Monkey Uncaged: The Ten Most “Important” Gay-Related Movies

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey! (Please include your city and state and/or country.)

A Note from the Flying Monkey: Of the many emails I receive every week for my column, some are so good that they simply can’t be answered in just a few words. So from time to time, the editors have decided to let me out of the “cage” of that regular column, in a feature we’re calling Monkey Uncaged! (What I didn’t tell the editors, of course, is that now they’ve let me out of my cage, do they really think I’m ever going back inside again?! Editor’s Note: Monkey no listen to his editor, Monkey no get fed.)

Q: I just watched a movie that had several references to old movies that are very popular in gay culture, and that made me think of my lack of knowledge on the subject. I’m a 24-year old gay man. So here is my question: if you had to recommend classic movies that I as a gay man should absolutely see, which would they be? -- Juan, Buenos Aires, Argentina

A: You, my young Jedi apprentice, have come to the right place!

Here’s my list of the top ten most important classic “gay” movies – not the “best,” mind you, but the most important – in their order of importance.

1. The Boys in the Band. One of the most negative portrayals of gay men ever put to film was written by … a gay man. How ironic is that? This 1970 movie is technically a pretty bad film – melodramatic and waaaaay over-the-top – and it was as horrifying for me to watch when I was young as Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) was for me to read. But with the passage of time, even I can see that this movie contains an essential truth about the incredible self-hatred gay men had been taught to feel about themselves in the 1960s. And if nothing else, this is basically the place where openly gay cinema begins.

Leonard Fry (left) and Cliff Gorman in The Boys in the Band

2. Pillow Talk. Why was it a big deal that Rock Hudson was gay and died of AIDS? Because he was once the most famous heterosexual in the world. This charming 1959 film – the best of the Doris Day comedies – still holds up as a movie, but it’s downright fascinating when you consider the complicated role Rock Hudson was really playing: a gay man pretending to be a heterosexual leading man acting out the role of a womanizing man who pretends to be gay. Suck on that, Victor/Victoria!

Doris Day and Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk