Q&A: So who has seen “Prayers for Bobby”…?
Question by Caz Norfe: So who has seen “Prayers for Bobby”…?
I saw a commercial for it on NBC and thought it looked…interesting. They promoted it as if it was going to be the next breakthrough movie portraying homosexiality. So I watched it when it came on on Lifetime, or part of it before switching to Cartoon Network halfway through.
Point: It sucked. It was obviously a low-budget film but that’s ok because I have enjoyed a lot of other “low quality” movies but the thing that sucked was the content. They stuck every little annoying cliche about homosexuality randomly into the movie, like if they didn’t include the 20 second scene about drag queens/ or w/e they were into the movie, it would not make sense. The mom/brother pissed me off. Oh and the guy went from being a super religious closet case to making out with random guys at stripper clubs to getting a boyfriend he met in 5 minutes, all in less than a week. It almost seemed like this was meant to be a tv series meant for a couple of seasons but got condensed into a 1 and a half hour non-sense flick. You don’t know anything about anyone. BTW he came out in literally the first 10 minutes of the movie. I couldn’t even force myself to feel bad for him because I couldn’t. It didn’t even make sense to.
If you have seen The Matthew Shepard Story, you will undoubtly agree that it was much MUCH better.
Can they please stop making all of these gay bash dramas…they’re so typical and annoying.
What’s your opinion?
These kind of movies make all gays out to be some pathetic people always having sex or always in some deep turmoil.
Best answer:
Answer by roccopaperiello
READ the book. The movie telescoped the time frames and didn’t adequately express the boy’s constant despair and anguish.
The boy’s religion instilled within him immense guilt which he could not overcome.
It made a lot of sense but did not bring this out enough.
I too attempted suicide at age 20 because I was gay and raised in a very religious household. The problem is not being gay in a religious household, but in that you believe all that garbage and can not reconcile your situation with a concept of a loving God. The story was totally beleivable to me because I could see myself in “Bobby.”
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You added: “These kind of movies make all gays out to be some pathetic people always having sex or always in some deep turmoil.”
Well the “deep termoil” was the entire point of the movie. The situation in which Bobby and his Mother found themselves is unfortunately not that uncommon. Unfortunately, according to varoius studies, suicide among young gays is 4 to 10 times that of non-gay youth. And the irrational religious beliefs of the parents — and subsequently raising the gay child in this same belief system, is very contributory. That is what the movie was about. Could the story have been told better? Definitely. But don’t criticize it for what it was supposed to be.
My biggest complaint was the characterization of the MCC minister. They made him out to be a seemingly uncaring idiot.
What do you think? Answer below!
