Partners (1982 film)

Infobox Film | name = Partners


caption =
director = James Burrows
producer = Aaron Russo
Francis Veber
writer = Francis Veber
starring = Ryan O'Neal
John Hurt
music = Georges Delerue
cinematography =
editing = Danford B. Greene
Stephen Lovejoy
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = April 30, 1982
runtime = 93 min
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0084477

"Partners" is a gay-themed buddy comedy from 1982. It stars Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt as a mismatched pair of cops. After a series of murders in the Los Angeles gay community, heterosexual police sergeant Benson (O'Neal) is assigned to the case. He is ordered to go undercover as half of a gay couple. The other half of the couple is Officer Kerwin (Hurt), a records clerk who everyone in the department knows is gay although he thinks he's closeted.

The film derives much of its alleged humor from Benson's discomfort with homosexuality and his stereotypical ideas of "gay behaviour." The film does deserve some small measure of credit for showing the evolution of Benson's attitudes toward Kerwin and by extension gay people in general, although upon its release "Partners" was near-universally reviled by critics. Critical reaction was perhaps best summed up by Rex Reed, who wrote for the New York Post, "Hollywood's latest crime against humanity in general and homosexuals in particular is a dumb creepshow called "Partners" - stupid, tasteless and homophobic, this sleazy, superficial film implies that gay cops can't be trusted to work with straight cops because they might fall in love with them."

External links

*imdb title|0084477