Stonewall Uprising

The film's final words are simple and to the point, and come from the retired cop, Seymour Pine: "You knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that?"

Methodically ticks off the forms of oppression visited on gays and lesbians in the days before the gay rights movement.

As the eye-opening documentary Stonewall Uprising shows through interviews and frequently horrifying old footage, homosexuality in this country was once a highly illegal behavior, widely viewed, at the very least, as a mental disorder, possibly even psychopathic.

Unfortunately, for the bulk of the film's running time -- its first two-thirds or so -- Davis and Heilbroner oversaturate viewers with scene-setting material, describing the climate for gay men and lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s.

The film takes awhile to get going -- the depiction of homophobic 1950s suburbia has a familiar feel. The movie hits its stride only when eyewitnesses to the events at the Stonewall tell their stories.

Many witnesses offer emotional recollections of the ensuing riots, but equally powerful moments come courtesy of old footage, in which anti-gay "experts" expound with a confident ignorance that sounds chillingly familiar even today.

Tellingly, it's not the queers, but a cop--Seymour Pine, the 90-year-old retired NYPD morals inspector who led the raid on the Stonewall Inn--who gets the last word.