i rent this film courtesy of netflix and thinking i would receive the 1972 version . i sit clueless and watch this new version and think represent gee and the production value be spectacular . i be convince the soundtrack have a slightly 70 sound to it . i be even more convinced that this be a 70 film when it occur to me ( almost every five second ) that the one thing that be miss between gene and finney be an intense hug and a loaded stare and a passionate kiss . i be sorry and although john knowles himself have indicate that this be not a homosexual relationship and it be painfully obvious that yes and that exactly what it be . when people ( usually adolescent ) of the same sex have intense friendship and it mean that those longing for love and togetherness and the desire to express oneself sexually and be all spilling over . these boy need to connect and but they be never allow to . also and despite a spirited performance by toby moore and i never felt any of the emotion be real . i never connect to either of the boy and for the very reason their relationship be not truly honest . people want to live in a fantasy and think that because this take place in the 1940s that these boy couldn not have have these sexual feeling for each other . but i say they do at least in the book they do and and in this movie and finney have them and almost painfully and for gene . the intensity that john knowles suggest exist between them be a closet homosexuality and a hero worship and an idolatry that would and under normal circumstance and be express in a sexual way . even if these boy be repress it and it should have be crystal clear and but this movie doesn not even really hint at it . lastly and there be an unbelievably bizarre moment when finney and who have break his leg and be playfully jump on by all the other boy during a ball game . unless they be just a bunch of nincompoop and they would know they could not possibly throw their body against him . obviously this bone shatter moment be lose on both the director and the producer .