Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)

Gay director Joe Mantello’s 1997 film adaptation of gay playwright Terrence McNally’s Tony award winning Broadway play, “Love! Valour! Compassion!” (1994). The film stars the original Broadway cast, with the exception of Nathan Lane and Anthony Heald.

LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!

1997. USA.

Director: Joe Mantello

Screenplay: Terrence McNally

Based on: “Love! Valour! Compassion!” (1994) by Terrence McNally

Starring: Jason Alexander, Stephen Spinella, Stephen Bogardus, Randy Becker, John Benjamin Hickey, Justin Kirk & John Glover

The story is set during a summer in the mid-1990s and follows 8 gay friends who gather at a lake house in New York. Of the friends, there are 3 couples: one relationship is tested by infidelity, another is celebrating a 14-year anniversary, and the last is based on convenience and sex. Another relationship develops between the two single men, both of whom are living with AIDS.

Refreshingly, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! doesn’t focus solely on tragedy and features characters living with AIDS finding new love, and it also shows how this chosen family of gay men find support in one another.

Upon its release the director was shocked that the ratings board only gave the film an “R” rating in the USA. In the past, same-sex kissing would guarantee an NC-17 – which would kill the box office numbers. This film features some passionate gay scenes, as well as full-frontal nudity, so Mantello was especially shocked when he received positive feedback from the board and a lower rating.

Unfortunately, like many queer films of the past, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! doesn’t appear to be streaming anywhere at the moment – but, it is available for purchase on DVD.