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Bent (1997)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
July 24th, 2007
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'Bent' is the harrowing story of a homosexual man named Max (Clive Owen), who is arrested by the Nazis and sent to Dachau, where he meets Horst (Lothaire Bluteau), and falls in love with him. Their lives and fates are closely intertwined, they converse each day they transfer rocks from one pile to another, a task that is pointless and mediocre, and is obviously designed to wear them down and eventually kill them. The opening segment shows us the decadent Berlin of the early 1930s, where Max lives with his lover Rudy (Webber), and cruises a local bar, looking for none-night stands. Max is the black sheep of his wealthy family, which is ashamed of him, and his uncle Freddie (McKellen), encourages him to leave Germany before things gets worse.
But he does not heed this advice, and finds himself on a train, where Rudy is killed by Nazi thugs, who make sure to have Max play a hand in it. He then arrives at Dachau, where he attempts to swap his pink triangle for a yellow star (which means Jew), and suffers terrible indignities in the process. Owen is marvelous in an intense and haunting performance, but the film itself is dreadfully boring, especially the camp scenes, where he and Horst try only to survive and satisfy their desire for one another, without actual intercourse, holding hands and describing the sex acts they are visualizing. Whether this is enough to earn an NC-17 rating is beyond me. Their relationship is compelling to a degree, but is filled with overwrought melodrama, and terrible dialogue. Martin Sherman adapts his own renowned stage play, but something is lost in the transition.
It is nice to see (as bad as that sounds) a movie exploring the plight of the Nazi regime's non-Jewish victims, which are usually forgotten in most historical narratives, but 'Bent' is not a particularly good film, despite the inherent emotional impact of its setting, which is squandered on what amounts to little more than a poorly told tale of romance between two inmates. The fact that they give each other hope and strength in the most abysmal of situations is grossly understated. Overall, it left me cold, which is sad, as it is a work of obvious conviction and importance to its director, Sean Mathias.
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