AllMovie

Stuart Marshal's vivid docudrama Desire traces the sociopolitical history of homosexuality. Treatment of gays in the 1980s is compared to the formalized discriminatory attitudes of the past 100 years. Using newsreel clips, still pictures, and reenactments, Marshal details the efforts made by various governments, medical facilities, politicians and religious leaders to legally persecute all those who prefer alternative lifestyles. Special emphasis is given the treatment of homosexuals during the Nazi regime in Germany. The avowed purpose of Desire is to outrage and awaken its audience: in this, it is wholly successful.