Gay Sex Scenes That Made Movie History

Prick up Your Ears (1987)
Directed by Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette), Prick up Your Ears is about gay British playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell, and based on the book by John Lahr. Halliwell murdered Orton, and the film pulls no punches in describing their dysfunctional relationship, Orton's promiscuity, and the cost that denying his sexuality took on the playwright and on the couple.

Gary Oldman as Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears

The film is significant in particular for its frank depiction of anonymous sexual encounters in London 's public restrooms, something never before seen in a mainstream feature film.

Hotness: 2
Romance: 2
Significance: 7

After the Golden Age

Of course, gay films continued to be made after the "golden age" ended, but the dual impact of the AIDS epidemic on gay culture and the changing political climate in the U.S. left most gay-themed films out of the limelight, at least as far as box office success went. Only two mainstream features with gay characters were released in the early '90s, and both were AIDS-themed: Longtime Companion (1990) and Philadelphia (1993). The gay film festival circuit was, for a time, the only place audiences could see films depicting gay male sexuality.

Looking for Langston (1988)
Not exactly a feature film and certainly not a biography of poet Langston Hughes, Looking for Langston is a British tribute to the Harlem Renaissance and Hughes by filmmaker Isaac Julien. It looks at how black male sexuality has been presented in American and African-American culture, and is notable for being one of the very few cinematic portrayals of black gay men having sex together with its depiction of the romance between Langston Hughes (Ben Ellison) and Beauty (Matthew Baidoo). Less than one hour long and told in a non-narrative style, it won the Best Short Film award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1989.

Ben Ellison (left) and Matthew Baidoo in Looking for Langston

Hotness: 5
Romance: 5
Significance: 10

Macho Dancer (1988)
Macho Dancer was made in the Philippines, where it suffered the heavy hand of censorship for its depiction of the lives of teenage hustlers in Manila. Filipino censors only released a severely edited version of the film, and director Lino Brocka had a single uncut version smuggled out of the country for exhibition at film festivals. That version of the film is now safe at New York City's Museum of Modern Art.

Macho Dancer tells the story of a boy abandoned by his American lover who moves to Manila where he becomes a stripper and is embroiled in prostitution, drugs and murder. It is one of the few films of its era depicting Asian men in sexual situations with other men.

Hotness: 3
Romance: 3
Significance: 10

Longtime Companion (1990)
Sex was most conspicuous — and meaningful — when it disappeared from Longtime Companion. The inability of the film's central couple to continue to connect sexually in the face of the AIDS epidemic and the multiple losses they suffered was one of the movie's strongest themes.

Lovers Willie (Campbell Scott) and Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey), who start out with a lovingly depicted physical relationship, find it increasingly hard to connect sexually while dealing with the illness and death of friends and fears for their own health. One night, in a scene that shows them lying next to each other in bed but not touching, Fuzzy asks Willie, "What do you think happens when we die?"

"We get to have sex again," Willie answers.

Longtime Companion was groundbreaking as well in that Bruce Davison was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in the film as David, a man caring for his lover who has AIDS.

Hotness: 3
Romance: 5
Significance: 10