A 2015 American coming-of-age Drama directed by Roland Emmerich that is centered around the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City.
The movie stars Jeremy Irvine, Jonny Beauchamp, Joey King, Caleb Landry Jones, Matt Craven, David Cubitt, Alexandre Nachi, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ron Perlman, and Mark Camacho.
Danny Winters is a gay white teen living in Indiana while he struggles with his sexuality. Eventually running away from home, he ends up homeless and living in New York City. He quickly befriends a group of gay, lesbian, and genderfluid individuals but witnesses the police brutality against them. Resorting to prostitution to make ends meet, he eventually develops a romance with an older gay man, Trevor, but is not important to him. From there, events build to the infamous Stonewall Riots when the local gay community rises up against Police Brutality.
It was released on September 18, 2015.
Tropes for the film:
- The '60s: Takes place during the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
- Based on a Great Big Lie: Part of the issue of the movie is how much the movie distorts the events of the actual Stonewall Riots to place the focus on a fictious Straight Gay white teenager versus the actual black and drag performers.
- Big Applesauce: Stonewall is located in Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan.
- But Not Too Gay: Danny is at least shown as being sexually active as a gay man but much of the movie downplays any notion of queer identity and emphasizes he's a White Male Lead and Straight Gay.
- Historical Domain Character:
- Bob Kohler, a gay rights activist living in New York City.
- Marsha P. Johnson, a prominent activist and drag queen at the riots.
- Lead You Can Relate To: Even though many of the real people involved in the Stonewall riots were black or Latino and a number of them were Transgender women, the movie focuses on a fictional cisgender white teen from Indiana. The specific justification given was that a White Male Lead from the American heartland would be more relatable to the audience.
- Made a Slave: Danny is at one point forced into a high class male prostitution business by The Mafia.
- One-Word Title: Stonewall.
- Police Brutality: The police are shown to repeatedly harass, beat, and abuse identified LGBTAQ individuals in excruciating detail. Sadly, Truth in Television.
- Straight Gay: Danny is an individual who does not display any stereotypical (of the time period) traits. This is notably a plot point as it allows him to escape some of the Police Brutality.
- White Male Lead: The plot focuses on fictional Danny Winters, a white Straight Gay teenager from Indiana who bused to New York City after being kicked out of his home.
