Customer Reviews

Green Plaid Shirt [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought this movie upon the recommendation of a friend. Glad I did. Have shared the story with several frinds over time. I see something different each time I watch it.

I lost a lover 5 years ago.

It is a moving story of friends and lovers and the good and not so good in us we don't let anyone but our closest of friends experience. It is an accurate take on relationships, both in and out of bed.

It's great to see a movie where the gay character(s) aren't psycho or totally flaming (although, there are a couple of guys who do spontaneously combust.) The people here are more like people I know.

The film was very well done and the characters engaging; some more likeable than others... like in life.

The sound was disappointing; otherwise I would have given it 5 stars.

I would have purchased it on DVD if available.

This is an exceptionally well-written and convincingly acted film about disillusion in romance and forgiveness in love between men. The opening scene immediately sets the tone when we, along with the protagonist, overhear two men earnestly discussing their relationship with a poignancy recognizable to anyone who has loved. From there, in a series of flashbacks, the film takes us through the deeply faulty path of committment between eternal opposites: one who is essentially faithful and another who is not in the late 70's. Many of the lines are memorable which is what particularly gives this film its depth. Early on we are promised a moment which, to paraphrase, cancels all that goes before giving the strength to endure all that is to come. Yes, AIDS, but not before we witness that moment, one of forgivness so beautifully wrought, so lovely as to instruct us in love itself. Written and directed by Richard Natale who unmistakably knows what he's doing. He is notably aided in this by Gregory Phelan and Kevin Spirtas whose feelings fill and fulfill every silence, look and word of this small masterpiece.

"An endearing and sincere drama that chronicles the ten-year life of a gay relationship. Back in 1978, everything seemed possible for several young men. For Philip and Guy, there was the thrill and exhilaration of first love. For their friends Devon, Jerry and Todd, life was still an open book with so many pages yet to be filled. But ten years later, all are gone except for Philip who is left alone, wondering what the hell happened. He tries to make sense of the joys and the sorrows as well as to chart a new direction for the future. Writer/director Natale's feature film debut depicts the lives of five friends in conflict with themselves and each other yet ultimately, the insightful tale is about love and survival. The title is drawn from events around the sale of a shirt which brought each of them together. "A totally refreshing and romantic (even sexy) drama, true to the crises many have endured without being pedantic, mature without losing its vitality. A powerful piece about the force that tear people apart and ultimately keeps them together." Outfest

I enjoy Green Plaid Shirt very much, but it has two critical problems. The most critical issue is the sound. There are substantial passages that are impossible to hear. A less critical but annoying issue is the film editing. For some reason, the director apparently felt a need to tell the story with flashbacks and flashforwards. The effect here is not good cinema or storytelling. It merely seems trendy. The story of the lover who dies from AIDS would actually seem more tender, loving and meaningful if it had simply been told in a straight-forward manner. Indeed, the jumping about seems to diminish the tragedy of his death. The acting is very good and the premise of building a story around a plaid shirt is both effective and appealing. The romance of the two lead characters is tender and caring and is definitely worth experiencing by watching this slightly flawed gem of a movie. We need more gay love stories and this is one to put on your video shelf and watch with someone you care about very much.

This is now my favorite drama about gay men in love; and TRUE love, not fascination, is certainly central here---a rare enough feature as it is. The symbol of that love is the titular item of fabric, worn over the course of ten stormy years, alternately, by the two protagonists, Philip and Guy. The former is the "faithful one.The latter the emotional bruiser in the story.

The thoughtful story is non-linear, composed of shuffled scenes divided roughly into two time periods: (1) "Before he betrayed me" and (2) "After he forgave---and more importantly--- forgot." The syntax of the narrative is abetted, more or less, by the appearance or non-appearance of that green shirt, which serves as a sort of punctuation mark along the rough-and-tumble jumble of events in "constant collision":

(A) A colon, for instance: in one "after" scene the loving revelation of a slotch of yellow paint on the shirt refers us instantly back to a "before" scene explaining the loving source of that same splotch, providing undisturbed continuity between two periods of time, a transition made possible only by Philip's act of forgiveness.

(B) A "comma": When the shirt does not appear in a given scene, the scene is tied to the preceding picture in the sequence in which the shirt does appear. Such as when Linda helps Philip pack Guy's bag for his first (of many) trips to the hospital. We know from the shirt's absence there that the scene falls chronologically after guy's seizure in the kitchen, the topic of that scene which immediately precedes.

Rare intelligence in film-making, regardless of genre.

This film has good intentions and gets off to an interesting start but quickly collapes in on itself. First of all, the characters, except for the lead, are basically all unlikable and uninteresting. And I'm sure to the chagrin of many gay viewers, they all end up having sex with each other (no wonder we are talked about - not all gay people and gay relationships are this way!) The major problem that I had with this film was the confusing time line and flashbacks. In many instances, it is hard to tell at what point something is happening and you are wondering if it is after or before the previous scene. Another problem is extremely poor audio (even on dvd). Pluses are good acting and imaginative cinematography but these points alone fail to make this film recommendable.

This might have been a good film but for two not slightly annoying flaws. I noticed that the director, to ensure the pristine look of the film, had the VHS version letter-boxed so that we may enjoy the entire screen as seen by the theatre audience. I wish he'd taken the same care with the audio quality of the video (and maybe of the film, too). It's garbled and murmured and one can only catch about every third line of dialogue - if that. Even the rewinding and replay didn't help (thinking maybe I could've understood it on second play). So, I guess the third of the movie I could hear was credible and worth the effort.

Secondly, I get really fed up with the premise that really hip gay men are completely or mostly gorgeous. They may be poor, but they have bodies to die for, and big, exciting, fabulous lives. Even when down, they're a laugh a minute! This is probably what most gay men would want everyone to believe, but it just isn't reality. I'm looking forward to the film that can deal with that - that can show ordinary lives in extraordinary ways. It may turn off a lot of gay men that need something cute to look at in order to hold their interest, but when was society ever served by appealing to the lowest common denominator?

I'm mainly writing this because I'm a little baffled by the anger expressed in so many of the reviews found here.

When I first saw "Green Plaid Shirt" -- on VHS, and yes, as many have noted, the quality of the transfer is agonizingly bad; let's hope some effort is made in this regard for the DVD release -- I was most struck by the relationship between the two main characters. Yes, they are both very attractive (a common criticism of gay films and gay characters which you almost never hear about their straight counterparts), but even better, they both can ACT!

Like most films, the main characters take the main plot. And of course, additional characters will create sub-plots. What is unfortunate is when the sub-plots do not add to the main plot. In which case they actively work against it. That happens with this film as well and it's too bad because there was a lot of potential in the relationship of the two main characters, had Richard Natale wanted to concentrate on them.

I enjoy this film very much for the main story. There are some beautiful and also some unusally moving moments in it. The characters are appealing and multi-dimensional, and the performances (Gregory Phelan and Kevin Spirtas) are both naturalistic and of real quality. As for the rest of it ... I just fast-forward. I'd definitely like to see more from Richard Natale.

I gave GREEN PLAID SHIRT three stars for the following reasons; the audio was very poor;( I purchased the DVD version ) turning the treble all the way up on the tone control on my television helped ( there is an apologia before the film begins, perhaps this is what they refer to ); and the film failed to move or inspire me. The acting was good, no problem there, it was one of those movies that goes on and on and on.
The story centers around two people Phillip (Gregory Phelan) and Guy (Kevin Spirtas) who meet at a garage sale in 1978 when Phillip buys a Green Plaid shirt lays it down on a table for a moment to pay for it and Guy picks it up to try it on; of course Phillip informs Guy He had just paid for it and wants it back. Later Phillip is with one of his best friends Jerry at a [same sex] bar and Guy happenes to run into philip there and stops over to say Hello; Phillip asks Guy to join them and next thing you Phillip have become lovers and have moved into together. Two other of Phillips friends Jerry and Deven play a supportive role of the bitchie-stuck up friends who are not impressed with Plillips new lover. Guy developes AIDS ( refered to in the film as the " Gay Disease"), along with Jerry then Devon. Phillip finds his world is collapsing around him. Guy has then "cheated" on Phillip and moved out of the new house they have bought together with his new lover ( Tony ). ...
The film flashes from present to past to present ect.
There are no hardcore [physical] scenes but some body nudity. In my opnion there are better [same sex] films to purchase; ...

"An endearing and sincere drama that depicts the lives of five friends in conflict with themselves and each other but ultimately it is about love and survival. Back in 1978 everything seemed possible. For Phillip and Guy there was the thrill and exhilaration of first love. For their friends Devon, Jerry and Todd, life was still an open book with so many pages yet to be filled. Ten years later, they are all gone and Phillip is left alone, wondering what happened, trying to make sense of the joys, sorrows and what made everything possible - all the while looking hopefully to the future. 90 min." - From Wolfevideo