More on Stereotypes/gays in Film

[Ray EMD & S Admin 223-5027]

After sending yesterday's reply to Gerry's plea for "where are the normal
gays" in cinema/tv. Last night I spent the evening re-cataloging my video lib-
rary. Of the ~260 movies I have about 25 either have a gay theme or there's a
gay character. I queued up just about all of the quazi-gay films and watched
bits and pieces. The one movie I forgot I had is "That Certain Summer" with
Hal Holbrook. I can remember when it first aired in the very early 70's, my
mom ordering dad to change the channel when it was becomming clear that there
was going to be mention of homosexuals. I thought it was well done for the
times (early 70's) but the way the son was informed lacked some class, "yes
I'm a homosexual, that means I slep with men". I agree with another another
man's posting, that we're much more then sleeping with the same sex.
Then I rummaged through "The Sergeant" with Rod Steiger. Now this one por-
trays the drill instructor as an extreme/suicidal if he ever admits it closet
case. In the end of the film he starts becomming aware that he's got the hots
for the young private and runs off in the woods to blow his brains out. Ok so
this was also a product of the early 70's, being gay=being miserable; better
dead than to bed with Ted :-)
Around this same time I forget which network aired it but some of you will
remember "An American Family" about the average $100,000/year family and how
it disintegrated. Of course a lot of time was spent zooming on Lance, the eff-
eminate gay son and his antics. This was exactly when I was just admitting I was
gay and found it hard to relate to Lance. Of course Boys in the Band, a little
earlier helped keep alive the negative "self hating" stereotypes unless the
viewer could read between the retrace lines. A gay person could watch the movie
and maybe see someone he knew or just laugh it off. The straight viewer, on the
other hand had to accept this as Gospel about all of us.
I can remember the stinkola that "Cruising" raised in the gay community. I
have this movie also and have watched it many times. There is a very small elem-
ent of heavy S & M in the gay world and hte movie made this point a few times;
in the opening disclaimor and statements made by the police chief. My roomate
went to see it when it first opened and said a straight couple ran from the
theatre when the fist fucking scene was shown. It seemed that the only good
character in the movie was Al Pacino's gay neighbor who gets murdered by his
roomate?????
Making Love was good but too much got glossed over. I went so see it on
opneing night in Boston and there were as few folks who walked out in disgust
when they showed the young doctor and the writer headed for the bedroom. This
goes along with my mom's thinking, it's ok to be gay but don't let me see two
men being affectionate toward one another. The movie's weak point came toward
the end where all of a sudden *POOF* Zack's divorced and in a long term lover
relationship with a lawyer or doctor. One line that kinda gives us a left handed
slap is where Zack returns to visit his ex wife after a friend's funeral. The
wife makes the statement that she's happy for both of them. A few friends inter-
preted this as saying that Zack could not be happy for himself.....hmmmmm!
Then there's "Partners" with Ryan O'neil and John Hurt as the wimpy closeted
cop who saves the day in the end. I found nothing offensive in this movie but a
few people I know thought it was condescending toward gays. Most of the actors
were pretty realistic and the houswarming party seemed to be just another South
End party, everybody had their clothes on were dancing, drinking, eating, soc-
ializing; not much out of the ordinary. I'm sure we've all seen guys like the
lecherous auntie at the motel desk too.
The more I look through my library the more I see a gay character being
subliminally snuck in. In "The Road Warrior" I had to see the movie 5 times bef-
ore I realized that the punked out blond who rode with the warrior on the motor-
cycle was his lover. Yeah he got killed, not because he was gay but because he
got inthe way of the Aborigine's boomerang. Then there was "Midnight Express"
where the was an allusion to a gay lover relationship forming between the Amer-
ican and a Swedish Prisioner. In the book there was a bit more graphic repres-
entation but the movie kept the fact under wraps. More and more there are gay
parts. I was watching Twilight Zone last Friday and the last vignette was about
a truck driver who hauls souls to hell. In the story he learns that there are
a lot of folks going to hell who should have gone ot heaven. In the end he's
screening the passengers in the cattle truck as to why they think they're going
to hell. He gets past the murderers, etc and singles out a junkie, old woman,
a regular Joe slob and a gay male for salvation; sets them free! I don't know
but just that one scene made me feel good. Whoever wrote the screenplay at least
did not equate being gay with condemnation.
As for recent, last few year made for tv stuff, it seems they're making up
for lost time including gay situations and characters. All in the Family, Maude
and Phyllis were probably a couple of the first sitcoms to treat gays in a pos-
itive light as normal. Soap comes along with the only two normal stabilizing
forces as a Black butler and gay son. Same can be said for Brothers; the gay
brother seeming to be the most normal and well adjusted in the cast. Hollywood
still isn't ready to show the full spectrum of gay life. In an Early Frost it
was ok to show the two lovers walking arm and arm "Buddy Style" down any street
U.S.A. I don't think that my mom's ready to see two lovers on tv curling up
together and shutting off the bedroom light yet. It took quite a while for
Blacks to be shown as more than watermellon eating lazy folks, then they were
all upper crust, now most Black roles run the gamut of criminal to President
of the United States.
Over the years I've met a couple of gay men who worked in the Hollywood
movie industry as camera and audio men, wardrobe planners/designers, etc, They
all said that the industry has a much larger than average number of gays working
for the studios but added that the movie industry is one of the most homo-
phobic in the country. It's amazing what is allowed in other genres that are
peddled at the suburban mall cinemas. Take the rash of psycho killer movies
that have been relaesed in recent years; The Friday the 13th series, Halloween
series and now Nightmare on Elm Street. I caught Nightmare on Elm Street on
cable and it about made me gag; there's no sense to the level of violence that
the public gets spoon fed. Paul Newman bought movie rights to The Front Runner
and no one wanted to touch it unless the gay character was replaced with a fem-
ale. That was a few years ago, are we ready now to show a normal college coach
who happens to be gay portrayed by a big buck actor; I think so? Will the pub-
lic rush out to see it, I dunno? Oh well jes me talkin!

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