Here's a movie I used to crawl up in bed (or easy chair) to like a good book repeatedly when I was young. I loved Torch Song Trilogy then and probably 20 years since I've seen it last, it holds up beautifully today. But, there is one thing that baffles me.Why on Earth was Anne Bancroft passed over for the 1988 Oscar Awards? She was brilliant here and that's not to say the others, like the absolutely hilarious Harvey Fierstein or very good Matthew Broderick, weren't deserving…but she literally stole every scene and ate up her role, in a good way.Sure, she was like my own mother, in regards to her stance and some of her words – just not the enormously vocal and flamboyant flair, and she was wrong in her bigotry, but she was excellent in her disapproving Jewish mother role.Not maybe – this is why I loved this movie as a young adult and literally watched it once a month or two for a couple of years: I was just coming out when I first got my hands on this and I could relate and root for and cheer and weep and ride right along with Fierstein's creation: Arnold Beckoff. He was a drag queen, I was not, but that was the one difference. He had a bottomless heart, insecure enough to allow others to control his life, spoke with a straight edged deadpan wit, looked for love over lust and kept his head up inside even when he continuously got knocked down. I felt – and still do, I was him.This movie's beautiful from beginning to end. The drama parts, the longing, the loves, that is. The comedy, lines and reactions are as equally entertaining. The two blended so well and moved us alongside Arnold's life and tribulations wonderfully.Torch Song Trilogy tells the tale of "performer" (well, drag queen) Arnold, living alone, afraid of his mother, approved by his brother and seeking his way in NYC by trying to be his own person when he's rejected in a time frame (the 1970s) when gays were just that.First he meets Ed, who's confused, somewhat straight but Arnold falls head of heels over. Then when that ends, he meets Alan who is the epitome of true love and an all around great guy. Then, Arnold finally meets his mother, metaphorically speaking. I believe that is the trilogy of the title. Oh, and Arnold adopts a son in there, too, and that might be his third love of his life…Honestly, I never tried to find true or deeper meaning in this film than what it meant to me just as I was coming out. Now, in 2013, I'm long past that. I still feel his plight, still laugh at the jokes and absolute uproarious banter and smart lines.I'm not sure if this movie could be for a wide audience, but I wish it would. For the open-minded people, for the just coming out, for the Jewish people struggling with anything…this is a splendid movie to cherish.

Sixteen years ago,while an undergraduate in college,I decided to take an acting class for the proverbial,(bleeps)and grins,since my actual major was something else. They had us put on various selections from a limitless range of work,and they usually had us in groups,no big than four(the class was only about thirteen people). Everyone,however,was supposed to do a selected monologue. Previously reluctant to portray a gay man,I was turned on to this show primarily because Matthew Broderick had done it BOTH on stage and screen(as well as the fact that William Hurt won an Oscar playing a flamboyantly gay man and at the time I was hip to the fact that likable everyman Tom Hanks' next big role would be playing a gay man dying of AIDS,actors I also both greatly admired)and figured if Matt Broderick was up to the challenge so was I. For a class. Seen by exactly thirteen other people,my teacher included.So to do my "homework" for the show,besides reading,rehearsing and memorizing Harvey Fierstein's play(brilliant,by the way),I rented this movie,at the time already five years old and comfortably in the cheap renter bin of wherever I'd gotten it. To say I was impressed,enchanted,touched or even thoroughly entertained would be,while all accurate,seem to fail to grasp the feelings I got from this.Culled from experiences from his years as a popular Cabaret lounge performer during the early to mid-seventies,Harvey Fierstein's play was adapted for screen by the author and,in a move that might've surprised some,the playwright was again cast as the main character,Arnold Beckhoff,a brash,showy,sharp wit and bold stage presence for his adoring fans,privately a much more tentative,sensitive and angst-ridden gay man looking for love in a culture that seems to be less interested in coupling or mating(he'd love to settle down and start a family)than they are in back-room sex and secrecy. He finds love--in differing degrees--from two different men:bi-sexual schoolteacher Ed(Brian Kerwin,who actually makes the most out of what could be considered a bland,easily unsympathetic role)and full-on gay model Alan(Matthew Broderick,somewhat muted and in a hair style that will seem like AGES ago). The movie breaks down almost exactly like the play,in three vignettes tracing the stages of Arnold's painful yet often humorous tribulations towards finding that love and trying to reconcile with the love that is mutually difficult to connect:his mother(Anne Bancroft,not afraid to be unlikable,obstinate and even a little bit stereotypical).Director Paul Bogart must have some theater background,or else he was so impressed by the play that he is careful to keep this story very tight on the characters,only straying occasionally to set up the narration. Even though I'd come to believe this film as a wondrous object of viewing(and far less hyper-sentimentalized than,say Philadelphia),I hadn't seen it again and had almost forgotten about it until recently,when I ran across it in the library stacks. Seeing it again reaffirmed what I'd felt before and felt like reacquainting with an old friend,mostly fleshed in the main character,who--and this may be overstatement but I gotta say it--truly IS the embodiment and spirit of this show,and a lovely one at that.By the way,I think I graded well for doing the monologue(it was,incidentally,the opening monologue,done by Harvey in drag).I don't now honestly rightly recall.

i have seen this movie 8 times & love it more, the acting is fabulous. i recommend it 100%. Harvey Fienstein is a great actor and does a fabulous job in all his movies. and Mathew Broderick is so cute, I think he really enjoyed making this movie.i recommend this movie and broke-back mountain. you really need to see both of these movies, because they tell a story, and the story is that this is America.if you want to see good movies contact me because i know what i'm talking about.i hope everyone sees them and does a good comment on them.

I first saw this film as a young(er) gay man and enjoyed it immensely! It has camp humour, failing relationships, serious comment on mother/son relationships and the gorgeous Matthew Broderick. What more could you ask for in a film? As a post-aids story of a bitchy and very funny Jewish drag queen this hits home it's social comment in a vibrant and brash manner. In particular the scene with Arnold and his mother at the cemetery packs an emotional punch. Anne Bancroft is superb as the dry and ever critical mother. I'd recommend this film to anyone (regardless of sexual orientation) looking for laughter, pathos, larger than life characters and tragedy all mixed together in a wonderful, chaotic and sometimes touching movie.