Bent

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Though a bit overwrought, Bent succeeds as one of the most wrenching, powerful films in recent memory. No matter how hardened we think we may be, well-made, intelligent Holocaust dramas such as this continue to move us. Max (Owen) lives hard and fast in 1930s Germany, hanging out in gay clubs, having an occasional fling despite his live-in boyfriend, Rudy (Webber). The party ends abruptly one night when the Nazis murder hundreds of homosexuals. Rudy and Max escape, only to be captured later, with Rudy succumbing to a brutal beating. En route to Dachau, Max meets Horst (Bluteau), and the two find companionship and love under the most dire circumstances. A male sex scene early in the film explains the NC-17 rating, though more graphic heterosexual scenes have gotten away with an R classification.