Homophobia In Film

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:16pm

This is a great bit from a writer for Nerve.com's film blog:


Today marks the opening of the suburban motorcycle gang comedy Wild Hogs, which is widely expected to top the U.S. box office. In a display of what happens when matter and anti-matter collide, it was written by Brad Copeland (a veteran of smart TV comedy like My Name is Earl and Arrested Development) and directed by Walt Becker (who gave us National Lampoon’s Van Wilder). Additionally, with its preponderance of gags in some way connected to straight men freaking out at situations that could cast them in a fruity light, it is a movie that appears to hate gay people more than the Rev. Fred Phelps, Rick Santorum and Tim Hardaway put together. Note: Any suggestion that Wild Hogs intends to mock the characters’ gay panic rather than mock gays themselves will be greeted with derisive hoots.

Which raises this film history poser: What are cinema’s great examples of playing to audience homophobia? Cruising? Basic Instinct? What movies have gotten a fag-bashing bad rap, and warrant image rehabilitation?

— Scott Renshaw

Personally, I think BASIC INSTINCT got a bad rap and isn't homophobic at all while CRUISING is a good-intentioned curio that fell into some sketchy waters due probably to some mixed feelings on the part of the director.

[romantico]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:18pm

Borstalboy, Thnaks for posting this. I LOVE Nerve!!! I check it out everyday. I think some of the photo bloggers are awsome!!!

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:20pm

"Waiting," a crap movie that came out a year or two ago, was the worst. It was so nasty in its homophobic gags, I turned it off after 15 minutes.

"Notes on a Scandal," however, I didn't find homophobic in the least.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:32pm

REVENGE OF THE NERDS, despite its gay caricaturing, is a good example of a "guy movie" that is gay friendly.

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:34pm

Anything by National Lampoon is probably going to be awful in the homophobic regard. When exactly did they drop from somewhat smart humor like "Vacation" to fifth-rate "American Pie" knockoffs?

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:35pm

Oliver Stone's JFK and NIXON were both pretty offensive, I thought. The little gay cabal that assassinated JFK and the portrayal of J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolsen in NIXON.

Probably even worse is the snivelling little princeling in Gibson's BRAVEHEART, who invites the filmmakers' scorn for having no interest at all in the woman he has been forced to marry, preferring to buy nice clothes and hangout with his boyfriend than going to war. He is despised for being gay, plain and simple, and the repeated jokes at his expense are never once relieved with anything that might make the audience sympathise with him. This is also the film with the notorious scene where the King tosses the prince's boyfriend out the window to his death.

Then there are the two gay killers in the James Bond film DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. Really tasteless.

I never thought SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was as homophobic as everyone seemed to think it was, nor was BASIC INSTINCT. BASIC INSTINCT seemed more to be an all out attack on straight people more than anything else.

There's a very interesting essay on CRUISING by the film critic Robin Wood that addresses the film's perceived homophobia. Wood finally seems to believe that the film is so terribly confused in what it is trying to say that it winds up saying nothing at all.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:38pm

What was homophobic about Silence of the Lambs?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:40pm

The fact that the villain was a man who wanted to be a woman and had a poodle pissed some people off.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:41pm

I think the American Pie movies are pretty homophobic. Or, rather, homophobic against gay men. Two girls kiss -- that's hot. Two guys kiss -- nasty!

Most Eddie Murphy films where he plays multiple characters are pretty homophobic, too.

Basically, if it is a comedy that is meant to appeal to a large audience, you know they'll do so at the expense of gay folks.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:42pm

There was a lot of uproar from certain quarters to the effect that since the film featured a gay (or at least not entirely heterosexual) murderer, it fostered negative stereotypes about gays and would encourage violence towards gays.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:47pm

I'm kind of tired of seeing movies/plays where gay characters are killed off so that straight characters can get their lives together. The pure noble suffering homosexual who teaches valuable life lessons to idiotic straight folks, kind of thing.

I'm thinking GODS AND MONSTERS, where James Whale's death is supposed to teach something to the thick-headed gardener, and RENT, where Mimi is allowed to return to life because the previously deceased Angel tells her to. Likewise FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, where the gay guy drops dead and delivers a wake up call to a bunch of self-involved straight folks who didn't even recognize the dead man's relationship with his partner as being akin to a marriage.

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:48pm

My Dad thinks I mad for listening to Howard Stern.
"As a feminist; how can you listen to someone so chauvinistic?" That's simple; because I know he is without a doubt...therefore, I expect to be offended and often amused by the sheer audacity of the show.

That's why I am more often appalled at what would be called "gay-friendly" material -- work like Because I'm a Cheerleader, Saved, The Birdcage, and Brokeback Mountain pop to mind for there sheer lack of touch, intimacy, and their seemingly boundless stereotyping and generalizations -- it seems so-- sanitized; as if in order to promote tolerance we can talk about it, we can have gay characters, but my gosh-- they can't actually touch very much.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:51pm

I thought that was very much the point of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, that given the time and place of the story that those two men wouldn't be able to touch or be intimate very much.

But silliness like the stereotype-enforcing BIRDCAGE really is inexcusable. It was like the final tableau of the idiotic show GOOD VIBRATIONS: the two straight couples standing there with their arms around each other, the one gay couple standing there with their hands in their pockets, arm's length apart.

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:51pm

Basically, if it is a comedy that is meant to appeal to a large audience, you know they'll do so at the expense of gay folks.

Bingo. Or more precisely, "meant to appeal to a large male audience." See also "Scary Movie."
Updated On: 3/5/07 at 02:51 PM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:01pm

In the early nineties, there were alot of "Uncle Charlie" types that showed up and were gay and....well, that's it:

Harvey Fierstein--MRS DOUBTFIRE
George Carlin--PRINCE OF TIDES
Nathan Lane--FRANKIE AND JOHNNY
Peter Friedman--SINGLE WHITE FEMALE
That poor bastard who was stuck on MELROSE PLACE

They did a sharp parody of it in JEFFREY..."It's not a caricature, its a very full human being"

Updated On: 3/5/07 at 03:01 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:03pm

I was really offended by Birdcage.

Here is a point however - All of Kevin Smith's films have homophobic gags. A lot of gags. Smith himself however is not a homophobe at all. So is the humor in his movies homophobic, or just good-natured ribbing?
If the author doesn't really mean it, is it offensive?
Same issue for Jews and Borat. That film is so over the top anti-semetic that it ends up being anti anti-semetic. Does that make sense?

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:10pm

Roscoe: yeah I suppose that was the point; the public unacceptability of it given the time and location; if I recall the original short story...
but in context of the film-- for example in the first love scene-- which is really a bit shocking in how aggressive it is...I know Ang Lee was going for some deep carnal need/willing self to stop dichotomy; but it what turned out was a borderline rape scene...(at least that's how it read to me).
I doubt that I could defend that scene if it were in a heterosexual context, and I could only barely stomach it because I was familiar with the story. That and the audience around me all did a parody of the Crying Game scene-- unforgivable since I did not see it until it was a well know plot and therefore should not have been the least bit shocking. Wanted to shout in theater to grow up and behave yourself.

Updated On: 3/5/07 at 03:10 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:11pm

See, Kevin Smith films have never made me uncomfortable. Most of the homophobia comes from Jay, who is a pathetic, laughable character (and who seems to have issues with his own sexuality to boot). Whereas in most of the other films we're talking about ("Braveheart," crap jock boy films) it comes from protagonists in the vacuum of any social commentary whatsoever.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:18pm

I agree that the distance between Jack and Ennis was necessary and their longing for each other was all the more palpable for it. That is how it was back then...and their relationship rang true to me.

[Jilani]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:19pm

A couple of examples from a few years back - not sure whether I agree, but throwing them out there:

"Chuck and Buck" - interpreted by some as equating homosexuality with infantilism.

"Kissing Jessica Stein" - troubling to some for its implications of homosexuality as a whimsical choice.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:22pm

Borstal, I agree about the Uncle Charlie types, the totally sexless creatures who are just tolerant window dressing. But I seem to remember that the character in FRANKIE AND JOHNNY was at least allowed to have a boyfriend, and was included in the loving couple montage at the end.

And I was rather offended by certain slighting comments made about the gay uncle character in MRS. DOUBTFIRE, when Robin Williams' character refers to Uncle John and Aunt Robert (or whatever their names were). The fact that he made this little jest to his children was especially galling.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:32pm

In 2003 - I saw a film at the LGBT festival in SF called Cock and Bull Story with Brian Austin Green. Actually - he billed himself Brian A. Green for the film. It was about two friends in amateur boxing, and ultimately Greens character suffering from severe self loathing, found it would be better to die than to come out of the closet and admit his true feelings for his buddy. This kind of stuff drives me crazy as well.

[lildogs]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:32pm

Wow--people thought that of Chuck and Buck and Jessica Stein?

Hmmm...interesting.

We have come a LONG way since Advise and Consent and Caged...

I thought the American Pie movies weren't that bad--after all, Stiffler enjoyed the prostate massage...as did I!

I was thrilled when I saw JEFFREY: finally a gay character that was SEXY.

And maybe it should be Uncle Arthur instead of Uncle Charlie...

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 3:40pm

On the other hand, there's a very interesting German silent film called SEX IN CHAINS, about a husband and wife who are separated due to the husband's being sent to jail for killing another man in a jealous rage.

While in prison, he has something of a romance with another prisoner, and the filmmakers handle the issue very well, not at all for sensational value. The gay character (the other prisoner, I mean) is very specifically not a flouncing stereotype or blackmailer, actually seeming to have real feelings for the imprisoned husband. The rest of the film is rather hysterical, I thought, there's a rather too tragic ending (interestingly, not due to the homosexual angle) that could have been avoided had the people involved acted like adults and discussed their problems.

It's on DVD. Worth checking out.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/5/07 at 4:15pm

I don't think there is anything more homophobic than WILL & GRACE. It pushes the negative stereotype that gays do not have the ability to be funny or smart.