User Reviews

"The Delta" started off strong. It was a quiet little film about a boy immersed in the drug/booze world and also into the world of promiscuous gay sex and peep shows. Around 40 minutes into the movie it had not moved very fast, but I found it enjoyable because it seemed like a "slice of life" movie. It seemed to be shaped as an odd love story between this boy and a Vietnamese immigrant. However, the focus turned onto John in the last quarter and he all of a sudden kills a man and then the movie ends. If the statement of the film is about the dangers of the underground sex world, then it should have been made in the middle rather than at the end. The film leaves the viewer puzzled.

However, I was totally struck by Shayne Gray. I was quite disappointed that he has not done any other films. Not only is he one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen, he has tremendous acting talent. He played this character with ease, when it could have been played as a wuss by any other actor. Gray keeps the viewer's attention, even though his performance is quiet and often undetached. I cannot believe that this man has not been found--he is a tremendous talent and very good looking. I hope to see him in future projects.

The movie is definitely not great, but its not a total waste of time. I think the premise of the movie is quite interesting since it deals with the consequences of irresponsible behavior, specially when it comes to human interaction.

For the people who may have not understood the conclusion of the movie, pay attention to the plot summary line "betrayal and revenge"...meaning that the story of these two characters is not quite over by the end of the movie.

And as for the people praising Shayne Gray's work, well...they are absolutely right. He's a natural when it comes to being in front of a camera. Hopefully we'll see him someday doing a movie again.

I totally agree with most of the other reviewers that this movies is a total bomb. I frequently visit IMDb (close to 8 years) and always wanted to write a review and never have. The absolute atrociousness of this film drove me to register to comment. It was just the huge discrepancy of what this movie could've been and what it ended up being that was such a HUGE disappointment. Basically this movie in terms of when it came out (1996) and the locale AND SHAYNE GRAY could've easily, EASILY become a landmark gay independent film, one that ranks alongside classics such as Beautiful Thing, Jeffrey, Priscilla QUeen of the Desert, Wedding Banquet; movies that people watch regularly when talking about gay Indie films. You have this Beauitufl, BEAUTIFUL, hot, sexy, TALENTED guy Shayne Gray and he was completed wasted in this movie. WHY?!? HE WAS SO CAPTIVATING AND COMPELLING! I loved the movie up to until he met that gross black-viet guy. Afterwards, the movie shifted to covering the two of them and eventually LEAVES SHAYNE AlL TOGETHER????!!! WTF??? I feel like screaming I am so mad. I have many reasons for not liking that character like his horrid horrid accent that makes me want to vomit and cringe every time I hear it. Why was Shayne's character put with that thing?!? We want to see Shayne with a guy that was worthy of how attractive he is. He could've been put with an attractive black guy or an Asian guy w/o an accent. I am so angry because I wasted an hour and a half of life watching this movie. I kept thinking it'd get better and we'd eventually lose the yucky runt and his stupid voice altogether and focus on Shayne where it belongs, and perhaps see his character meet someone worthy and come out or just leave their small town. BUT NO!! WE don't see any of that!!! To top it off Shayne has not been in any movies since then and it is a REAL REAL shame. What's not a shame is the fact that the director, "writer (what I just witnessed was not writing)" hasn't made any successful films. Whew! A person that cannot recognize how AWESOME Shayne Gray was and that for sure the film needed to focus on him and not bring in any disgusting distractions does not deserve to be making films. I mean I am a city boy through and through BUT with a name like The Delta and from the video box cover image you'd expect certain things, like dealing with being gay but also masculine and just a regular southern boy in the South, lots of sweeping panoramic shots of the landscape...THERE WAS NONE OF THAT!!!!! Paint a picture with film in the way Huckleberry Finn painted a picture of the Mississippi with words! I did like the slowness of the movie in that it captured the mood of the location but it could've still had a cohesive story that didn't drag. I did like how the film was diverse in its representation that the region has a strong black as well as Vietnamese population especially since that is a community that is often invisible. HOWEVER the film could've given a nod to those populations without having the story completely meander off-course and crash off a cliff, which is what it absolutely did. Not to beat a dead horse but this film in terms of its subject matter could've soooooooo easily been a film that people cite often as a great gay teen movie. But the story and the poor poor POOR choice of love interest for the lead character totally ruined everything. ARGH! I just want to say again that Shayne Gray was the only reason to watch this movie.

I am Shayne Gray and I think that Ira (the Director) did a good job with this film...the problems came up when he had to switch editors at the last minute. The character "John" felt that he was not liked by African Americans (for being Vietnamese), Vietnamese (for being African American), or Society in general (for being gay). The anger and confusion of all that happened came to an amalgamation of emotions on the boat. If you listen closely to the beach scene..."john" says that his father was a black U.S. solder in the Vietnam War. The movie was made to look "grainy" and "dark" because that is the effect that living in "the south" and feeling like an outsider can sometimes make you feel. I am not gay, but I would like to consider myself an actor (we all are actors if you really think about it). Before the movie I was in a band called Techno-Squid Eats Parliament. I played the drums. I was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. I became an Eagle Scout at age 14. I have been in the Army National Guard (as a helicopter medic) and an Officer in the Naval Reserve (as an ICU Nurse). I meet the director when I stopped at a bar in Memphis to take a pee on my way back to Little Rock one night (in 2005). It just so happened to be a gay bar called J-Wags...I think. The lady that checked my ID at the door was a little drunk and she said "there's a guy in here that wants you to be in his film" and I said, "Yeah right...do I have to wear a little pink bunny costume" and I walked away. The girl I was with gave a guy (Ira) her number and he called when I was at her apartment the very next day. I had just seen "My Own Private Idaho" and after reading the script I thought..."This is something that I think I could do, heck River Phoenix was brave enough to do it." Plus I needed money as I was planning on going back to college to finish my pre-requisites for Nursing School. It was fun doing the movie and the character that played "john" was actually very cool. For about 6 weeks I lived in Memphis with Tang, Ira, and the producer Margot (who also produced: Arresting Gena, Sidewalks of New York, Jesus' Son, and Ira's new film Forty Shade of Blue). I went to Sundance, San Francisco, and Boston for various film openings in 1996...I had also started nursing school at that time, and got married. I read for a few movies after The Delta. I tried out for A thin Red Line and I Know What You Did Last Summer. I got several offers to do other "gay films" that I turned down. A "big time" casting agent and another person from "New Line" showed some interest, too. I just had to focus on getting through nursing school. In 1999 I graduated with a BSN, RN from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2000 while working as an ICU nurse. In 2000 I took my (ex) wife to Paris, London, and Amsterdam on a three week vacation. The singer from my first band (Clay Bell) was living in Paris with his girlfriend at the time. After five years of marriage I got a divorce in 2001. I applied for Nurse Anesthesia School in Texas, but didn't get in. I went through some depression and got my nursing license placed on probation for 18 months (and got a General discharged from the Naval Reserve for being positive for marijuana on a random urine test). I played guitar, drums, and sang in various bands around Little Rock and went into Psych/Mental Health adolescent nursing (until I got my hand broken by a patient). In 2002 I started working in the E.R. and later switched over to being an Interventional Radiology nurse...where I eventually became the Nurse Manager of Radiology at UAMS. I got re-married on Halloween of 2002 to girl named Ginger (she too had been married once before and she was finishing up in Pharmacy School @ UAMS). I now have baby girl named Natalie and she is 2 years and 7 months old. We also have another baby girl that is due February 5, 2006 that we will name Sophie. We are having a new house built in a very nice neighborhood in Little Rock and it should be finished by February as well. I turned 33 years old on April 7, 2005. My new house will have a "music room" where I will write and record music. I also have several books of "random" writing that I plan on typing up and editing (I guess it would be considered modern contemporary poetry). My wife and I have been to New York twice this year and we took Natalie to see Niagara Falls in October. I would love to act in another movie or even do soundtracks for movies. I actually wrote a song called "forty Shades of Blue" for Ira's latest movie, but I never played it for him. I haven't even seen the movie yet. I do, however, have a steady job and a loving family...so who could ask for anything more? Thanks for all of the compliments...

Maybe I got the wrong impression from the earlier reviews I'd read, but this wasn't the movie I expected at all. What could have been a sweet romance story about a cute, shy, sexually confused Southern boy instead became a wandering, twisted look at one kid's overly long weekend and the other's deranged mental state. Not to give away the ending, but I didn't know whether to think Lincoln was lucky not to have had sex with John else he'd have been the one killed, or if John killed the guy from the bar precisely because Lincoln didn't sleep with him??

I read other reviews on IMDb and agree with many of them regarding the slow pace of the film, as well as the unnecessary and drawn out scenes at the beginning which could've been shorter and still set the stage of the movie. So I'll admit I didn't really watch the scenes focusing on Shayne's exploits with his friends as I was more curious to see Thang Chan, since there aren't many, if any, Afro-Vietnamese actors out there. As many noted, Shayne Gray is easy on the eyes and plays his character (Lincoln) with such ease he comes off as though he's being himself. Chan plays Lincoln's 'hook up' Minh/John. While he's also nice looking, his character threw me for a loop at first because he claimed he'd been waiting so long to meet Lincoln, yet spent most of the time talking about himself, his family back in Vietnam, etc. When they do finally meet. Eventually, however, he started to grow on me because of his interaction with Lincoln, telling him how cute, sexy, handsome he is, etc.

Lincoln is one of those guys who "isn't aware of his powers" as yet. He's shy, quiet and lacks self-confidence so it was cute watching him blush whenever John paid him a compliment. However, when John told him he loved him that immediately threw up a RED flag. (Later in the film we'd see a slightly evolved, more self-assured and confident Lincoln emerge to the point of emulating John when he told his girlfriend about the same dream John told him, but making her the subject, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)

Smooth-talking John convinces Lincoln to take his father's boat out on the Mississippi River where they spend a few days together. It was during this time we gain a slightly better understanding of John and what makes him tick, since he does most of the talking, stopping intermittently to solicit Lincoln's views or to ask him about himself. I was disappointed they didn't connect more on a sexual level since doing so may have made the film more interesting. Both the physical and sexual chemistry was there so it was weird they didn't explore that avenue. Furthermore, the length of time they spent together indicated Lincoln, at least, wanted something to happen sexually but the hold John had on him intrigued him-John was this carefree, rough-around-the-edges and slightly dangerous character so unlike his friends-so Lincoln was in no rush to get back home to his girlfriend or family.

John's 'accent' seemed to be an issue with some viewers when it really shouldn't have been, seeing as he's a Vietnamese who's only been in the US for 3 years. I got the impression these viewers would've hated him even if he hadn't committed that unspeakable act at the end of the movie. I did, however, get the impression he may have been in the country illegally--maybe staying beyond his visa's expiration date--after he ran from the police at one point. This would explain why he didn't have a job which left him no choice but to hustle for a living. But he did seem to stir up trouble wherever he went due to his "I do what I want" attitude.

At the end of the film I finally understood the "Betrayal and Revenge" aspect when John took his latest 'hook up'' on what appeared to be Lincoln's father's boat. He went on about how everyone only wants to be with him for his body; no one actually wants to get to know him. Now it made sense why he wasn't in a rush to have sex with Lincoln--he really did love him. But when Lincoln ran off and left him in the woods that was the ultimate betrayal. This broke his heart so he had to get even.

I really like the main character. I don't know if his real life personality is same as the character that he performed in the movie. He shines throughout the film as a very adorable person. He is the main reason that I actually finished watching the entire film. :) I don't know why he hasn't done any other films. He can definitely be successful in the film industry. SPOILER The storyline is not very strong. And it is not very clear why the mixed Viet-black guy killed the guy that he picked up in a bar? Is this a movie about the impossible love between two guys?