Partners

By:
In-House Review - Apr 16 2009

An odious cop comedy with a "fag" angle, this has to be one of the most offensive gay-themed films ever made. O'Neal plays a straight detective who teams up with effeminate, in-the-closet desk cop Hurt to go undercover as gay lovers to investigate a gay serial killer. Told to "live in their neighborhood, eat in their restaurants and shop in their stores," the film begins to indulge itself with every conceivable homophobic stereotype. Dressed entirely in pink and lilac, Hurt is seen as a scared, helpless femme while O'Neal is the leather-clad man. Watch it and wince!

By: Amos Lassen

Straight cop Benson (Ryan O'Neal) and gay officer Kerwin (John Hurt) are an odd couple who are teamed to solve a series of murders in James Burrows's "Partners". boss, Chief Wilkins (Kenneth McMillan) has put the two men together to go undercover as a gay couple to hunt down the person responsible for a series of murders in L.A.'s gay community. The discomfort each feels at first dissolves as Benson relaxes into his role, while Kerwin finds his bliss in domesticity. However, this happiness is short-lived when Benson's roving eye makes him a target for the killer and only Kerwin's clear-eyed deductions may prevent his partner from becoming the next victim.

This is one of those cop "buddy" comedy, like so many that were made in the 1980's, with the exception that here, one of the cops happens to be gay. While some may label this "progress" and such, it's not difficult to find a dozen or so films that came earlier that were more daring and radical, not to mention better made.

Because the police department is criticized for failing to solve the murder of a gay man, Chief Wilkins puts macho Detective Sergeant Benson) to go undercover with the clichéd gay desk officer, Kerwin. This means that the two will spend the remainder of the film bonding with each other, while tracking down clues about the killer. For the most part, Benson works through his homophobia by uttering homophobic remarks whenever he gets angry and having sex with lots of women, while Kerwin cooks and does the laundry for both of them.

We first realize that this movie is a dud when a dramatic scene comes across funnier that those scenes that are meant to be funny. This is indeed a comedy but the problem is that we laugh at the drama and ignore the comedy. Nothing comes across as intentional and it is all really just boring. It is, however, never intentionally homophobic and not nearly as silly as say, "Another Gay Movie". It is actually a movie that means well and when we consider that it was released in 1982, we can certainly understand it a bit better.

Now there are some problems-gay Kerwin never ever mentions a boyfriend or ever having ever been in a relationship with another man. Given his age, this is a bit strange. He is actually such a "wimp" that he never defends himself whenever Benson uses a homophobic slur. As such, the relationship that develops between Benson and Kerwin seemed to be somewhat abusive as Kerwin acted more like Benson's servant than equal partner. The ending, which I will not share here, is weak and certainly does not seem to be aware of the Hays Code having been overturned some twelve years before the movie was released.

The two men adopt their homosexual disguises, which include a lavender Volkswagen, a lavender jogging outfit for Kerwin and lots of tight-fitting jeans and tank tops for Benson, and set up housekeeping in an apartment house favored by homosexuals. Benson himself to put up with the passes of aging queens and to play the role of available hustler in an effort to obtain information. Kerwin teaches Benson about being gay, much of which is foreign even to him.

Benson is not comfortable in his role and we constantly sense that he would much rather be somewhere else. He has a hard enough time acting gay and things aren't helped by the fact that photographer Jill (Robyn Douglass) has caught his eye but has no idea he actually likes women.

Watching the movie now so many years after it was made, shows us that it was definitely made for a certain time period In history and that it would never get made today. It relies heavily on stereotypes and uses slurs that are unacceptable in this day and age but at the same time, surprisingly, the homosexual characters are not regarded or treated as one-note jokes.

So much of the movie is predictable yet it is still entertaining so I am not writing it off-not by any means. Benson learns that gays are people just like us and the entire gay issue is handled very nicely but that does not make it a good movie or a bad movie.

By: Conner

They have finally released "Partners" on DVD, "On Happy Day"!!! I really mean that.

This movie is a "MUST", for all gay movie collections. Ryan O'neal is at his best. As is John Hurt.

"Partners" is a laugh riot scream, from beginning to the end. "Also"......the movie is "SO" dated, "SO" Disco era! Thank God those days are behind us,( I'm not referring to the great music & dancing, of the period). I'm meerly referring to the horrible clothes & hair styles. As the old Queen, in the film, says to both Ryan & John, when they go under cover, and have to rent the apartment in his/her building; "Hold on tight, just hold on tight:"! Well we all did, and most of us survived the seventies, and early eighties.

Getting back to the film, it's pure seventies "gay camp", all the way through.

Definitely "5 Stars" in my book. You have to see it, in order to enjoy it! (By the way, Ryan O'Neal, in his young days, was white hot sexy! Wait till you see him in the poured in blue jeans....'YOWZER"!!!

Now, if they would "only" release; "Boys In The Band" on DVD. Which is another pure early Gay Gem.