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Burning Blue: two Navy pilots who fall in love living under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
morrobay:
Makes you appreciate movies like Free Fall all the more.
Film Journal International
Film Review: Burning Blue
This stiff saga of gays in the military, with its manly men being manly together, evokes that tale of repression Brokeback Mountain, while somehow being much less homoerotic than Top Gun.
June 5, 2014
The ever-provoking plight of gays in the military formed the basis of the 1995 play Burning Blue, which has been adapted and directed for the screen by its writer, D.M.W. Greer. The drama centers on the deep friendship between Dan Lynch (Trent Ford) and Will Stephensen (Morgan Spector), who are both Navy pilots and sons of admirals. They dream of being accepted into the space program, but when two fatal mishaps occur in their squadron, the NCIS begins an investigation.
Also arriving in their midst is Matt Blackwood (Rob Mayes), a new pilot who befriends Dan, leaving an unhappy Will out in the cold. This bond intensifies to the point where, on leave in New York City, the two flyers go to a gay bar and wind up in bed together. Of course, their love is verboten, especially with the NCIS breathing down their necks. Dan breaks off his engagement to Susan (Tammy Blanchard), while, after some waffling, Matt decides to leave his wife for him. And then tragedy strikes.
The play, although sincere and admirable in its address of the sexual inequity in our armed forces, was never great to begin with, and is certainly not helped by Greer's unsure and often confusing direction. The budgetary constraints of this indie do not allow for any real scenes of airborne action, so the work remains stagy in the extreme, with key deaths of certain characters merely talked about with disconcerting abruptness. The film seems to be trying to straddle important issues while yet being an overt gay fantasy about sailors, with all of the young enlisted guys being uniformly handsome and white in a bland and boyish Ken-doll kind of way. Additionally, Greer often has a tin ear for dialogue which manifests itself in lines like "We are warriors paid to defend this country, not spill our guts and frolic in the daisies!"
The cinematography has a cheap yet sterile look to it, more befitting a TV soap opera, and there are serious lapses in the exposition that leave you shaking your head. Dan and Matt's relationship often seems more bewildering than fated, while Will appears to be harboring some deep closeted affection for Dan which is never clearly addressed.
Spector's performance is all synthetic bluster, while the other men go through their crisply uniformed paces without generating much interest. Michael Cumpsty, who has lately been giving some awful, hammy performances on Broadway, shows that he can be just as bad onscreen, here playing an admiral. The one performance that seems truly human comes from Blanchard, who, as always, is intensely likeable and does her utmost in one of those thankless, thrown-aside- by-a-gay-man roles.
morrobay:
It has a 7.4 on IMDb, so seems as if viewers like it, I will skip it though. This is the only external/critic review.
Ratings: 7.4/10 from 53 users Metascore: 30/100
QUEERTIQUES.com [Roger Walker-Dack]
Flying an F18 fighter aircraft for the US Navy is a tough assignment and requires very close cooperation between both pilots who must depend on each other with their own lives. Stationed in confined quarters on Aircraft Carriers for months at a time, its inevitable the men establish a strong bond between each other and often become closer than the family and their wives/girlfriends they have left behind. This story is about one such pair of serviceman who developed feelings for each other way beyond camaraderie. but as it is set in a time long before 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' they chose not to act on their desires.
That is until one night on leave in New York the pair end up in a Gay Bar although apart from them getting sweaty and going shirtless as they dance together with two female hookers, very little happens. However they are spotted there by a colleague who reports them to an Agent who had been on board ship to investigate two recent fatal crashes, but he now turns his attention to trying to establish the presence of some sort of gay clique amongst the pilots.
Even though its all supposition and with scant circumstantial evidence it all ends very badly and ruins the men's lives.
Directed by DMW Greer from his much acclaimed stage play of the same name which was based on experiences from his own life, it is a well-meaning but rather laborious melodrama which was far too dated for its own good. Since the play's success on both sides of the Atlantic back in 1995 the political agenda has changed so much regarding gay acceptance that it felt that this particular story had lost all its potency. Also gay themed films have also changed enormously and it's hard to believe that an audience will rally to a movie that show its intimacy between two men in love purely with a hand ruffling through hair or a chaste kiss. With all those 'novela' like long drawn out glances at each other all the time, its enough to not want to shout out 'get a room already!'
The cast of handsome young men that included Trent Ford, Morgan Spector and Rob Mayes did well just smouldering and looking hot and trying not appear to be too embarrassed by having to keep to the script. As did the actresses playing their poor wives and girlfriends, who included the talented Tammy Blanchard.
I am the first to admit that when President Obama finally approved the dissolution of the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy that it made it easy for gay men and women in the Armed Services to come out. I'm sure that there are a lot of stories of their experiences that would make really good movies. This sadly is not one of them.
gattaca:
Sounds like straight to Netflix or Amazon perhaps? These reviews are not what I'd hoped for. V.
morrobay:
Yes, I was disappointed, I was looking forward it. To be so roundly thrashed, you'd think they'd know the storyline and dialogue wasn't working - maybe they were too lazy to fix it so just released it and hoped that it would appeal to a big enough audience to get their money back.
I think it was available on iTunes yesterday.
gattaca:
I watched "Burning Blue" and will sleep on my comments. I think it needs a 2nd viewing. Anyone else given it a chance? Speak up. V.
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