Chris & Don : A Review
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Much like a rich deeply flavored stew, a good work of art as it simmers brings up to the surface flavors, and bits of ingredients which may have remained in the bottom of the stock pot. The documentary, Chris & Don, is a fine rich stew which works on many different levels. It is a story of two individuals, and how these two individuals met on a beach in Southern California during a summer in the 1950’s. It is a story of a complex writer (Isherwood) who by this stage in his life was comfortable with his own formed psyche, and a very young man of 18 (Don Bachardy) who was not yet fully formed, and like most people of this age today, seeking to find out who he was in his public life, as well as the emerging person from the inside.
Through the use of home movies, the documentary speaks on a particular sociological level, a microcosm of life in Hollywood, it speaks of two men out of the closet in a point in the entertainment industry when homophobia was clearly a byproduct of well paid public figures living dual lives. This duality was a way of life (Pre-Stonewall), yet here was Isherwood taking his 19 year old lover on location of Dr. John Ford, known as a director of films which spewed heterosexual testosterone. Don & Chris exposes their intimacy of a couple who’s 33 year relationship was not without its ups and downs yet were able to remain committed to one another by the use of their pet name persona; the younger man as a cat, and Isherwood being the old horse. What they would not share as humans, they were able to communicate as their favorite pet - their alter egos. Read More »

I recently attended a lecture by Ishwerwood and literary scholar, James Berg who shared insights into the formation of his current book, 




