PARTNERS

US, 1982, 93 minutes, Colour.
Ryan O'Neal, John Hurt, Robyn Douglass, Kenneth Mc Millan.
Directed by James Burrows.

Partners is a variation on the theme of cop partners, a genre very popular in the 1970s on screen and on television with Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey and various other variations on the theme. This time of the two detectives, one is straight, the other gay. They are played by Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt. In order to solve their case, O'Neal has to pretend to be gay. The investigation is in the gay community of Los Angeles.

What gives the film extra interest is that it was written by Frances Veber, the author of La Cage au Folles as well as a great number of very funny comedies from the 70s to the first years of the 21st century including his film about Gerard Depardieu and his having to come to terms with homosexuality in The Closet (with Daniel Auteuil pretending to be gay in order to save his job). Veber also wrote such films as The Dinner Party and Tais- Toi. He is a master of the odd couple and the various slapstick predicaments that they can fall into. The film was directed by James Burrows who had a strong career in television directing such series as Will and Grace.

1. Impact of the film as police story, murder mystery, comedy, comment on the gay society? The blend of these aspects? The use of conventional material of each aspect for entertainment? Insight?

2. The title and its ironies? The other work of author Francis Veber with the advertisement for La Cage Au Folles II? Audience response to homosexuality themes: presuppositions, a minority, a minority that has been attacked, issues of coming out and closet, fair judgments on homosexuality, homosexuals and their behaviour, prejudice in society? Biases? Focus on sexuality, relationships, love? The background of perversion, crime, blackmail? How fair was the film? Biases? Accusations of ridicule of homosexuals? Understanding?

3. The measure of heterosexual relationships? Male and female stereotypes in behaviour, style? Emotions? Sexuality? The parallelling of homosexual relationships with heterosexual? Aspects of macho? assertion, tenderness, domestic sequences, jealousy, love, service? Benson's comments on the harassment of women after he experienced harassment from men?

4. Los Angeles, the gay community? Murders? The apartments, motels? Attitude of the police ? and harassment? The jaunty musical score?

5. The focus on the murders: in themselves, the investigation and accusations of prejudice, attitudes of the police and harassment? The gay world: the motel manager and his flirting, the nightclubs, the apartment block, the sex magazines, the coffee shops, swimming, the pickups, businessmen, the landlord of the apartments? Comic aspects, ordinary everyday aspects, squalid aspects? The murders within these contexts?

6. How funny was the film? Comic situations, offbeat touches? How real?

7. The focus on Benson and Kirwin? The parallels with the everyday police story? Discussion about their work. their compatibility? Benson's prejudice? The introduction with his eyeing the secretary and Kirwin's not? Their beginning to work together, clothes, the pink car, bickering? The move to the motel? Setting up house? The neighbours and the party? The development of their partnership and relationship ?Kirwin looking after Benson, Benson accepting it, domestic scenes, bickering, tenderness and friendship? Their support for one another? Kirwin's attachment to Benson? The clashes at the end and Kirwin's saving Benson? How well did the film incorporate the police style into the gay world situation?

8. Ryan O'Neal and his macho style? Relationship with Clara? His distaste for the job? Antagonism towards Benson? The pink car, the clothes, the motel manager, his jogging and impotence with the girl. the party and his pushing Kirwin to partnerships for interrogation, his date with the coffee assistants and the romp on the beach, being arrested and harassed, the comedy of his posing for the magazine, his coming home and being waited on by Kirwin, the parallel with the domestic scene, even with him going out shopping? The change in him? Prejudices, confusion, anger? Jill and the photography? Her visit with the stills, his staying home for the meal with Kirwin and her intrusion, the night together? His dates with her? His ignoring of the evidence? The build up to the confrontation with the businessman? Learning the truth? His trying to revive Kirwin and the comic touch with the end and Kirwin's hoping they would set up house?

9. John Hurt and his acting abilities? A convincing American? The closet homosexual? His worrying about it showing? His unwillingness to do the investigation? His reaction to the car, clothes? A fearful homosexual and his repugnance to dancing with another man, etc.? His growing attachment to Benson? Jealousy? His observing Benson at work? The arrest? Cooking, the meal at home and Jill's intrusion, his reaction, arrest? cooking, Jill's intrusion, his reaction?

10. The police chief and the mixture of cynicism and humour? Commissioning the job? Keeping in touch? His admiration for the two men? His attitudes towards homosexuals? His participation in the raid? The end? The range of police presented, helpfully, as harassers of gay people, at the end?

11. Jill and her work, her attitudes towards photography, the visit to Benson, the seduction? The truth about her? Her contacts? Photography, killing? Her death?

12. The heterosexual angle with Clara and her wondering about Benson at the beginning? Her visit to the apartment?

13. The photographer and the raid? The villain and his set ups? Murders? The melodrama of the final confrontation?

14. The film's reliance on stereotypes? On conventions of the police genre? The impact for the popular audience in terms of entertainment and insight?