Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

With PRISCILLA, along comes another film featuring homosexuals with lifestyles supposedly deserving of tolerance and sympathy. Three men in Sydney, Australia, make up a team of drag queen nightclub performers. Two of them, using the names of Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Felicia (Guy Pearce), apparently are homosexuals. The third, Bernadette (Terence Stamp), is a transsexual who has undergone a partial sex change. To the shock and dismay of Felicia and Bernadette, Mitzi confesses he is married and has a wife and young son in Alice Springs, a remote town in the northern territory of Australia. They decide to visit Alice Springs and give a performance there. Traveling in a large Greyhound type bus they call Priscilla, the three journey through barren, but picturesque desert country. These comical, colorful characters get involved in a variety of ludicrous escapades along the way. Their performances in some small towns and in Alice Springs are met with less than enthusiasm, but they find acceptance among a nomadic native tribe and an aging auto mechanic named Bob. Many will perceive the antics of the three drag queens as hilarious, but other more sensitive viewers will find it difficult to enjoy this story of three pathetic men trapped in a lifestyle of degradation and despair.

PRISCILLA is being promoted and endorsed by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Several hundred homosexuals attended the advance screening of the film in Dallas. They laughed uproariously at the antics of the pathetic drag queens. Why, instead, weren't they angry to see their own kind portrayed as silly ninkapoops with no dignity or self esteem? They laughed at the endless obscene, comical repartee of the drag queens and reveled in the suggestive dance performances of the men dressed in flamboyant, colorful women's costumes. No sexual or homosexual conduct is shown, but one scene implies that Bernadette and Bob spend the night together. In their travels, the drag queens are usually treated with hostility and even suffer bodily harm on occasion. Certainly, this type of treatment is unacceptable, but the film develops sympathy for the homosexual lifestyle. Also, in a small town saloon, a scantily clad woman gives an obscene, comical performance. Homosexuality and its related practices are an abomination to God, and homosexuals need to be encouraged to break free of the bondage which entraps them. PRISCILLA should be boycotted, and letters sent to its distributor expressing disappointment and disgust.

Preview Reviewer: John Evans
Distributor: USA Films (Gramercy), 9333 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210