Rock Hudson's Home Movies

Writer-director Mark Rappaport and actor-narrator Eric Farr lead us through selected clips of actor Rock Hudson's movies from the 1950s, '60s and '70s, highlighting the subtext in the dialogue passages with gay conjecture. An amusing idea, but not enough research was done. For instance, there's far too much coverage of the Rock Hudson-Doris Day-Tony Randall comedies--what about 1965's "Strange Bedfellows", which had some dandy lines rife with innuendo? There's some amusing footage of an unnamed movie where Burl Ives (in a bath towel) acts like Hudson's jealous lover (it was 1962's "The Spiral Road"), and the film-ballet of scenes involving Hudson removing his shirt or putting on his pants (usually in front of other men) is funny. Unfortunately, the film clips appear to be third-generation, VHS-recorded sequences that look even worse when they're freeze-framed for emphasis, and Farr's wilted delivery doesn't bring out Rappaport's intended sting. *1/2 from ****

An intriguing project, but by no means a success, this is a reimagining and reinterpretation of RH's body of work with the gift of hindsight about his sexuality and early death from AIDS. The film clips are great fun, and speak volumes about the tension between Rock the Movie Star and Rock the Man. That's the problem - by comparison, the device of the actor impersonating Rock gets in the way, underlining the obvious and forbidding the viewer from drawing his/her own associations. Rock belonged to the last dawning of the studio era and shone gloriously, consistently even in the dopiest and most compromised of his films. This narrator looks/sounds NOTHING like Rock and his presence on camera makes the film look like the grad school project I suspect it is. A shame, because there's a real story to be told, and Rock deserves a stronger stand-in. We miss you, Rock.

Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992)

** (out of 4)

Director Mark Rappaport has made some rather unique documentaries in his time. He basically takes a subject and twists and turns everything in order to fit whatever story he wants to tell. In this movie he plays the narrator, a person acting as if they're Rock Hudson, as the actor comes out and admits he's gay.

There's no question that this documentary is going to upset many people and it's easy to see why. For starters, it's common knowledge now that Hudson died of AIDS and was gay. This documentary basically takes clips from all of Hudson's movies and twists the dialogue to make it seem that there were "clues" to this in all of his movies.

I will admit that this is a rather well-made film and there's no question that the director is a talented filmmaker who knows how to edit and twist things in order to get what story he is going for. This film is a tad bit silly on one hand because it takes famous movies and takes things so out of context that it's hard to take it too serious. At the same time, twisting the movie's dialogue into fitting some other agenda is what's going to make people most upset.

ROCK HUDSON'S HOME MOVIES isn't a complete success and as I said, I'm sure many will feel it cross the lines. What lines those are will be up to the viewer.

Fine if you want to watch the clips, Hudson had a surprisingly large body of work.

Misleading at first, the narrator (who is indeed creepy) suggests that he is presenting Hudson's words that he himself wrote. After 15 minutes I realized not a chance that he wrote this drivel.

The creator of this so called documentary doesn't have much/any respect for the audience and their judgement, or for Hudson himself it seems.

And the premise of people being 'shocked' at his sexuality is a myth. I honestly don't know anyone who reacted in that way. Hudson was a good entertainer in the vehicles he appeared in, not many of which were high brow. But he enjoyed his work, and flashed his lovely smile frequently to show that.

It is senseless to denigrate his life by trying to reduce him to a sexual stereotype, There is a danger in suggesting Hudson was laughing at the general public for being so easily duped. I just don't think he was like that.

This film is unwatchable... The picture quality itself is very poor (2011 DVD). The title is misleading... there are no Rock Hudson home movies... This is a selection of poor quality video clips from Rock Hudson films with an actor supposedly speaking for Rock. I very much doubt he would have agreed with ANYTHING this so called documentary has to say (it says nothing about Rock but speaks volumes about the director of this garbage).

I bought this as I thought it would give an insight to Rock Hudsons private life and thoughts, it does nothing for the man or the actor. He was a man of his time and should be appreciated for the roles he created on screen... Avoid this nonsense.