(To those unfamiliar with the true story that the movie is based on, there are spoilers below, please be advised.)
I am very familiar with the murder of PFC Barry Winchell back in 1999. I send out a newsfeed to the glbt community on the Internet and was especially disturbed to be sending out coverage on this story as it unfolded.
As far as the movie goes, it is very unsettling and hard to watch, once you know the subject matter....in the same way that "Boys Don't Cry" was very hard for me, not to mention the Matthew Shepard movie incarnations. But it needs to be seen.
Words can't express the horror one can feel when you know that your sexuality alone is enough to make someone want to brutally kill you.
Watching this story left me feeling desolate and sad. I gave it a 9 out of 10, because of the amazing performances of the leads in recreating this tragic tale. But I had a problem with it.
Winchell's actual killer is hardly a part of this movie until near the end. There was very little attempt made to flesh out the hostile relationship. From this movie's point-of-view, the real killer was the roommate who instigated it. While that may be the case, it seemed cinematically unbalanced to present a case for him that almost seemed to elicit sympathy, without letting the viewer know more about the goings-on inside the actual killer's head.
Additionally, those that know the real story have learned that there was apparently a climate of homophobia and anti-gay harassment present at Fort Campbell. But, from the movie, you'd never get the sense that anti-gay harassment was all that much of an issue. Winchell was allegedly harassed repeatedly. This film does not really convey that.
Outside of an over-zealous officer, who chanted anti-gay cadence songs (it was widely publicized, by a gay soldier who left the base after the killing, that this went on at Fort Campbell AFTER the Winchell murder)and the 2 who went to jail, everyone else comes off as relatively tolerant of gays, as if "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" works.
America is virtually the only western nation (I believe the other is Turkey) that does not allow gays to serve in the military.
After watching the ultimate result of codified homophobia that this movie relates, hopefully people will start understanding that homophobia does, indeed, kill, and start demanding a change.
I am very familiar with the murder of PFC Barry Winchell back in 1999. I send out a newsfeed to the glbt community on the Internet and was especially disturbed to be sending out coverage on this story as it unfolded.
As far as the movie goes, it is very unsettling and hard to watch, once you know the subject matter....in the same way that "Boys Don't Cry" was very hard for me, not to mention the Matthew Shepard movie incarnations. But it needs to be seen.
Words can't express the horror one can feel when you know that your sexuality alone is enough to make someone want to brutally kill you.
Watching this story left me feeling desolate and sad. I gave it a 9 out of 10, because of the amazing performances of the leads in recreating this tragic tale. But I had a problem with it.
Winchell's actual killer is hardly a part of this movie until near the end. There was very little attempt made to flesh out the hostile relationship. From this movie's point-of-view, the real killer was the roommate who instigated it. While that may be the case, it seemed cinematically unbalanced to present a case for him that almost seemed to elicit sympathy, without letting the viewer know more about the goings-on inside the actual killer's head.
Additionally, those that know the real story have learned that there was apparently a climate of homophobia and anti-gay harassment present at Fort Campbell. But, from the movie, you'd never get the sense that anti-gay harassment was all that much of an issue. Winchell was allegedly harassed repeatedly. This film does not really convey that.
Outside of an over-zealous officer, who chanted anti-gay cadence songs (it was widely publicized, by a gay soldier who left the base after the killing, that this went on at Fort Campbell AFTER the Winchell murder)and the 2 who went to jail, everyone else comes off as relatively tolerant of gays, as if "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" works.
America is virtually the only western nation (I believe the other is Turkey) that does not allow gays to serve in the military.
After watching the ultimate result of codified homophobia that this movie relates, hopefully people will start understanding that homophobia does, indeed, kill, and start demanding a change.