She was pretty. The movie did a lot of damage, in all sorts of ways.

You made me go trawling about John Wojtowicz.
Not much info around - although strangely he's contributed to a couple of doco's about his caper and moved back to near the bank.
Liz didn't look too bad in b&w in low res, did she.
Strange old tale.

I loved that movie.

Ernest got sexy after the operation!

Amberglow, what kind of damage?

To many people, it was one of the most visible portrayals of gay men, and not a flattering one--it was such a popular movie, and so reinforcing of old, negative stereotypes--we're criminals, we're crazy, we really want to be women, etc.

We see this movie and others with very very different eyes than the viewers of the mid-70s. It was sympathetic and showed them as human, which was an advance, but also very objectifying--with the whole media circus thing and everything.

Oddly enough, Based on a True Story was shown at the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival last week. Didn't get to see it, though, but there was an excellent documentary on gay neo-Nazis in Europe.

Hadn't thought about that, Amberglow. I didn't see it until a few years ago (and was still in short pants in the mid-70s). Now that you say that, though, I told a backwoods coworker once that I really liked the movie. Her response was, "Yeah, I bet you did!", somehow implying that as part of the family I was in to transvestites.

Some people just have small minds.

Do you think the movie gives a different impression now that most folks are at least a little more open-minded and tolerant? (Or, at least, have had more exposure to quote-unquote alternate lifestyles?)

Yup-a very different impression...we're far more visible now--and not just as weirdos and freaks and criminals and tranvestites/transexuals.

wow thanks. my favorite movie. never thought to do this.