GAY PRIDE SPECIAL: GAY-THEMED MOTION PICTURES

Dirk Bogarde in Victim

SEVERAL GAY-THEMED MOVIES FOR GAY PRIDE WEEK.

New York City celebrates Gay/LGBT pride this coming weekend, and in honor of that, Great Old Movies looks at several gay-themed movies and documentaries from different time periods and countries. First we have Victim, the classic 1961 drama about a British lawyer victimized by a blackmail ring (back when it was a crime just to be gay); the more recent film, Jonathan, a German drama in which a young man deals with the fact that his dying father once had a loving relationship with another man; the Israeli short Summer Vacation, in which a closeted man with a wife and children is confronted with his gay past at the beach; the 1974 Butley, with Alan Bates as a teacher who learns that both his estranged wife and boyfriend are moving on to other men; and the documentaries A Bit of Scarlet (gay depictions in British film), Uncle Bob (about the gay activist who streaked the Oscars), and Do I Sound Gay?, which kind of deals with gay stereotyping.

For more gay-themed films just type "gay" or "LGBT" into the search bar on the upper left hand corner of the blog. Thanks for reading!

DO I SOUND GAY?

David Thorpe

DO I SOUND GAY? (2014). Director: David Thorpe.

David Thorpe, who is -- for lack of a better term -- kind of, shall we say, "queeny," (not that that makes him a bad person) asks people if he "sounds gay" and is pretty much told by everyone that he does. Although he may or may not be dealing with some degree of internalized homophobia, Thorpe is appalled by his "gay"- sounding voice. Thorpe and  his equally "queeny" friends do not seem to know or acknowledge that the gay "bear" community exists, or that there are many different types of gay men; they just assume that most homosexual males have that certain "gay" speech pattern -- overly sibilant "s" sounds, a sing song style, ending each sentence on an "up" note, talking too fast (actually this last is not covered in the film but should have been), and so on -- when most of the gay men I've encountered don't talk that way at all.  Thorpe goes to more than one speech therapist to learn how to talk less "gay", including a man who works with gay actors who are afraid of losing jobs due to their obvious sexual orientation. (Effeminate mannerisms and behavior are largely ignored, which makes this speech therapy seem a bit pointless.)  As the documentary progresses the point finally gets made -- barely -- that not all gay men sound gay and sometimes straight guys do. There are some interesting conclusions made, especially when we meet a masculine gay friend of Thorpe's who spent most of his time with his car-loving brothers, when other gay men were surrounded by women and adapted some of their speech patterns. It is also true that there have been many cases of gay men consciously or unconsciously mimicking the speech and mannerisms of gay "femmes," which might not have happened had they hung out with the average bear.  Thorpe discovers from old friends and relatives that he started acting and sounding (stereotypically) gay after he came out, as if he needed to make a statement. Do I Sound Gay? makes some interesting points, and ultimately comes to the conclusion that if a man sounds gay, he should just own it, because there's nothing wrong in being gay, and therefore nothing wrong in sounding gay or being obviously gay. The film briefly addresses some gay men's disdain for "queens," with columnist Dan Savage wrongly stating that it's due to misogyny (what?) then stating, rather preciously, that it you "take a piece of man cake and put a female gloss on it, it's sexy" -- most gay men would probably disagree, but apparently Savage can sometimes be a little dizzy in his thinking. The most interesting person to be interviewed is Star Trek actor George Takei, who does not sound gay and makes some astute points as well. Included in the documentary is a clip of now-disgraced comic Louis CK doing a riff on "faggots" -- basically saying he can deal with gay men unless they're annoying queens -- but it's one thing for a gay man to criticize his own community and quite another for someone to do it who hasn't paid his dues.

Verdict: There's some interesting stuff in this, and Thorpe is likable, but this documentary might have been better had someone else tackled the subject. **1/2.

COFFEE DATE

COFFEE DATE (2006). Writer/director: Stuart Wade. Note: This review reveals certain plot points.

Todd (Jonathan Bray) is anxiously awaiting a date at a coffee shop where he runs into Kelly (Wilson Cruz), who is also awaiting a date. It turns out that they are each waiting for the other, which is awkward because Kelly is a man and Todd is straight. Apparently Todd's brother, Barry (Jonathan Silverman), has played a mean trick on him, but Todd gets even with him by bringing Kelly home and taking him into his bedroom as a joke. Barry spreads the word to their mother, Mrs. Muller (Sally Kirkland), and before long everyone seems to know that Todd is gay, even though he keeps protesting that he isn't. As they continue to go out together as friends, Kelly begins to fall for Todd even as Todd wonders if he might be gay after all, leading to rather ridiculous developments. Coffee Date is one of those mediocre independent "gay" movies that was LGBT cable channel LOGO's bread and butter in the early days (and maybe still is). It actually starts out well, with likable characters and attractive actors, but it becomes increasingly stupid as it proceeds. Todd can't figure out if he's gay or not unless he goes to bed with Kelly -- what, at 35 he can't just tell if he's attracted to men or not?! -- but decides that he's really straight after all. Todd's flamingly gay associate Clayton (Jason Stuart) suggests that a "stiff dick knows no conscience," especially when there's alcohol involved, and it doesn't mean anything, but Todd suggests that he and Kelly get it on when he's sober, and he doesn't just lie there to be serviced -- it's a full-on bedroom sex scene (even if it's played mostly in the dark). What seems especially weird in these modern days of alleged "sexual fluidity" is that no one ever suggests that Todd might be bisexual, which would explain his (supposed) interest in women and his attraction to Kelly, and certainly makes more sense than his being "straight." [For another thing, maybe Kelly just isn't Todd's type.] For a movie that possibly was supposed to smash stereotyping on both sides, it does just the opposite, and virtually every gay character with a speaking role is swishy; even Kelly is a self-described queen and some of his lines suggest a degree of self-hatred. Like The Boys in the Band decades before, it's almost as if Coffee Date is assuring conflicted men in the audience that only campy guys are gay and everyone else is safe. What makes it more confusing is that Todd, without being a raging queen, pretty much comes off as gay from his first appearance. Both of the lead actors are good, although one suspects they may have played gay a bit too much; Sally Kirkland, even if her character is stupid, nearly steals the movie as Todd's mother. Jonathan Silverman is given a thankless role and can do very little with it. Even a silly comedy shouldn't have this many gay cliches. In fact with its narrow view of gay life, gay men, and LGBT realities, Coffee Date almost comes off as homophobic. 

Verdict: Some amusing moments of one man's dilemma, but it goes in all the wrong directions. **.

THE EIGER SANCTION

Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy

THE EIGER SANCTION (1975). Director: Clint Eastwood.

"Sorry about this, but twice a year all of my blood must be replaced." -- Dragon

"With what?" -- Hemlock

Jonathan Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) collects art treasures and can afford to pay for them by taking on assassination assignments for a strange agency headed by the bizarre "total albino," Dragon (Thayer David). Hemlock wants to retire but he's importuned into going after one last target, but all he's told is that it's one of the men on an international team attempting to scale the Eiger. Sounds intriguing? -- alas, the leisurely-placed Eiger Sanction takes forever to get going, and doesn't amount to much even when it finally gets to the mountain. Eastwood, who both stars and directs and is only passable at both, supposedly risked his life with location filming, so it's a shame that the results aren't more felicitous, as the movie has hardly any excitement or suspense. A type of semi-spy movie, Eiger not only has secret organizations but something about a germ warfare formula that comes to nothing. The supporting cast includes George Kennedy [Strait-Jacket] as a friend of Hemlock's; Gregory Walcott [The Steel Jungle] as Pope, a tough agent; Jack Cassidy [Richard Diamond] as an idiotic gay character who calls his dog "Faggot;" -- Hollywood's idea of a proud gay man? -- and Vonetta McGee as a lady spy who plays various games with Hemlock. Walcott is good, and McGee manages to retain her dignity despite the dumb proceedings.

Verdict: Macho meatheadedness is one thing, but at least make it entertaining! Stick with Play Misty for Me. *1/2.

GREAT OLD MOVIES EXTRA -- MORE GAY-THEMED MOVIES

Chad Allen and Robert Gant of Save Me

In honor of New York's Gay Pride March this Sunday June 29th, 2014, we present our second annual round-up of gay-themed movies (or at least films with gay characters). This year we focus on a drama about the ex-gay industry, Save Me; a political thriller with a gay lead character, The Walker; a Lifetime telefilm about a young woman's coming out, The Truth about Jane; the cable biopic about the flamboyantly stereotypical Liberace, Behind the Candelabra; the first major Hollywood movie on gay relationships, Making Love; the first telefilm to deal with homosexuality, That Certain Summer; and the controversial The Dying Gaul, which has been called a "gay revenge fantasy" -- among other things.

More reviews on their way! [including The Jones Family Go to Provincetown].

GREAT OLD MOVIES EXTRA -- GAY-THEMED FILMS

Forbidden kiss between two men in The Sergeant

GREAT OLD MOVIES EXTRA: Gay-themed movies.

In honor of the 2013 Gay Pride March in New York this Sunday June 30th, here is a group of gay-themed movies in  review. Gay men and lesbians were generally invisible in movies for decades aside from the occasion "nance" or caricature. Then there was a new wave of liberalism, if that's what you want to call it, in the sixties, and a new cinematic frankness in regard to sexual themes. Unfortunately, the gay community did not benefit from this as much as you might expect, as there were less enlightened, realistic portraits of gay people then there were more caricatures, evil "fags" and nasty "dykes," all manner of homo-villains, and a plethora of suicides among gays who hated themselves even more than society did. Even the supposedly sympathetic The Boys in the Band presented mostly negative, pre-Stonewall [modern day Gay Liberation] attitudes. For better or worse, here are some gay-themed movies that run the gamut [full reviews below or click on a link]: Advise and Consent, where one character's closeted homosexuality is a major plot point; the unrequited love story of The Leather Boys; the lesbian burlesque of The Killing of Sister George; the tortured sturm und drang of The Sergeant; and the more modern sitcom-like Straight-Jacket.

Other gay-themed movies [or films that at least have gay characters or sub-plots] that have been reviewed on this blog include Streamers; Prayers for Bobby; Scream of the Butterfly; Reflections in a Golden Eye; Walk on the Wild Side; The Legend of Lylah Clare; Fellini Satyricon; Something for Everyone; and even The X Files: I Want to Believe; among others.