Laramie Project Analysis

The Laramie Project is initially a play that revolved around the town Laramie, Wyoming. Written by Moises Kaufman, he derives reactions and interviews from certain citizens of Laramie about the murder of a gay student Matthew Shepard. This play was later adapted to a film that we’ve recently completed. In this short and simple review, you will understand how I felt about the film, along with dissecting the film itself to understanding why Kaufman decided to write about the murder in Laramie.

First I want to give my review on how I felt about the film adaptation of the Laramie Project. Overall, I felt that the Laramie Project achieved the goal of that the film was aiming to become (I will expand more on this on the next paragraph.) Combined

The film’s moral message is about hate crime against the gay community is wrong. But it doesn’t only show that message, the film is also trying to encourage gay people to come out and not be afraid of being what they are and also educate those who do not understand what being gay means. For example, one interview in particular was about a man who slowly came out to be gay. He never came out because he would feel as if people would bash him in disgust. But he changed his opinion and and came out to being gay when he witnessed a group of people giving respects to Matt Shepard by walking behind a parade. Many people joined this group to give respects, which in turn, he believed that there are still people who would not turn on him if he were to come out. Another example is how this film educates us, and that is through the interview with the officer who interviewed the murderers of Shepard. He expresses how he was part of an “old-school” generation that believed being gay was wrong and should be disgusted. But after interviewing the boys and witnessing the news event about this case. He slowly understood that being gay doesn’t make you different from a regular person. He later went on to support that gay people should not be treated unfairly or hated, he later expressed he lost a few friends, but accepting that gay people are equal makes him sleep better

Honestly, the message still applies, but with the recent legalization of gay marriage, I doubt that we have nowhere else to go but by moving forward and accepting that the gay community is for the most part accepted. We may get people who still dislike the community, but with the recent generations being brought up to understand what being gay means, there shouldn’t be any serious issues in the future. But take my opinion with a grain of salt, there will always be people who dislike gay people no matter how much you educate them. And that is because through ignorance and influences from either old generations or religion. I also with that people who are uneducated about what the gay community is remain similar to one of the characters being interviewed. This woman was completely under the influence of ignorance becoming a bliss to her. She didn’t hate the gay community, she was just neutral and confused. But she believed that everyone is equal and all lives matter in a sense.

Overall Laramie Project is a short and easy to understand film. Although some edges can be trimmed, it still is a movie worth watching. I believe it does have a place in history and should be recommended that everyone should see the film at least once to get an understanding of both sides on the gay community. And most importantly, I hope people would apply these views to race