THIS DOCUMENTARY is ambitious, but doesn't entirely accomplish what I think were the goals director Arthur Dong started with. It is mostly interviews of imprisoned murderers of gay and/or homosexual men, presumably to advance the premise that American society, by its attitudes toward homosexuality, has given a license to killers to murder homosexuals, or at least that's what these men must have thought when they went about their horrendous deeds. But in actuality it shows that about half the murderers here were themselves either gay, conflicted homosexuals, or males who as children were abused homosexually by men and at various times sought out male partners for their own gratification.

In most cases, they murdered to either try to prove the point that despite their conflict they were not gay, or to wreak revenge on whomever might have started their internal turmoil. I was expecting and rather hoping for more clearcut black and white hate crimes, like the murder of a gay man who went on Jenny Jones' talk show to tell an acquaintance he had a crush on him, which is not referenced in the film. Or the beating-up by a "straight" youth in the Willow Glen section of San Jose of his gay neighbor. That episode is shown in the film and is the best example of the title's suggested theme, but it was a beating, not a killing, and the attacker's story is not told, though otherwise the movie is mostly the stories of murderers, not their victims.

The most interesting story, and character, though his story is not sufficiently told, is that of Jay Johnson, the racially mixed son of a teacher at a prominent Christian college in Minneapolis, who is the film's only serial killer. Johnson was conflicted not only about his homosexual feelings, but his religious commitment. His parents' teaching and that of the churches generally is that homosexual carnal knowledge is sin. Johnson believed this and even still seems to believe it, but somehow felt that he could atone for his sin by murdering those he lured—at least as much as they lured him—into what he considered grave falls. He seems aware of his woeful lapse of logic, and even says that if the church were more loving toward homosexuals even without condoning fornications, it would probably help youths such as he was grow up less conflicted. He's interesting because he seems genuinely nice, likeable, spiritual, intelligent—even intellectual—and yet he's an admitted serial murderer. A whole film about him would be worth seeing.

Repeatedly, this film reminds me of a 1970's drama made in docu-drama style, which the gay press generally reviled, but was nonetheless an important and, I believe, honest film, Cruising, also about this very subject. Though filmmaker Arthur Dong fails to deliver the solid punch documentaries need to turn from something more interesting than a segment on 20/20 to compelling entertainment, and with the warning that this isn't for everyone, I do give this a fairly strong seven-point endorsement: anyone who needs this kind of information should see it.