Wolfe's production had an electricity and dynamism and immediacy that were missing from the film. Also, Wolfe understood the inherent humor within the piece which Kushner used as a sort of pressure valve to relieve the incredible dramatic tension that periocally builds up over the course of the play. While the many political and dramtic themes dealt with are certainly very serious, Kushner was also greatly influence by gay camp humor and Ludlam's Theatre of the Ridiculous and employs that influence throughout the play. Wolfe (and actors Spinella and Wright) thoroughly understood and embraced that gay sensibility in the original production, while Nichols and Justin Kirk were clearly clueless or simply uncomfortable with it and as a result much of the humor in the film falls flat.
Nichols made the mistake of treating the material too reverentially and somberly with too many scenes slogging on at a snail's pace as if this were an O'Neill tragedy -- scenes crackled with pace and energy on stage. Without the humor, certain scenes play too melodramatically, almost soap opera-esque which undercuts the heightened stylization of Kushner's writing and make it seem almost pedestrian (especially the Joe-Harper scenes).
Nichols also seemed to want to shy away from the overtly (left-wing) political aspects of the play, editing scenes to de-emphasize the long dialogue sections (he destroyed the two Louis-Belize scenes). He (and his cinematographer) also got too swept up in fancy camera tricks and visual references (the ode the Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" in the Threshold of Revelation scene -- which was hysterical, magical and gasp-inducing on stage, but just DEPRESSING on film) when he SHOULD have been directing his actors and paying attention to the fact that Kirk, especially, had absolutely NO IDEA what he was doing -- Kirk didn't know who Prior was or how he should be played and that failure undermines the entire film (it's telling that Spinella won two consecutive Tonys for the role and dominated the stage production, but the weak performance by Kirk -- along with Nichols' direction which seemed to emphasize Joe's story over Prior's -- renders Prior into the background as just another supporting player, turning it into a different play altogether). Just a mess.
Look, I'm glad the film was made because such a masterpiece deserved to be preserved, but other than Pacino's performance which was superb (and superior to Ron Leibman, F. Murray Abraham and David Margulies, each of whom I saw on stage) and perhaps Parker as well (though I still prefer Marcia Gay Harden), I find the film inferior in every way to the stage production.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 6/7/05 at 08:12 PM
