This early Wolfgang Petersen film tackles the controversial theme of inter-generational gay love with distinction.A convict, Martin, was jailed for having a sexual relationship with a fifteen year old boy. Martin is an actor and while in jail produces a play written by one of his fellow inmates. He needs a young actor and the son of the jail warden, Thomas, volunteers. Thomas, who is sixteen but looks about 20 (my only - minor - gripe about this film) clearly has gay tendencies and develops a crush on Martin. A relationship results with Thomas illegally staying over in Martin's cell. One of the inmates spills the beans and Martin's parole gets cancelled. He keeps in contact with Thomas, and when released they continue their relationship. Martin decides to play open cards with Thomas's father and informs him about their relationship. The callous warden subsequently stops the relationship en sends his son to a reformatory. It turns into a nightmare for the young man, and changes him psychologically, resulting in serious depression, and worse.This somber film, suitably filmed in B/W, boasts great performances by the protagonists. Directing and script were excellent, with the viewer made aware that some tragedy was in the making, right from the first few minutes. I score this excellent film 8/10.

This film certainly deserves to be better known. I think with gay cinema evaluations have to be made in the context of the era in which they were made. The simplicity, honesty, brutality, and directness of this story is exceptional for the time. It's a slender story, familiar yet different. Familiar insofar as the difficulty of maintaining a same sex relationship, especially when there is a significant age difference. But different in that it deals with a harsh (and somewhat incomprehensible) penal system. Nevertheless, American gay men will be able to relate, and translating 1970s Switzerland/Germany to a similar present-day experience will not be difficult at all. Unfortunately for us, this is a story I'm sure is happening every day all around the world.It's fascinating to see a younger Jurgen Prochnow. The other lead, the beautiful young man, was and is unknown to me, but his performance is exactly right. All the performances are spot on, in fact.If there is an amateurish aspect to this film, it's the uneven (sometimes) grainy photography. Perhaps it was shot on 16mm and blown up. The subtitles (on the Netflix version I saw) are white, and impossible to read whenever they fall on a white background. That happens a lot, unfortunately. This is a movie that deserves better.Definitely worth seeing.

This movie was superb! I truly believe that any gay or even possibly straight individual for that matter could find some enjoyment in this movie. I am touched though by the frankness of real love that could be felt all throughout this movie by the 2 leading characters. It was such a sigh of relief to finally see a movie like this one that is soooo in your face, The English subtitles are also some of the worst that I've ever seen as well, so be prepared to see that during the film. I am however, very saddened by the outcome of the film. i still though highly recommend this film as above most of the many other gay romance movies to date! Overall, this movie was a sigh of relief in all of its candidness. There was no doubting throughout this movie, that it truly felt like the love that Thomas and Martin shared between the two of each other (the 2 main characters in the film.Very moving film indeed. Definitely a classic epic worth watching and commenting on!!!!

It should never be the case that after watching a film, you sit in the awakening theater and wonder why the thing was made. What did the filmmaker think was the value of the experience, that we would let him borrow our souls for a time?I did ask that at the end of this. Its done well enough I think, at least so far as its bits. Its a story about a love, actually a simple story, about a love thwarted by a society. The reason is that we have two men, and we are supposed to (I guess) take it as a character study of a tortured existence — an injustice whose consequence we see grind these two to bits.Judging from the comments here, there is an audience of gay men for whom this matters. But I think that is less that the film has something worthwhile, than it portrays an injustice they personally know, so they simply welcome the acknowledgment. But this thing has problems. There are matters of prison: two in fact, one for each man. This is so artificial — even by movie terms — that it lets us off the hook emotionally. When we are fed something that doesn't seem situated in our world, we lose it.Also, it isn't just a love between two men, but a man and a boy. The man has a history of exploiting underage boys, and we learn that the boy has a profoundly damaged parental environment. These dynamics are written away.Petersen is a quirky guy. "das Boot" was conceived from a place of genius as a study of space. All else is ordinary and there merely to serve the goal of limited containment. Since then, in Hollywwod, he has turned into a hack. Before "das Boot" we have this, which I think we could see as a similar but failed study in containment/confinement. If so, it is worth existing, but not worth watching, not like, for example "Equus."Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.