Longtime Companion Film Analysis

The film I chose to do for this film review assignment was Longtime Companion. The movie premiered in 1989 and during that time our society was just beginning to understand that AIDS was a disease and research was being done on how to treat this disease. In the early 1980’s and up until the release of the film, those that had been diagnosed with AIDS had a very poor prognosis for survival. Also when the movie was released, society was beginning to realize that AIDS not only affected the gay community, but every member of our society. Today we now understand that AIDS does not discriminate and that this disease effects our entire society. AIDS raised the diversity issue that the gay community was not the only ones affected by this disease. As we began to understand and define what AIDS was, we began to understand that the AIDS epidemic was a diversity issue that affected our entire society. The story, Longtime Companion, was written by Craig Lucas and the film was directed by Norman …show more content…
I remember experiencing many of the same feelings as the characters in the movie. The feeling I remember experiencing the most was one of fear of being discriminated against because I was gay. The onset of the AIDS epidemic also brought about the added stigma of being part of the gay community. I believe the way that the film presented the issue of the AIDS epidemic chronologically was done well. When the AIDS epidemic first started, just the fact that AIDS was defined as a “gay cancer” that effected those in the gay community presented AIDS as a diversity issue. Because transmission of the disease was not originally known, there was fear, prejudice, and discrimination against those with AIDS and those within the gay