Starring: Ken Robertson, Tony Westrope, Rachel Nicholas James
Director: Ron Peck
Running Time: 113 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: (Blu-ray release) March 30th, 2009

With the release of Weekend on DVD and Blu-ray, it seems a good time to revisit Nighthawks, a movie I’d be willing to bet served as a major inspiration for Andrew Haigh’s recent gay hit, but made 34 years before. Nighthawks is generally agreed to be Britain’s first ‘gay movie’, as while homosexuality had been seen on screen before, this was the first Brit flick to be told non-judgementally, from a gay perspective and not trading in crude stereotypes.

The film follows Londoner Jim (Ken Robertson), a teacher by day who spends his evenings cruising bars and discotheques (remember, this is 1978, when discotheques were cool!), picking up different men and trying to connect with them in various ways, whether it’s just for sex, attempting a fledgling relationship or becoming friends. He tries to keep his two lives separate, something that seems as much a necessity as something he actually wants. [Read more…]