Great Film overall

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There are potentially two great movies here. One about a Midwestern kid growing up gay in the late sixties, the other about the Stonewall Riots. However, when you put the two movies together, it becomes one mediocre movie. Danny is a fictional character and ever minute spent on him and his fictional town takes away from actually telling the story of Stonewall and since the movie is named "Stonewall" we might expect it to be about, well, Stonewall. Meanwhile the characters that are based on historical people who were there are left as cardboard cut outs, propped up to move Danny's story along. Factor in that the police are actually portrayed as justified in raiding the bar towards the end and the lack of any actual serious romantic relationships on the parts of the leads and it is not hard to see why the LGBTQ community in general panned the film.

I was not previously aware of the negative reviews of this film. And that is a good thing, since they might have deterred me from watching. Having now seen the film, and having done so as A) someone who is old enough to remember firsthand what it was like to be gay in middle America in 1969 (far worse than what is depicted in this film!), B) someone who was disowned and thrown out by his parents at age 17 for being gay, C) a long-time gay activist, and D) a professional historian, all I can say is that the critics need to get past the fact that this is *not* a dispassionate, objective documentary about the Stonewall Riots. Rather, it is a fictionalized evocation of the social, cultural, and political circumstances that eventually triggered the riots. And in that regard, I think the film did an outstanding job. Those born after about 1970 largely have no reason to remember bar raids, police payoffs, anti-cross-dressing laws, or even the overt involvement of organized crime in the operation of many gay bars. And that is in large part thanks to the bravery of the "deplorables" (to use a word circulating in this election cycle) who finally said, "Enough is enough." From my perspective as an elderly gay man who continues to be utterly dumbfounded (and delighted!) by the social changes that gay militants have achieved over the past half-century, I can only say "Thank you" to the makers of this film for at least trying to tell the story in a passionate, subjective manner. If you want cold, emotionless history, tune in to the National Geographical Channel. If you want some sense of what it *felt like* in 1969 (and for many years thereafter), see this film. Is the film "flawless"? No. But despite a few flaws, it is an excellent film.

What's with the bitchy reviews here? One reviewer even complains about a 'dull sex scene'! Did the negative reviewers expect porn? This film is about humans coming together to fight for their human rights, social and civil rights. And it's not a documentary! The movie itself is not a great and wonderful achievement in cinema art. What's great about it is the powerful message it brings into todays world when it is most needed.The message -- no matter who you are or where you come from and you know right from wrong - when you see or experience injustice, abuse, discrimination, take a stand and fight back. That's what is being brought to light in this film.The gay community are not outcast to be used and tossed out as trash by people of hypocritically high religious, political, and social standing. There are religious persons, political leaders, and greedy capitalist businesses that wrap themselves in the American flag, arm themselves with Jesus, the Bible, and guns and would be pleased and fulfilled with self gratitude to see the LGBT community tortured, destroyed, and killed. That's what this movie is about! It shows victims of life being forced to the bottom of society because they love differently. And once you are at the bottom 'to survive' is your goal and then you are labeled 'trash'. Your only defense is to fight back and crack a few skulls of the oppressors that pushed these people away and make them stay hidden. And that includes the family, the good religious families that see no wrong in destroying their own.Near the end of Stonewall there is a scene when Danny Winters tells Ray that when he was fighting back, pushing the cops away, screaming that they are people with rights - he felt most alive! He felt like a human with purpose! In other words he had found himself and he's not a bad person (as the people back in Indiana would have him feel about himself). And his trip back to visit friends in that cold hearted backward thinking state was a cathartic moment for him as then he realizes he's on the right path.Why so many are trashing this film is suspect. Did they actually watch the movie? This film will stay in your thoughts for quite sometime if you actually think about what life was and still is for the gay community!

Excellent overview of what happened in NYC's Greenwich Village in 1969 when the Gay Rights Movement was given a spark thanks to Stonewall Inn patrons who refused to be abused by the oppressive thug cops one more time.Jeremy Irvine is superb as the kid from Indiana, who's thrown out of his middle-class home for being gay. He learns what he needs to learn in order to survive on the streets in Manhattan. He connects with a group of drag queens and hustlers who are usually without money, and he also gets a view of the beginnings of the Gay Pride movement thanks to Jonathan Rhys Meyers, terrific as Trevor the Mattichine Society activist.The movie hasn't opened and far too many comments here are from people who obviously haven't seen the film, which is a crime against art. I have seen the movie, and it works well on many levels, including as an expose of corrupt cops, an examination of the Mafia's control of gay bars, and the nature of homophobia and the closet in America.People who are whining that the movie ignores this group or that group have no idea what's in the outstanding film, a work of complexity that dares to reveal the truth about brutish law enforcement and how the longing for love will conquer all manner of oppressive forces.See "Stonewall" and judge for yourself.