Revisiting 'Longtime Companion'

Though it's impossible to find streaming anywhere, I'm glad I still have my DVD of this important film that deserves to not be forgotten.

June is winding down and that means what we know as Pride Month is also ending though, come on, it’s a good thing to be prideful of who you are every day of the year. But one of my personal traditions this month is to dive back into some classic LGBTQ+ movies: Torch Song Trilogy, Trick, Brokeback Mountain, Call Me By Your Name, Victor/Victoria, Love, Simon, and Philadelphia. But I saved one of my favorites for last, 1989’s Longtime Companion.

The film begins in 1981 where a group of gay friends are living their best lives on Fire Island but everything changes when the now-infamous July 3, 1981 New York Times article on a ‘gay cancer’ is published and it sends a ripple effect through all the friends as life suddenly changes in a big way.

The ‘gay cancer,’ as it was initially called, was AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and the film beautifully depicts how this group of friends deal with the initial news and then digs even deeper as some of them get sick and, yes, some die. The early confusion over what this disease was, what causes it, how do you catch it and, later, the activism that builds as the epidemic becomes much bigger than the LGBTQ+ community.

One thing that has kept me coming back to this film classic year after year is that it’s not just a checklist of what happened during this time but, instead, you get a very human story of how a community comes together during a tumultuous time. And what crosses my mind every year including this one is how so much of this history needs to be retold so the current generation of LGBTQ+ people understand what came ahead of them and how it very much played a part in the freedom they have today in being out and proud. It’s also not lost on me that all those rights we fought so hard to get (such as a seemingly simple thing like marriage) is being targeted now more than ever in the world.

Directed by Norman René and written by his frequent collaborator, Craig Lucas, the film was critically acclaimed and racked up prestigious awards like the Audience Award: Drama at the Sundance Film Festival as well as numerous accolades for Bruce Davison, who was nominated for the Academy Award but went on to win a Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award, GLAAD Award, National Society of Film Critics Award and the New York Film Critics Circle Award.

Besides Davison, the stellar cast includes Campbell Scott, Dermot Mulroney, Mark Lamos, Stephen Caffrey, Patrick Cassidy, Michael Schoeffling, John Dossett and Mary Louise Parker.

Now the not so great news. I wish I could tell you where to stream the film but as of publishing this post, I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. Google searches told me it was able to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video or the Roku Channel but when I went there, it wasn’t available. Amazon did have some DVDs for sale. Thankfully, I bought the DVD many years ago so I can always watch it but I think it’s time I put on my investigative journalist hat and find out who owns the rights to the film to get it back out there. Maybe it’s also time for a remake of this fantastic film?

For now, I will make this an appreciation post for such a strong, emotionally packed film that has never grown old for me and I never get tired of watching it. One thing I always appreciate is even though it’s a heavy film with life and death stakes, it’s also filled with hope. If you’ve seen the film, you know what I mean by that last scene on the beach.

What are your memories of Longtime Companion? Tell me in the comments!

Here’s the trailer for Longtime Companion:

Until next time…