The Boys in the Band
National General Pictures | Release Date: March 17, 1970 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
This film, directed by William Friedkin and based on Mart Crowley's breakthrough play, is often dismissed (sometimes by people who haven't seen it) as sappy and dated. But on second look, it's one of the important films of the 1970s. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Whatever a person's opinion of the play's accuracy, William Friedkin's 1970 film adaptation remains gripping, translating a story that takes place in a cramped apartment into a movie that rarely feels stagey. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyAri Karpel
This heavy-handed relic of a self-loathing time proves surprisingly relevant — not to mention funny, disturbing, and deeply moving. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineBill Weber
The sizzle of the bon mot-tossing ensemble, intact from the stage original, is bracing and fuels the film’s momentum, along with Crowley’s lacerating dialogue. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
In one sense it's aged surprisingly little -- the language and physical gestures of camp are largely the same -- but in the attitudes of its characters, and their self-lacerating vision of themselves, it belongs to another time. And that's a good thing. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAndrew Sarris
Mart Crowley's brilliantly bitchy lines are worth standing on line for, and the original off-Broadway cast stands up well on the screen. [28 May 1970, p.53]
70
Los Angeles TimesNoel Murray
Whatever its legacy, the film remains a gripping drama. [09 Nov 2008, p.E10]
63
Boston GlobeTom Russo
William Friedkin directs the adaptation of Matt Crowley's off-Broadway play about a group of gay men in Manhattan speaking increasingly frankly as a birthday party wears on. Sufficiently effective that you wonder what Friedkin was thinking with Cruising. [09 Nov 2008, p.N16]
60
The New York TimesVincent Canby
Crowley has a good, minor talent for comedy-of-insult, and for creating enough interest, by way of small character revelations, to maintain minimum suspense. Read full review
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Boys in the Band drags. But despite its often tedious postulations of homosexual case histories instead of realistic dialog, and the stagey posturing of the actors, the too literately faithful adaptation of Mart Crowley's off-Broadway swish-set piece has bitchy, back-biting humor, fascinating character studies, melodrama and, most of all, perverse interest. Read full review
50
Film ThreatStaff (Not Credited)
One cannot deny the historic importance of The Boys in the Band – for better or worse, this is the starting point of queer cinema. But, quite frankly, one wishes the genre had a more dignified and less bitchy way of launching – these are not the type of gay boys you want to take home to mother. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
The issue is dealt with in a sensitive manner, but a much less "meaningful" approach would have made the characters much more accessible. The direction by Friedkin is not cinematic at all, looking simply like a rendering of the stage play on celluloid. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
William Friedkin's direction of this 1970 film adaptation (made the year before The French Connection) doesn't do much more than underline the flaws in the material: every scene is shaped to build to the same forced hysteria. Read full review
40
The New YorkerPauline Kael
The message appears to be that the spirit of M-G-M in the 40s still lives in the hearts and jokes of homosexuals.
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