Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

preppy-3 A killer seems to be killing gay male models. The police chief orders str8 Sgt. Benson (Ryan O'Neal) to team up with gay police clerk Kerwin (John Hurt). They're to play a gay couple and find out if anyone in the gay community can help them.Some people leaving reviews on this site says this film is NOT anti-gay. Oh really? Every single offensive gay stereotype is bought out and presented to the audience to laugh at it. Aside from Hurt ALL the gay men here are sex-obsessed, speak with lisps, are VERY fem or screaming queens. Then the film throws in a sequence where some police officers taunt the guys calling them every offensive name in the book. These officers are shown as being wrong--but that's one small part of a movie that has virtually nonstop homophobic jokes. That doesn't excuse it at all. To make matters worse the murder mystery investigation is very dull and totally uninteresting. By the end I didn't care who was murdering the guys. And even WORSE the movie ends with a homophobic joke at the expense of Hurt! The script is terrible and the direction uninspired. Hurt (understandably) looks miserable all the time. O'Neal manages to give out a good performance despite the material.Why was this made? It came out in 1982 and it was offensive then and it's even worse today. Critics tore it apart, audiences ignored it and it quickly slipped into oblivion. I believe O'Neal said years later that this movie was a "mistake" and Hurt says he doesn't remember anything about it. That should tell you all you need to know. A sick homophobic piece of garbage. A must miss.

jdmartin61 This 46-year-old, (now 47-year-old) lifelong gay native of Fort Worth saw this movie when I was 21 years old. I liked it and I didn't like it even then. Gay what? What is 'gay'? Anyway, I enjoyed many things about this movie just as much as I could complain about just as many more that I didn't like. I think that John Hurt and Ryan O'Neil deserved to be shown better than they were shown in "Partners." WARNING: What follows is a big rambling digression from my "Partners" comments. (Updated by original poster on Dec. 30, 2008)______I had seen the movie "Ode To Billie Joe" with my gay parent and my straight sister when it first came out in 1976. We all had known gay people for many years. In those days, the idea of being 'gay' was still kept private and only spoken of in close circles. Times were evolving then, just as they are still evolving now.In my experience back in those days, one's own "gayness" was not talked about openly unless they had a desire to tell their story on Television. In the early to mid 1970s a lot of different kinds of people wanted to be on TV or something like that. I do admire those early open pioneers. Back in the day I remember that 'gayness' (whatever that means) was respected by those who matter. Nobody ever had to make an issue of it, just as I have never done.Neither my gay parent nor I or anybody else cared to talk about our personal business, and it was good in a way and it still is.I had always loved the Bobbie Gentry song that inspired the movie since it was released in 1968. I had to see this movie, of course.I rather understood the idea of Billy Joe's situation and that of the other characters because the story was told from a 1950's rural Mississippi perspective. Later in my life, it was suggested that the end was the particularly offensive part because of a line that was spoken by one of the main characters, and I still agree with that observation. (Though, if the viewer takes into account the locale and time period of the story, the line is actually respectful of the person considering the place and time) Over My 46 years I've seen a lot of movies with gay characters and the only one I ever respected for that effort is "Victor/Victoria" (1982).I didn't care too much for "The Birdcage" (1996) in spite of the talented people that participated in the making of the movie. I despised Nathan Lane's character (though Lane later redeemed himself as a gay/?/ man in the cable series "Sex And The City"). To me, the only good thing about "The Birdcage" was Gene Hackman's stellar performance as the conservative U.S. Senator.In 1973 a wise women said: "Everybody thinks and feels differently as the years go by, don't they"John Martin, 46, Fort Worth, Texas

Rrrobert Eccentric misfire comedy about a macho cop teamed with a meek desk-bound police officer and sent undercover as a gay couple to find the murderer of gay male models. O'Neal's subsequent appearance in full leathers while Hurt's character fusses around the apartment in pink T-shirt and cargo pants provides endless mirth.Fans of O'Neal's manly physique will not be disappointed, but the coy jokes built on his character's awkwardness at being thrust into the gay scene are weak, puerile, and are not very funny. The murder mystery aspect of the plot is the best thing about the film but it is constantly undermined by the film's habit of switching back into comedy mode whenever the suspense starts the build. And then as if that isn't bad enough, they slot in some cute and thoughtful scenes just to show us that O'Neal's character really is a caring guy after all. Then, despite the fact we have already met his girlfriend, he is straight to bed with whatever woman happens to cross his path.The general story is also quite sloppy. Characters are introduced to the audience, and then they disappear having fulfilled no greater function than to be the butt of some unfunny joke. Characters such as the effeminate motel owner, Benson's original girlfriend, and the caftan-wearing landlord are given big introductions and then disappear.What is amazing is that this "snigger at the gays" comedy was produced in 1982! (Australian TV soap operas like 'Number 96', 'The Box', 'Prisoner' had been filled with positive gay and lesbian characters in the *preceding* decade.) It seems more like something from the sixties. Not even interesting as a historical artifact. Avoid.

waynebeau23 Totally repugnant and repulsive. They just don't get any worse than this. This one is to be avoided at all costs. Watch paint dry; watch grass grow instead. Go do your laundry. How else can I put it? This is bad enough to END a career.