''Bent'' is a 1997 British-Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Sean Mathias Sean Gerard Mathias (born 14 March 1956) is a Welsh actor, director, and writer. He is known for directing the film '' Bent'' and for directing highly acclaimed theatre productions in London, New York City, Cape Town, Los Angeles and Sydney. ...

, based on the 1979 play of the same name by

Martin Sherman Martin Gerald Sherman (born December 22, 1938) is an American dramatist and screenwriter best known for his 20 stage plays which have been produced in over 60 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his play '' Bent'', which e ...

, who also wrote the screenplay. It revolves around the persecution of

homosexuals Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

after the murder of SA leader

Ernst Röhm Ernst Julius Günther Röhm (; 28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934) was a German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. As one of the members of its predecessor, the German Workers' Party, he was a close friend and early ally ...

on the

Night of the Long Knives The Night of the Long Knives (German: ), or the Röhm purge (German: ''Röhm-Putsch''), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: ''Unternehmen Kolibri''), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Ad ...

Plot

Max (

Clive Owen Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series '' Chancer'' from 1990 to 1991. He received critical acclaim for his work in the film '' Close ...

) is a promiscuous

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

man living in 1930s

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. He is at odds with his wealthy family because of his

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

. One evening, much to the resentment of his boyfriend, Rudy (Brian Webber II), Max brings home a handsome

Sturmabteilung The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ral ...

(SA) man (

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau (; born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor and producer. He graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen in 1993, and had his breakthrough role in Denmark with the film '' Nightwatch'' (19 ...

). Unfortunately, he does so on the

, when

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

ordered the assassination of upper echelon SA corps. The Sturmabteilung man is discovered and killed by SS men in Max and Rudy's apartment, and the two have to flee Berlin. Max's Uncle Freddie (

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

) has organised new papers for Max, but Max refuses to leave his boyfriend behind. As a result, Max and Rudy are found and arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and put on a train headed for Dachau. On the train, Rudy is brutally beaten to death by the guards. As Rudy calls out to Max when he is taken away, Max lies to the guards, denying he is gay. In the camp, Max falls in love with Horst (

Lothaire Bluteau Lothaire Bluteau (born 14 April 1957) is a Canadian actor. Biography He was born in Montreal, Quebec, and performs in both French and English. Bluteau has worked in theatre, film and television throughout Canada and internationally. He aban ...

), who shows him the dignity that lies in acknowledging one's beliefs. After Horst's death, Max finds the courage to be true to himself and takes his own life.

Cast

as Max *

as Horst *

as Uncle Freddie * Brian Webber II as Rudy *

as Wolf *

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

as Greta *

Jude Law David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He received a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, he received an Honorary Césa ...

as Stormtrooper *

Paul Bettany Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is an English actor. He is mostly known for his roles as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently starring in the Disney+ miniseries '' WandaVision'' (2021), for which he was nominate ...

as Captain *

Rachel Weisz Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970 ) is an English actress. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Rachel Weisz, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a BAFTA Award. We ...

as Prostitute

Reception

Critical reception

''Bent'' has an overall approval rating of 75% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 24 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 6.4/10. The site's consensus reads: "''Bent'' juggles heavy topics with style, though its heavy-handedness at times feels more like exploitation than exploration".

Awards

* 1997: Won Award of the Youth at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

* 1998: Won Best Feature Film in the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bent (Film) 1997 films 1990s war drama films British war drama films British LGBT-related films English-language Japanese films Films scored by Philip Glass Films directed by Sean Mathias LGBT-related films based on actual events British films based on plays Japanese war drama films Japanese LGBT-related films Films about violence against LGBT people Homophobia in fiction Films set in Berlin Films set in the 1930s Holocaust films Films about Nazi Germany Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Film4 Productions films 1997 LGBT-related films Gay-related films Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany 1997 drama films British World War II films 1997 directorial debut films 1990s English-language films 1990s British films 1990s Japanese films