AfterElton.com - How The Matador's Bisexual Hit Man Missed the Gay Target (page 3)

How The Matador's Bisexual Hit Man Missed the Gay Target (page 3)
by James Hillis, August 8, 2006

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When asked if The Matador might have been a more potent film if he had left in the same-sex content that was initially included, Shepard is firm: "No. Believe me, this cut of the film is mine and mine alone. I was forced into nothing."

The director offers this defense of his decision: "My feeling is that it's better if you imagine things." He continues, "The point of the movie is about friendship and that alone. More same-sex content wouldn't have helped that in my opinion."

Shepard may be right, and he is clearly sympathetic to concerns about gay visibility, but explanations such as "it's better if you imagine things" echo the explanations for why many films with gay content do not include any explicit gay sexuality.

The lesbians in Fried Green Tomatoes become merely "good friends." The affair between Celie and Shug in The Color Purple is reduced to a dry, pity-filled lip-lock. In Philadelphia - often touted as one of the most groundbreaking gay films of all time - some critics questioned whether the two gay lovers, played by Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas, even knew each other; the single, fleeting kiss between the two was added only because Banderas insisted upon it.

And then there's Alexander. Colin Farrell and Rosario Dawson roll around like naked mud wrestlers, but Alexander's lifelong romantic and sexual relationship with Hephaistion is reduced to nothing more than some vague nuzzling.

When asked about the still taboo status of homosexual content in Hollywood films, Shepard sees it as a broader issue. " Anything honest about sex is taboo in Hollywood," he says. "Look at our ridiculous president: We live in a tremendously repressed society."

But Shepard defends Hollywood too. "I don't exactly disagree with George Clooney at the Oscars," Shepard says. "Sometimes Hollywood actually leads the way on cultural movements. Fifteen years ago there's no way Brokeback Mountain would have been made with such big stars. Now it might be a bit of too little too late, but it's still pretty amazing. Especially with Bush and his homophobic crowd in the White House."

With all these outside pressures - a homophobic ratings board, huge movie stars with inevitable image concerns, a hostile political climate - does the gay and bi part of sexuality in The Matador and other films get blanched out almost by default?

Shepard admits, "I'd be lying to you if I said that the reality of the business of show business didn't affect my work and almost everyone's work." But Shepard once again insists, "I believe I was being honest for my story." He adds, "If I wanted to film Pierce with a guy, he would have done it.The guy was fearless."

Then Shepard lays out this example: "Would Brokeback Mountain have been truer if we'd actually seen Jake sucking Heath's c***?"

Of course Brokeback was able to be honest about gay/bi sexuality without being explicit. But one understands Shepard's underlying sentiment of What do you want from me?

It's just that when a thoughtful, serious film such as The Matador is released but it is revealed that gay content was excised from the film, gay audiences are likely to be disappointed at being erased once again.

But the fact that Shepard, a straight filmmaker, is moved to create at least the outlines of a complex bisexual character, may be an indicator we are moving forward, albeit slowly.

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