Fifth Freedom, 1982-03-01

              THE FIFTH FREEDOM A PUBLICATION FOR THE BUFFALO CAY COMMUNITY MARCH 1982 FREE "The Freedom to love whomever and however we want" Buffalo's Barry Sandler By JOHN A. FAULRING, JR. "There's more to love...than making love." This line from the "love theme" from "Making Love" sums up a great deal about the movie, some of which we found out when we interviewed ML's author Barry Sandler. He was in town for some last minute publicity for the movie. Barry Sandler was born and raised in Amherst, N.Y., just a short ways from the University Theater where "Making Love" was previewed by a Mattachine invited audience, and now is playing for the public. He left at the age of 17 and headed to California where he attended college. Of course, he majored in the writing field. His first known work was a movie titled "Kansas City Bomber" that starred Raquel Welch. That was followed by "Gable and Lombard" and "The Mirror Crack'd," amongst others. None were as autobiographical as "Making Love." Even though the credits state "Story by A. Scott Berg," it IS Barry's story. "Scott gave mc encouragement and we talked about doing this idea, so I thought I should give him some credit. In the end though, it is my story with additions from other peoples lives weaved into it." "For instance, I have never been married. But I have known many of my friends that have gone though just what Zack and Claire experience. It doesn't always work out as well as it does in the movie, though," he says. He feels that what finally hit the screen was just what he wanted to have it be. He achieved this by not only writing it, but by being the associate producer. "What that means is I had input on the script, who was chosen to play the parts, how the scenes evolved and even to the music that was used." A Movie Is Born "I wrote the movie script in about 7 months/ he says, "then I took it to Twentieth Century-Fox and in a matter of weeks we were ready to start. That was the easy part. Then we started to cast it." "Kate Jackson was signed early on to play Claire. The difficult part was finding males to play the lead roles. No one wanted to risk their career on a film as controversial as this. Finally, after having turned it down once, Michael (Ontkean) and Harry (Hamlin) said they would do it." When asked why both the main characters were the same "type" he said, "by that time we were ready to take the first two that said 'yes!' We didn't have time to wait around for a blonde and blue type to say he would do it." True Grit "Writing the movie was a very deep experience for mc. I had to bring alot of my feelings from way down inside and write them down. It was a good experience in the end." "It was a lot like therapy; reliving the good and bad; the highs and lows. I had to draw on all kinds of emotions, then I tried to put those same emotions on the screen for others to experience." Why was the "upper class" setting chosen for the movie? "I felt that the general public should be shown that gays do hold down positions of authority, pay taxes, and provide valued services to the general public," Sandler states. "For too long gays have been portrayed as leeches on society; taking, but never giving back. I felt it would be more palatable to non-gay audiences if they didn't have to get over a nonworking, poor gay character." "Zack is a doctor, one of the most 'trusted' of all the professions. In the scene with the woman that has the mastectomy he shows that he can have compassion for her even though he has not gone through the same type experience. Gays are the same in other areas of life. As Ted says in his one scene,' I lose my temper in traffic. I bleed when I cut myself. And I don't like to spend half my salary on a hamburger/ we are just the same as everybody else." Scene, But Not Heard Were there any scenes cut that might have offended non-gays? "No, there weren't. There was one scene that I took out after I saw if it was going to work. It didn't. It was a scene where Zack admitted to his father (Arthur Hill) that he was gay. Hisson,the Boyscout, liked men. Bart said the same thing when he wanted to tell his father that his son the rightfielder liked other rightfielders. I cut Zack's scene because it was an actual confrontation with a family member. It was out of line, there just wasn't time to deal with the family conflicts that would be involved. I just wanted to get the three main characters through it successfully. "The idea of working out the family problems could be another whole movie," he says. Will it? "That depends on how well we do this time around." "I would rather go on to other stories concerning relationships in the future. There are so many possibilities." Why The Title? "I chose the title because...well why not," he says, "Too many people feel that two men can have sex, but can't make love to each other. I wanted to show that they can and do." Some of Buffalo's media have called "Making Love" a "bi-sexual love story." "It doesn't really matter what they call it, the message is the same," Sandler states, "but it really isn't 'bi-sexual' at all. If he had stayed married and settled for the 'best of both worlds' then it might have been construed as a non-gay movie. As it is though, it is a gay movie." Mega-Movie Bucks The cost of "Making Love" was $8 million and there was $6 million spent on publicity. "Originally we had planned on spending less, but after a few test screenings, the responses were so positive that we decided to go for all of it. There were private screenings all over the country and a large media campaign to get the word out in advanceof the opening." The movie finally opened in over 360 theaters across the country. In its first few days it brought in over $3 million at the box office. Recently, in a movie Top 10, it was second only to "On Golden Pond" in receipts. BULLETIN Violence: Anti-Gay Or N0t...? It has come to our attention that in recent weeks there have been at least two, and very possibly three, instances where gays have been the victims of violent crime. The first involved an individual that was leaving one of the Allen St. bars at closing time. As he was on the way to his car, he was robbed at knifepoint. Then he was forced to drive his assailant to his apartment where he was held hostage for three hours. The apparent motive for the extended "robbery," was that the thief was convinced there was more goods to be had then was readily evident in the apartment. In the end he got only a small amount of money and personal jewelry. The gay person ws not physically injured, though understandably emotionally devistated. While there were no definite anti-gay slurs or attacks during his ordeal, it was very evident that he fell into the thief's trap after leaving a known gay establishment. After reporting the incident to police, after the robber had left with the goods, it took a half hour for them to respond. A report was filed but no leads have come up yet. Not The Only One IN the process of looking at mug shots, the individual was told of a similar incident earlier in the evening at the same bar. That time the individual gave a ride to a man that fit the same general description of the second man's assailant. In this crime the individual lost money and his car to the robber. It is not known as to the status of this case. The victim of the three hour robbery has looked through police records and photos, but did not see his assailant. He is pursuing the case and will prosecute if the theif if caught. Bar Attack The very next night, there was an attack on the premises of City Lights, 729 Main St. In that barrage thee was one patron that was hit in the leg with one of the stray bullets. He was treated at Buffalo General Hospital and released. Apparently, no reason has been found for the incident. Later that same evening there was an incident involving three customers in the bar in which one of the bartenders was cut by a beer bottle that was thrown at him. His wound required 18 stitches. Anti-gay Backlash? While it is a possibility, it does not appear that these incidents are specifically motivated as an anti-gay response to the openly gay movies "Making Love" or "Taxi Zum Klo." These in addition to other gay visibility in recent months, including the possibility of it being a motivation for Wayne Williams in his trial in Atlanta. "It would appear to be a sign of the times," says John A. Faulring, Jr., president of Mattachine, "the more people out of work, the crimes go up proportionately. Surely these people are gay and were coming out of gay places, but it is also true that these places are also either high crime areas, or with all the construction and disarray, there are good places for such crimes to occur." "We would want to advise people not to walk from the cars to the bars alone if at all posible. There is safety in numbers," says Faulring. One problem with that is "too many people don't want to be seen coming into a gay bar with someone. They think it gives the mesage that they are 'taken' and may ruin their chances for scoring that night. The same thing holds true when you are seen leaving with someone. You want to make sure that he is humpy and that when you see your friends again, you won't have to explain why you left with the troll." "By walking from bar to bar with a 'friend' that you really have no designs on, you may be in better shape when Mr. Right does come along. And when it comes to Mr. Right, be cautious about who you decide is to be the lucky one. What is wrong with exchanging phone numbers and getting to know each other better before taking the big step?" As for the attack on City Lights; we do not want to see people staying away because of an isolated incident, but caution is advised. If you do see anyone that you think might be a trouble maker tell the owner of the bar of an employee. If you are bothered inside or out by someone, get away from them and also inform someone in charge. Granted, this is not a sure fire way of being safe, but it can't hurt. Crime, whether gay related or not, is on the rise and all of us have to do their part to make sure we don't walk into situations that might give the other person an opening. Try the Buddy System and see if you don't feel better. And who knows something really good might come from it. Continued on page 5 Movies! Movies! March 21 At The Mattachine Meeting At The Unitarian Church, Elmwood At West Ferry. Pot Luck Supper At 6:30. Meeting At 7:30. Titles Not Known At Press Time. Fun! Free! Hotline Counselors Needed For Next Training Session Starting March 28. Call Gay Hotline 881-5335 To Sign Up.