Why would anyone want to watch these types of movies that showcase the horrors of the Holocaust??? These types of horrific historic events should be shown in documentaries where the viewer wants to learn about historical events, as shocking as some were. I don't want to see sad dramas based on historical events because they certainly are not a source of entertainment for me. Also, this movie was made 20 years ago when showing two leading, masculine men in a gay LTR, living a "normal" life with a happy ending was not yet accepted. Gay marriage is the law of the land now and it's time we moved on. Let's catch up with the straight movies which have always shown straight LTRs in a positive light with happy endings!!! The movie was a total bummer. It was well done, well acted, but a total bummer. Only watch it if you want to be depressed!!!

I watched this in two stages: first half, late at night; second half the following evening. I love historical stories set in Europe during WWII. I was intrigued by the first part, even though it was quite disturbing, however, the second part between the two principles, the real heart of the story, just left me completely cold. I cared nothing for either of them. I don't even know what to say about Max, but if I did, there wouldn't be much good in it. Horst was just downright annoying and nag. I found their verbal sexual interaction boring and pretentious; I was sorry it was repeated later in the film. The action was so staid in this ridiculous situation they were in, that I was relieved when one of them was killed. Maybe you're supposed to feel that way. I don't doubt that such situations really happened, senseless as the Nazis were, but I just don't think it made for interesting story telling. Honestly, the only character I felt anything for was Rudy; I was sorry he died so early on. Just my opinion.

Adapting stage plays to the screen is a process fraught with all sorts of dangers; decisions constantly must be made as to how faithful to make the adaptation. Sometimes a very courageous director will simply give the film audience basically the same thing the stage audience saw (as with THE BOYS IN THE BAND or THE BAD SEED); others will "open up" the play to make it more cinematic; the results there tend to vary from brilliant (CABARET, for example) to awful (A CHORUS LINE).Director Sean Mathias's film version of Martin Sherman's landmark play BENT is a harrowing look at the fate of the Gay community under Nazism told through the eyes of Max (Clive Owen), a promiscuous habitué of the boy bars who is arrested along with his boyfriend Rudy (Brian Webber) the morning after bringing home a member of the SA (Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau). On the way to Dachau Max is forced to beat Rudy to death by the brutal SS guards to prove his claim that he is not homosexual; Max has decided that a yellow star (Jewish) would be less dangerous a marker than a pink triangle.In the early scenes of the film we are given a look at the Berlin club scene; Mick Jagger has a stunning cameo as Greta, a performer at the club who knows what's coming and makes an abortive attempt to warn Max, but Max won't listen; neither will he listen to his uncle Freddie (Ian McKellen), an older and more discreet man who satisfies his desires in secret with rent boys. Freddie manages to get faked papers for Max but he will not leave without Rudy, and tragically, this decision spells doom ultimately for both of them.The second half of the story focuses on Max at Dachau; he is paired with another Gay prisoner, Horst (Lothaire Bluteau), and together they are made to move heavy stones from one pile to another and back again, and again, and again. Under the incredibly dehumanizing circumstances, these two men somehow manage to fall in love; and the result is one of the most remarkable and painful love stories ever put on film.Unfortunately, you have to wait nearly an hour to get to the story of Max and Horst, which is the segment of the film that has all the power and impact of Sherman's play. The first half, despite cutting out huge chunks of dialogue, seems interminable and lacks energy; one feels that had they kept the play's first half intact it would have taken about half an hour less to get to Dachau, which is where the beating heart of the story is located.The acting is wonderful, though. Clive Owen, brought in to fill Richard Gere's shoes (Gere had played the role on Broadway but was doing another film at the time), displays a haunting vulnerability as the terrified Max, and Lothaire Bluteau's Horst is in many ways the central figure of the piece, as he stands for what happens when love and hate collide. Bluteau bares his soul in probably the best performance in the picture, though he is in very good company.I give this one a 6 because what it does well, it does exceptionally well. It's a pity that the first half is so dull; the original was anything but.

Powerful, delicate, strange. Slices of stories and one character. A film about love, deep refuges and truth. An ashes lake. It is not a film about the gay life in Nazi period. It is only invitation to choose. And to make the words basic facts. That is all. The movie, and the play, is more than a picture of a form of reality. It is more than a testimony, accusation or manifesto. It is reflection of many forms of silence. About the life as an old apple. About the evening without any morning. About the night of gestures and sleep of feelings. "Bent" is great for the traces after its end. Everybody may be Max or Horst or Rudy or the sadistic Nazi. It is simple. Cruel of simple. But this mirror of personal soul is more a game, more a joke. It is not a complicated film. In fact, it is another old Greek tragedy. A tragedy without end. Must see!