What a beautiful movie!

Excellent, a Must See

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Although Thomas Ian Nicholas fulfills my own conception of what an actor playing Rock Hudson should be and William R. Moses is giving the best possible face on the interpretation of Marc Christian we are left very unsatisfied with this portrayal of Rock Hudson, a film star I grew up with and one of the last products of the fabled studio system with all its strengths and faults.When Roy Fitzgerald was christened by Henry Willson as Rock Hudson he began a life in denial. Hudson followed in the footsteps of people like William Haines and Ross Alexander for whom the closet was too great a burden, Haines walked out of the acting business and Alexander was a suicide. It killed Rock Hudson too, it just took decades to happen.It's important to remember that Hudson was a product of America's midwest heartland with all the values therein inculcated in him from his birth. Being gay was just not something someone discussed in polite society. Compounding that Hudson entered a profession that was built on image. It would not do with the rigid stereotypes we had back in the day for the All American male to be gay. Andrew Robinson plays Willson who was gay himself and had many a gay client. Hudson was his number one client. When Confidential magazine threatened to blow up his career, Willson fed them some of his lesser clients like Rory Calhoun had a prison record come to light. Hudson certainly went along with it because he had grown used to the life of a celebrity film star. In many ways Robinson had the most interesting role in the film, in fact a life of Henry Willson would be far more interesting than any of his celebrity clients.Like other players who got into films on their looks and sex appeal like Tyrone Power and Robert Taylor, Rock Hudson worked hard and learned his craft so that he could deliver a decent acting performance. The story about his one line debut in Fighter Squadron and having 38 takes to deliver it is part of Hollywood legend. What is not mentioned is that Henry Willson certainly had the connections to keep him in the game otherwise after about the fifth take we'd have never heard of Rock Hudson. Secondly director Raoul Walsh had him star in three of his films later, Sea Devils, Gun Glory, and The Lawless Breed. He must have seen something in him.Rock Hudson's life was in the closet, it was the price you paid back in the day for a career in front of the camera. With a little more historical perspective we might get a better version of the life of Rock Hudson. I certainly hope so.

This film was well paced, but really didn't go in depth to show a longer TV career that Rock did have. The most strangest moment in the film, i remember was that Rock took his mother to the screening of his first motion picture that he starred in with Robert Stack. His mother leans over to him in the movie theater and basically tells him "dont quit your day job" as a reaction to his acting. The actor who portrayed Raoul Walsh was quit believable, giving Rock a small part in this first picture telling his agent, Henry: "Well he'll make good scenery" Also, another discrepancy is that when Rock met Marc Christian, they were friends for six months before sleeping together. The movie makes it look like they just jumped in the sack after a just a few meetings. Otherwise it was mildly entertaining.

Thomas Ian Griffith was perfectly cast in this role. Not only is Mr. Griffith a Rock Hudson lookalike, but he carried himself as Rock Hudson did and portrayed the underlying tenderness that Hudson's moviegoers admired. I normally dislike biography/movies and almost switched the channel, but Mr. Griffith was quite compelling to watch. I do agree with the other imdb users that the movie could have focused more on Hudson's career; however, the movie was based on his ex-wife's book and her knowledge of that aspect of Hudson's life was limited. I found it sad that Hudson tried to go straight and although truly in love with Phyllis, he could not deny his inner feelings for men. Mr. Griffith's portrayal helped me to understand Rock Hudson as a person. This movie is currently being rerun on the True Stories channel (March 2001).

It would have been interesting to see more about his movie career and non -sex personal life. Nevertheless it was an interesting movie and the cast performed well. Marc Christian was painted in a more favorable light than the press did at the time of Hudson's death and the lawsuit. George Nader, who received most of his estate according to some accounts, was not in the movie at all.