Customer Reviews

Saturday Night at the Baths-Director's Cut

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Made in 1975 and filmed on a modest budget, "Saturday Night at the Baths" was a little film about the hey days of bathhouses that didn't get much notice. That's too bad, because producer/director David Buckley created a film that now serves as a historical record of what life was like in the early LGBT community, via New York's famous Continental Baths.
The inclusion of legendary owner Steve Ostroff---as well as using real-life patrons & performers of the baths as extras---in the movie lends it authenticity...especially when we discover he's alive & well and living in Australia in a Special Features documentary-interview.
The three lead characters in the film are given life by three appealing actors: Robert Aberdeen, Ellen Sheppard and newcomer Don Scotti, who forge a unique & touching friendship/relationship through 70's sexual freedom & attitudes.
It's not a perfect film by any means---the editing is choppy and the acting a bit campy at times. But hey, there are not many movies out there chronicling a culture long gone, so this film is really something to treasure. If anything, places like the Continental Baths live on today in spirit in Pride Festivals all over the globe.
Little did Buckley know that he would create a film whose content was relevant then, and is still relevant now.

I spent most of my Saturday Nights at the "Tubs." I enjoyed every minute, every man, every assignation and, of course, Bette Midler.

I am ashamed that anyone would put this trash out as a representative example of a segment of gay life during that period. The film has the look of a terribly made home movie with a bunch of people (I won't refer to them as Actors) doing bad impersonations of what they thought gay men were supposed to be like.

How tiresome. How pathetic!

I don't think they even deserve the one (1) star I gave them. Perhaps a few dozen ripe tomatos would be more appropriate.

BOO!!!

good, is more of a documentary instead of a movie
was and adult film when 1st screened, but is very tame by
todays standards

This is not a good movie, regardless of the fact that it is gay-positive, filmed in a repressive era. The quality of the filming an be excused, given the technology of the period. But the acting is naive and amateurish at best. So is the story line. I would have like more documentary about the baths rather than the silly love story between a gay-curious man and a young woman. There was more almost-explicit sex between them than the implied sex between the young man and an out gay character. The "straight couple" display full nudity. None of the gay characters do. A big disappointment on all counts.