Ken Robertson

Tony Westrope

Rachel Nicholas James

Maureen Dolan

Stuart Turton

Clive Peters

Robert Merrick

Frank Dilbert

Peter Radmall

Ernest Brightmore

Derek Jarman

John Angel

Ron Peck

Paul Hallam

Jan Sendor

Patsy Nightingale

David Graham Ellis

Joanna Davis

Bernard Hanson

Diana Ruston

Mary Pat Leece

Richard Taylor

Drama

Nighthawks

Four Corner Films

Nashburgh

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

The problem with this look at late 70's British gay lifestyle, is that it is a little too realistic to carry off with any sort of interest. Like most stories about people on the hunt for romance/sex etc., it is incredibly introspective. Ken Robertson is a really quite dull, full of himself "Jim" - a teacher by day who looks for love in gay pubs/clubs at night. He picks up an array of folks, sometimes he has sex, sometimes not.... same old, same old... (regardless of your sexuality). If it weren't for the fact that it was set just before the dawn of Mrs. Thatcher's Clause 28 Britain, which at the time of course, this Ron Peck story would not have been able to anticipate - it would constitute little more than a melodrama with some very dodgy music and lacklustre tales of one night stands... As a semi-anthropological study of a gay man in London it is vaguely interesting, but any claims it may make to take a deeper look at the sociological themes of the time, or of attitudes are just bridges too far. It does have quite a telling Q&A style discourse at the end that illustrates the stereotypical attitudes of teenage kids that could have been made much more of, had the film itself not focused so much on the rather dreary existence of the subject.

English

Nighthawks (1978) - extract | BFI