Do Mainstream Gay Movies Have to be Set in the Past to Get Made?

Take a look at this list of the top-grossing or most visible gay and bisexual movies of the last ten years: Brokeback Mountain, Milk, Capote, Taking Woodstock, A Home at the End of the World, Howl, Far From Heaven, The Hours, Little Ashes, Brideshead Revisited, I Love You Phillip Morris, Kinsey, and A Single Man.

Notice anything that they all have in common – other than the fact that most of them are quite good?

They're all set in the past – as is J. Edgar, an upcoming movie directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Dustin Lance Black that is getting considerable buzz, and the upcoming James Franco movie, The Broken Tower.

Meanwhile, over the same period, many of the TV movies that have made the biggest impression – Prayers for Bobby, Pedro, An Englishman in New York – have also been set in the past.

What's that about?

"Well, for one thing, we used to dress better," jokes Alonso Duralde, the out film critic for TheWrap.com and co-host of the Linoleum Knife podcast.

In truth, the number of gay "mainstream" movies – films with any kind of multi-million dollar budget, studio involvement, and A-list actors – is still small. It may be pointless to try to draw any kind of conclusion from such a limited pool.

And last year's lesbian-themed The Kids Are All Right is a definite exception to the "it must be set in the past" rule: it's firmly, defiantly about "now." This year's breakout film Beginners, which is technically also set in the past, may be another exception to the rule. And at least the gay male storyline of The Hours is set in the present.

"I don't think there is a rule" that mostly period gay films get made, declares Dustin Lance Black (picture right), the Oscar-winning writer of three of these movies: Milk, J. Edgar, and Pedro.

In fact, the last decade has definitely given us some well-received gay movies set in the present – notably, Were the World Mine, Weekend, Camp, Mambo Italiano, and Shelter, or foreign films like Patrik 1.5 or Undertow.

But these have mostly been fringe movies or ones made completely independent of Hollywood – films that, for all their rave reviews in the gay media, didn't get much distribution or end up making much of a mainstream splash.

Other popular mainstream movies set in the present, like Burlesque, Valentine's Day, and Sex and the City: The Movie, have had gay supporting characters, often very minor ones.

But doesn't it seem like more than a coincidence that so many of the most prominent gay films have been set in the past? Does setting a story there make it somehow more "acceptable," or at least more marketable, in the eyes of studio executives?

Even if so, let's get one thing very, very clear: none of these movies is in any way "safe," nor were they particularly easy to get made.

"If you're looking for a common thread in all of these movies, it's that a filmmaker or a writer became passionate about a subject, and they made it their passion project," Black says. "The common thread is that they have authors and artists who wouldn't take no for answer for many, many years."

Furthermore, many of these films have served an essential purpose in educating both GLBT and straight viewers on aspects of gay history.

"I think it's actually a good thing [these gay movies are set in the past]," Duralde says, "since conservatives love to believe in a non-existent 'good old days' when there weren't any filthy gays, when the reality is that we've always been here, we're just not letting them step on us anymore."

"In my own experience, [my choice of writing topics] has been 100% driven by my own interest," Black says. "So whether it's Harvey Milk, Pedro Zamora, and now this J. Edgar movie, I've been very interested in reclaiming our history. In my youth, I had no idea I even had a history."

Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover in J. Edgar

Ironically, period films, gay or straight, are widely considered a tough sell in today's Hollywood, in part because they're considered less "accessible" to modern audiences, but also because the very specific costuming and set design can make the production much more expensive.

But with movie and marketing budgets spiraling out of control, major Hollywood films almost always also now require a strong, built-in marketing angle: the movie often has to be a remake, a sequel, or a high-concept idea. "Quiet" is out, because it's too likely to get lost in the media clutter.

The fact that a movie is based on a "true story," or that it "really happened," is one such marketing angle. Many of these movies – Milk, Capote, I Love You Phillip Morris, Kinsey, Taking Woodstock, The Broken Tower, Prayers for Bobby, Howl, Little Ashes, An Englishman in New York, J. Edgar, and Pedro – are bio-pics about captivating or important people.

The fact that a film is a bio-pic can lend it "gravitas," drawing attention and A-list stars. This air of importance around the film can also help make it an Oscar contender, which also helps at the box office.

"The trick in pitching bio-pics is to figure out how the movie is applicable to today, how it's necessary that this story be told now," Black says. "There are pitfalls in [the genre]. You become married to the truth and want to tell all the truth, and it becomes cumbersome and unfocused."

The movies listed above that aren't bio-pics – Brokeback Mountain, A Home at the End of the World, The Hours, Brideshead Revisited, and A Single Man – are based on well-known literary sources where changing the time period would have significantly altered the story.