Reviews

Barnes & Noble

The horrific 1998 murder of young gay man Matthew Shepard inspired this unique and amazing film, the product of New York playwright Moises Kaufman and an impressive coalition of stage, screen, and TV actors. When Laramie, Wyoming became infamous as the location of Shepard's brutal killing, Kaufman and members of his Tectonic Theater Project went there and conducted more than 200 interviews with citizens, shaping their words into a play dramatizing the townspeople's conflicting feelings about the crime. This film goes one step further, incorporating the experiences of Kaufman, et al. into the narrative, with actors portraying Kaufman, his associates, and the residents of Laramie. Among the large and talented ensemble cast you'll see many familiar faces, including those of Steve Buscemi, Dylan Baker, Jeremy Davies, Clea Duvall, Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, Janeane Garofalo, Joshua Jackson (especially moving as a Laramie bartender haunted by the belief that he might have prevented the crime), Laura Linney, Amy Madigan, Camryn Mannheim, Christina Ricci, and Mark Webber. Intercutting reenacted interviews with actual news footage lends an eerie cast to these somber proceedings, which dramatize the dualities of a community that proclaims its adherence to Christian principles and yet cannot unanimously condemn the murderers of one of its own. Occasionally melodramatic and self-important, The Laramie Project is also heartrending and impossible to forget. Kaufman and executive producer Ross Katz provide a feature-length commentary for the DVD. Ed Hulse

Synopsis

All Movie Guide

Laramie, WY, is a small town which became infamous overnight in the fall of 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was found tied to a fence after being brutally beaten and left to die, setting off a nationwide debate about hate crimes and homophobia. A month after the crime, Moises Kaufman, a writer and director with the New York City theater troupe the Tectonic Theater Project, traveled to Laramie with a handful of actors to interview people who lived in and around Laramie in preparation for an upcoming production; Kaufman's goal was to create a play that focused not on the assault on Matthew Shepard, but on the community where such an attack could happen, and how many of the citizens reacted to the crime. The result was The Laramie Project, which was first performed in early 2000, and was performed in Laramie in the fall of that year, two years after Kaufman and his associates first arrived in the city. The Laramie Project is a film adaptation of Kaufman's play, in which the thoughts and opinions of Laramie residents from all points of the political spectrum are presented alongside re-enacted excerpts from the trials of the two men who attacked Matthew Shepard. Produced for the premium cable network HBO, The Laramie Project was adapted for the screen by Moises Kaufman, who served as both writer and director. The distinguished cast includes Dylan Baker, Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Janeane Garofolo, Laura Linney, Amy Madigan, Camryn Manheim, Christina Ricci, and Frances Sternhagen. Mark Deming