Streamers
With Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell Lichtenstein.
US, 1983, 35mm, color, 118 min.
English with French subtitles.
Print source: Cinémathèque Française
Another cinematic rendering of a stage play, Streamers in some respects resembles a masculine version of Jimmy Dean. Both feature a young gay man as the polarizing catalyst who triggers a chain of complex outbursts and agonizing self-reflection. Here, that character is joined by an angry black man comfortable with his sexuality, but not much else, and other anxious soldiers awaiting their deployment to Vietnam. An army barracks, the film’s single set, contains an excitable melting pot filled with men thrown together to prepare for a war they already question. Compared to the many representations of enlisted life on film, David Rabe’s 1975 play seems much more literary and loquacious, and its approach to both racism and homophobia feels almost quaint. Nevertheless, the claustrophobic focus on the soldiers’ individual demons dramatizes both the absurd brutality of war and the enormity of the burdens troops were carrying with them to a bloody battleground.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Vincent & Theo
Fool for Love
Prêt-à-porter
California Split
Thieves Like Us
A Perfect Couple
A Prairie Home Companion
O.C. and Stiggs
That Cold Day in the Park
Corn's-A-Poppin'
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Gingerbread Man
Dr. T and the Women
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
