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Out of Athens, Parts 1 and 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Directed by John Rutherford. Written by Rick Crawshaw, Todd Montgomery, and John Rutherford. Videography by Todd Montgomery. Edited by Delta Productions. Music by E.M. Diaz. Starring Johnny Brosnan, Roland Dane, Travis Wade, Dean Phoenix, Colby Taylor, Seth Adkins, Franco Corsini, Jeffrey Dickinson, Hans Ebson, Cameron Fox, Jose Ganatti, Jeremy Jordan, Billy Kincaid, Eric Leneau, Tristan Paris, Emilio Santos, Jeremy Tucker, Thomas Williams, Nick Young, Robert Balint, Joe Calderon, Erik Hanlan, Eric Hart, Lindon Hawk, Fernando Lizalde, Ryan Michaels, David Moretti, Marc Pierrot, Matt Spencer, and George Vidanov.
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In Out of Athens, a two-cassette sexual extravagance by Falcon's John Rutherford, the plot is a dysfunctional riff on themes from The Talented Mr. Ripley; it depicts classism as sophomorically as Falcon/Mustang's recent Blur depicts racism. The difference here is that the sexual content triumphs over the dippy narrative. Ten sex scenes featuring a cast of 30 keep coming at you for 165 minutes; several are as good as anything Rutherford has ever staged. Shot on location in California, Athens, Syros, Mykonos, and Santorini by Todd Montgomery on both film and videotape, this is one of the most visually splendid releases ever to come out of Falcon Studios.

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Johnny Brosnan plays a janitor at an Ivy League school who runs away after having been treated like dirt by "snot-nosed silver-spoon type frat boys." Setting his sights on loftier Greek pursuits, he heads for the Aegean. Aboard a ship bound for Piraeus, Brosnan and Travis Wade enact the stateroom scene that many gay viewers wish they could have witnessed between Matt Damon and Jack Davenport in Anthony Minghella's Ripley film.

Brosnan doesn't murder Wade; he steals his Harvard Crew sweatshirt and some cash, and starts passing himself off as a Harvard alumnus. In Athens, he hooks up with Roland Dane, a young Greek who couldn't care less about social status. But Brosnan foolishly leaves Dane behind and strikes out toward the islands, planning to crash a Harvard team reunion where he's bound to be exposed. Brosnan's character is mixed up in ways hard to decipher, but when he spurns the advances of luscious Dean Phoenix twice you're left with no doubt that he's mixed up in ways that run deep.

The few Greek characters all seem to be portrayed by non-Greek Europeans; you may wish Rutherford had made more of an effort to recruit idigenous talent. But the cast is still a powerhouse blend of familiar Falcon models and relative newcomers. Raven-haired, sapphire-eyed Johnny Brosnan, whose patrician facial structure and WASPy manner belie his role as a working-class lad, seems born to model upper-yuppie leisure wear for Giorgio Armani. But he's a sexual dynamo, a bottom whose insatiability rivals that of Falcon's legendary Kevin Williamson. His first sex scene with Roland Dane, an impetuous, hungry encounter in a ruined villa, has a startling intensity; his punitive orgy on Syros turns into the kind of revel Dionysus would have wanted to attend.