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The bad old days of worse gay representation
In the warmup to the release of the high-profile gay-themed comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, folks are dipping into all sorts of film history pots. We ran a piece on other "social issue" comedies from days gone by, and now gay critic Dave White over at MSNBC has run a pretty entertaining piece on movies that were far worse than Chuck and Larry in terms of gay offense. Luckily, most of these movies will likely be utterly unfamiliar, which means they only saw daylight for a moment before slinking back under their rocks and the damage they did was fairly minimal. For example: 1971's Some of My Best Friends Are, which he describes as a more mean-spirited Boys in the Band (which, having just watched Band last week myself, is no small feat). Hopefully even those people who saw this movie upon release were so messed up at the time that it's nothing more than a faded fever-dream.
White also includes the monumentally awful thriller Windows, in which Elizabeth Ashley terrorizes Talia Shire because she's got the hots for her. I just saw this one on bootleg a few months ago and it's easily the most offensive thing I've ever seen toward lesbians -- but again, fortunately it's so erased from the cultural record that there's absolutely no way to be exposed to its venom unless you're sick like me and you track it down with a pickaxe and night goggles. Are there any films you think should be added to White's list in terms of wretched representations? He includes a lot of lady-oriented movies (and we leave that to our sisters at AfterEllen), but guy-flicks are most pertinent here. (image at top is of John Phillip Law and Rod Steiger in The Sergeant) Submitted by on Wed, 2007-07-18 10:28. |
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one of the most disgusting...
would have to be the 1977 movie THE CHOIRBOYS. It was about a group of cops who got their jollies by beating up "park fags'....and they were the "heroes" of the movie! there's one infamous scene involving a prank played on one of the cops. he was tied to a tree and stripped of his pants, as the absolute worst mincing stereotype i've ever seen (with a PINK dog no less) comes walking through the park. every time i see that, i get embarassed and angry. oh, and at the end of the movie, one of the cops murders a young park hustler, and his fellow cops manage to get him just a slap on the wrist....and it's supposed to be a happy ending!
http://whitewingeddove.blogspot.com/
What about...
"Cruising", Al Pacino's 1980 debacle. I haven't seen it personally, but it's said to be quite demeaning, and a surprise considering that Pacino had starred in the fairly progressive "Dog Day Afternoon" five years previous.
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A controversial choice
I know my choice is bound to be quite controversial, since it's a) an extremely well-made film that earned a few Oscar nominations and b) very popular with many gay men I know.
But I'll say it anyway: I positively loathed The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999); yes, brilliant performances from Matt Damon and Jude Law, ravishing cinematography and costume design, and wonderfully directed by Anthony Minghella, one of my favorite filmmakers.
Still, by the end of the film I was so repulsed by what I was seeing, I was so upset that, yet again, we had to endure the in-denial homosexual as murderous predator, I wanted to throw something at the screen.
Minghella doesn't have the
Minghella doesn't have the body of work I thought he did, and certainly has no high profile gay friendly movies on the list. However, a well made, balanced movie that turns on the transformation of a character who happens to be gay from hero to villain is not necessarily problematic. There are certainly bad people in this world who happen to be gay. The problem with movies like Cruising and the like is that it posits a world where gay people are definitively either bad or victims. My take of Ripley is that it does not do that.
What was your reaction to Prick Up Your Ears? Certainly the gay people in that movie are largely reprehensible. Is it ok only because Stephen Frears first directed My Beautiful Laundrette? Or is it acceptable because it was a piece of work that was honest and well made even if it did reflect poorly on homosexuals. Of course, there's always the possibility you feel the same way about Ears that you do about Ripley.
Well...
...it's been so long since I last saw Prick Up Your Ears--at least 18 years ago or so--and I remember not being disturbed by it; perhaps that was because a) I was a very young man and my exposure to gays in cinema was limited--I hadn't yet seen Cruising (or Boys in the Band, etc)--so I didn't have a pre-conceived knee-jerk reaction and b) my reaction may have been more neutralized by the fact that it was a true story.
Yes, there are bad people in the world who happen to be gay, and of course it's understandable that that should be reflected in cinema. But, by 1999, my exposure to gay portrayals in cinema was much more extensive and to see a murdering, self-hating gay man was as depressing as it was disturbing--I was still waiting for that big gay romantic epic a la Doctor Zhivago, and this was so not that.
The only other gay character I can recall in a Minghella film is a very minor one in The English Patient--one of the archeologists at the beginning of the film, who's clearly snogging with one of the Egyptian young men--this brief portrayal was interesting in that his affection for the lad causes an accident that nearly kills several people, but also ignites the lead characters' romance at the same time.
I DO think that Minghella was not attempting to create a negative portrayal but, rather, to indicate how much Ripley's disgust with his sexual orientation could have such tragic results--that the onus of guilt was as much on society's judgmental attitude as it was on Ripley's psyche; and, it should also be pointed out, Ripley's character was balanced by the smart, "well-adjusted" (to use the old terminology) gay character played by Jack Davenport--and, even there, what happens to that character in the end can be seen both negatively and positively--it's tragic and it pissed me off, but the ultimate tragedy is that Ripley is finally being loved...and he can't accept it.
Like I said, it's a terrific film, but I also hate it at the same time. That is quite possible, you know!