Bob and Jack’s 52-Year Adventure (Director: Stu Maddux, USA, 2006): Bob Claunch and Jack Reavley met in the early 1950s when both were stationed with the army in Germany. This charming film charts the course of their love affair over the next half-century and beyond. Despite the rather unimaginative title, the film deftly weaves together archival photos, audio recordings (both men worked for Armed Forces Radio and later bought a radio station together) and present-day interviews to tell a remarkably conventional love story that, because it involves two men, makes it all the more remarkable.
I liked the way director Maddux filmed the interviews with one man closer to the camera, allowing us to capture each man’s facial expressions when reacting to the other’s comments. Just like all old married couples, these guys finish each other’s sentences; that is, when they’re not interrupting each other.
With all the debate over whether gay marriage should be “allowed,” it’s helpful to see that it’s really existed all along.
(8/10)
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