Firebird

A most handsome film, it certainly is...alas, it's all style with a disappointing amount of substance. It's all just a bit too squeaky clean.

Homosexuality in the military is a subject that has cropped up sporadically throughout the years...most recently, with two rather splendid examples are the South Africa produced: Moffie and Canary. Threat, menace, risk, danger, dread, tension, thrill, joy and excitement - these are the ingredients necessary for a gripping military-based, cat-and-mouse, homo-sex drama.

Tension is a dramatic resource that Firebird failed to tap...the potential was all over the place - but, whenever these two young bucks were on the cusp of getting caught 'bucking'...they hid...behind a rock, behind a bush, in a bath-tub and that would be it...nothing that would get you onto the edge of your seat! For gawd's sake, if they were caught, they'd be shipped off to a secret Siberian gulag in next to no time for an indeterminable amount of time...where was their fear!?! Their hearts should have been in their mouths, chests beating like a frenzied King Kong.

Even the villain is not that villainous - everything seems to be resolved without too much of a fuss! Of course, it going to end in tragedy [how can it not] - instead of watching one character shed tears...wouldn't it have been preferential to have the whole audience bawling their eyes out?

It's a decent enough film...it just needed more dirt and grit, danger and dread.

Trailer...