How often do we come across a film as beautiful & heartbreaking as 'Longtime Companion'? I don't remember the last time I saw a film this affecting & emotionally resonant. This is cinema at its finest. This 1989 film is criminally underrated & features one of the finest yet overlooked performances of its time in the form of Bruce Davison.'Longtime Companion' Synopsis: The emergence and devastation of the AIDS epidemic is chronicled in the lives of several gay men living during the 1980s.'Longtime Companion' is about loving someone & how love can help someone's suffering lesser. We watch many gay men affected & devastated as the AIDS epidemic spreads, within their lives. We watch lovers being tested by an illness that comes & shatters their lives, we watch people suffer & die, but we also watch people not giving up on love & hope, even in such a bleak circumstance such as this. 'Longtime Companion' is about finding humanity & never letting it go. The power of Love is depicted marvelously here.Norman René, the Director of this brave film, also died from complications of AIDS in 1996. Talk about life & its unexpected turns! René's Direction is skilled. Though this was his Directorial Debut, the understanding & the ease in the way he has handled this film, is something to be witnessed. 'Longtime Companion' is pure emotion at its peak. René's Work is truly overlooked & I hope people reading this review, take out time & experience this film. You'll be richly rewarded & moved.Craig Lucas's Screenplay is emotionally empowering & arresting at all times. Rarely a film has defined Love & Humanity with such precision. Cinematography is perfect. Editing is crisply done. Art & Costume Design are well-done. Make-Up credits a special mention.And now coming to Bruce Davison. In a Golden-Globe Winning & Academy-Award Nominated Performance, Davison's portrayal of a humorous, loving & brave man is nothing less of an astonishment. Davison is par-excellence. Watch the scene where he gives a farewell speech to his lover on his death bed, you'll be moved beyond bounds. Davison is masterclass, from start to end. What A Performance! Of the rest of the cast, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, Mary-Louise Parker and Dermot Mulroney lend remarkable support. Others are great in their respective parts, as well.On the whole, 'Longtime Companion' is Essential Viewing. Two Big Thumbs Up!

It is more than 20 years ago that I saw this film for the first time. Yesterday I have seen it for the second time and again I was deeply moved by it. For a part it is because of my personal memories of the beginning of AIDS. I had my coming out in 1981, but it was in 1984 that I first heard about the "new disease" – Europe was a few years behind in this respect. Like the people in the film at first I didn't take it seriously, but then I was struck by insecurity. Is it risky to kiss somebody, because HIV is found in saliva too? Looking back I have to be glad that my coming out was not ten years earlier. Otherwise Longtime Companion might have been my story too. Although I knew some people who have died of AIDS, none of them was a close friend of mine.But apart from this personal aspect I think Longtime Companion is a wonderful film, probably the best about AIDS. Like the first time there were two scenes that moved me to tears: the final scene with the fantasy, where the survivors meet those who have gone. And of course the scene, where David tells his dying love to let it go. I didn't know that Bruce Davison got an Oscar nomination for this role, but he had deserved to win.

Craig Lucas adapted his own play about the confusion and panic over the on-set of the AIDS disease in the early 1980s, as seen through the lives of a circle of gay men in New York. Lucas dives headfirst into the story with minimal introductions, pinpointing the initial awareness of AIDS and the different reactions to personal crises; he doesn't get into the anger--the rage--of the illness, but instead focuses on the quiet sorrow, giving the film a somewhat soft, blurry edge (it isn't a preachy film, which is good, but neither it is gripping). The wonderful cast of actors (with kudos to Mary-Louise Parker as the proverbial indefatigable gal-pal) provides warmth and emotion even as Lucas' screenplay takes curious short-cuts. The early scenes aren't shaped, and much of the handling seems static. However, as we come to know these men, the picture's obvious good intentions give way to moving human drama, leading to a conclusion which transcends sentiment. It's a sure-footed sequence, exceptionally well done. **1/2 from ****

It is difficult to definite this movie. At first sight it is a movie about AIDS and the impact of illness in gay community. In fact it is only a chronicle of a time of hope and fear, jokes and firelight. "Long time companion" is slice of Reagan era but a definition of the special vision about life. Small existences are parts of powerful chains of friendship and love. A newspaper's article shatters the peace of a community. Rumurs,anxiety, confusion. And a huge waiting. The shadow of "homosexual cancer" is present like ambiguous threat. The firs victims and the glamor of film : the compassion is form of fear but this status is source of resistance. A realistic touching way to describe the relation with illness and with others. I saw this film like the root of "Angels in America". Like a pleading not for tolerance (is it no a subtle form of hypocrisy?) but for the way of empathy. And the great merit of Norman Rene is the art to create a gorgeous gallery of winsome portraits, to present their everyday existence, the enjoys, sorrows, emotions, fight, mutual assistance. A very beautiful, intelligent and impressive movie.