A comprehensive and thoroughly absorbing history of (primarily American) queer folks on film. The feature-length documentary of the same name was quite faithful to Vito Russo's work, but returning to the source is worthwhile for film history buffs of all persuasions. As a woman, I also appreciated that lesbians on film were well integrated into Russo's narrative, and that he included quite a bit of valid analysis about the connection between homophobia and misogyny on screen. A master work. ( )

Excellent book about the depiction of GLBT characters in movies from the silents to around the '80s. The book and the film complement each other well, the book with a little more depth and the film with a little more breadth. ( )

This makes an incredibly interesting and revealing read. Though, if you don't feel like reading the whole book, the film of the same name is a great substitute. ( )

I have been wanting to read this book since about 1996 or 1997, ever since I first saw the Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman film based on the book. I must have watched that film dozens of times in my late teens and I did my best to track down the films mentioned in it and the book it was based on. I don't know if I had much luck on either score for a long time and I almost forgot about the book. Then I was writing an essay for my Introduction to Film Studies class and ended up looking for a quotation in the film, which reminded me of the book, so I went and bought a second-hand copy online.

It surprised me how America-centric the book was. I suppose I should have expected that - even the film is essentially about Hollywood but the book is clearly more about American attitudes to homosexuality and gay and lesbian characters in cinema. And what I have really liked is the range of people who appear on it but it seemed to me that kind of direct input was mostly lacking in the book. Russo does note in the beginning that it was extraordinarily difficult to talk to people and hardly any of those who did agree to talk to him were gay themselves.

And in many ways it feels that the book describes the past - but on the other hand one wonders if things have really changed that much, after all the fuss about Oliver Stone's Alexander, or making Patroclus Achilles's younger cousin in Troy, or the need to classify Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain as gay cowboys' love story when describing it as a love story would be enough.

Nonetheless, an extremely interesting book. ( )