wept, and he broke all our hearts. We forgot about LAST SUMMER and WILLARD, and simply cherished him. He was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Joe Pesci in GOODFELLAS.
James Harris I think he’s a very underrated actor. I always associate him with the PBS version of Lathe of Heaven (which, actually, I may do as one of the featured movies here).
I know it’s on YouTube, but I still haven’t watched it.
James Harris Davison won the Golden Globe though. For such a tiny film, it was a huge recognition to even have been nominated.
Indeed.
Unbelievable that this landmark film is not widely available.