Does This One Have A Gay Angle????
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twistedude — 18 years ago(February 04, 2008 10:20 PM)
..what rwsmith29456 said.
I'm getting ready to say, based on Jack's changing attitude toward a third, minor character, that it may have been expressly includedbut by whom, and why, given the cast, the plot and directorI haven't a clue! Which is why I'm reluctant to discuss it.
So why don't I just shut up and go watch "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"?
"Thus began our longest journey together." To Kill a Mockingbird -
FilioScotia — 18 years ago(March 04, 2008 01:56 PM)
In those days, society allowed men to have emotions, and to express love and affection for each other. The very same way women are allowed today. Men who were close friends could embrace each other the way women do with their close friends. Nobody thought anything about it.
David's death scene was played that way. A man lay dying in his best friends arms. Nothing gay about it. -
twistedude — 18 years ago(March 04, 2008 08:42 PM)
"In William A Wellman's "Wings," (1927), Richard Arlen and Charles "Buddy" Rogers have a more meaningful relationship than either of them have with Jobyna Ralston ot Clara Bow, both token love interests whom male adolescents all over America correctly identified as 'the boring parts' of the movie. In fact, Arlen and Rogers have the only real love scene in "Wings," and Rogers learns the true meaning of love through his buddy"
Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet (1981)
I don't think the actors or the director or the writer meant to make a gay scene. I doubt that it played that way for most of the audience, but I wasn't there, and I assume you weren't, nor Russo (though he may have "sourses"seems to be claiming he did), and I imagine gays in the audience were turned on by it, as I was.
"Thus began our longest journey together." To Kill a Mockingbird -
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FranLovesBetteD — 12 years ago(August 11, 2013 08:46 AM)
"and I imagine gays in the audience were turned on by it, as I was".
You can bet on it!
I saw this movie yesterday for the very first time in my life, and that death scene was by far one of the most passionate I've ever seen. OMG, the way Jack was holding and caressing David was truly sensuous, and I must confess I was really hoping that he would kiss his lips before he died.
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop -
Eponymous-too — 17 years ago(May 03, 2008 05:03 PM)
Only if you bring an agenda with you when you watch the movie. Other than a very brief shot of two female extras who are obviously "together" (and one of them dressed as a man) there is no gay angle to this movie.
"My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the Whale Rider." -
xenophile2002 — 17 years ago(June 08, 2008 05:43 PM)
Does
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
have a gay angle? You have these two guys hanging out with each other a lot and one's named Butch and the other is named Sundance
Do the
Rush Hour
movies have a gay angle? Lee and Carter sure do spend a lot of time together.
What about
Brokeback Mountain
? Just because these two guys
forgetimentionedthatone
http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm
The subject comes up often enough. -
Adler-99 — 13 years ago(May 02, 2012 01:17 PM)
"Other than a very brief shot of two female extras who are obviously "together" (and one of them dressed as a man) there is no gay angle to this movie."
I'm glad someone else noticed this in the cabaret/nightclub scene. I loved that scene for how the camera moved over the series of little bistro tables and gave the briefest of glimpses of those couples. -
magic8ball2112 — 13 years ago(May 30, 2012 10:21 AM)
Uh, no. They're 2 "best bud" guys, nothing more.
America's so sexually repressed that its surprising folks aren't re-evaluating all buddy pictures, trying to find gay subtexts in the plot! What next, that friggen
Lethal Weapon
's Mel Gibson & Danny Glover's characters were knockin' boots in between scenes!? -
Skye_Reynolds — 13 years ago(February 28, 2013 03:12 PM)
Not only does he hold his dying friend in his arms like he's cradling a lover, but he strokes his hair, kisses him on the cheek, and holds his mother inches away from his friend's throughout much of the talking. Even after mentioning the women they both love, one of them states that their friendship with one another was more important.
To be honest, I was surprised when nothing was mentioned about it in the trivia section. I expected to read that the director himself was a homosexual and had inserted that scene. In any event, it was a very touching scene. Straight, gay, bi, male or female, it was a great parting scene for two individuals very close to one another. I thought it had a lot riding on it. -
rsbrandt — 13 years ago(March 04, 2013 02:20 PM)
I don't think so. There's a reflection of this scene in the ending of another William Wellman's films, "The Story of G.I. Joe," where a soldier's parting caress of a fallen comrade's face is almost shockingly intimate, but I don't think Wellman intends us to read any suppressed homosexuality in it. I think he's onto something much more here: that men who have been through the hell of war together have formed bonds stronger than anything they'll encounter back in civilian life. (In the latter scene, there's something almost maternal about the way the soldier buttons and straightens his dead comrade's collar. Same thing.)
Of course, we're free to read any homosexual subtext we like into stories of male bonding, intentional or otherwise. -
preppy-3 — 12 years ago(May 07, 2013 08:11 AM)
Nothere's no gay angle here BUT I can see why people think there is. The way those guys are going on in the end seems laughable and downright homoerotic nowadays. However (back then) it was perfectly OK for guys to cry, kiss and hold each other without people thinking they were lovers. Still people think it's a gay love story. Hell they show the clip at the end where he's dying in the excellent docu "The Celluloid Closet" which was about gays in movies!
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Skye_Reynolds — 12 years ago(May 12, 2013 07:06 PM)
I have mixed feelings on the homosexual/bisexual subplot of Ben Hur. On one hand, I'm fine with Ben Hur being bisexual and Messala being homosexual. I even think that it gives a little more depth to Messala's character and makes him a little more interesting. However, I don't like Gore Vidal making those kinds of amendments to someone else's characters and I feel that the ex-lover subplot
completely
undermines the intended point that it was Rome which corrupted Messala. The subplot simply turns him into a jilted ex-lover rather than a representative of a corrupt and oppressive regime.
It's an interesting idea, but I prefer to think of it as non-canon. It's a great film either way though. I was privileged enough to be able to see a theater showing of it earlier this year.
Rest in Peace, Ray Harryhausen
(June 29, 1920 May 7, 2013) -
preppy-3 — 12 years ago(May 13, 2013 04:56 AM)
According to Vidal there was no real reason for Messala and Ben-Hur to hate each other so that's why he made them ex-lovers. I think that it was pretty clear that Rome corrupted Messalabut not enough to make him suddenly hate his best friend.
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Skye_Reynolds — 12 years ago(May 13, 2013 02:44 PM)
I disagree with him. When Judah Ben-Hur refused to give up the names of the conspirators, that severed things between them. Judah was loyal to his people, his nation, and Messala was obsessed with meeting the needs of Rome. To him, that was treason and everyone who remained silent was in on it. I find that more believable than Messala developing an intense hatred for Ben-Hur and his entire family over being rejected.
Honestly, I think that Vidal just wanted to insert a romantic history between the two of them into the story. There weren't any gay or bisexual characters in Hollywood, so he wanted to include a couple of characters. You had characters like Eddie Mars from The Big Sleep, Joel Cairo from The Maltese Falcon, or Dr. Pretorius from Bride of Frankenstein, but seldom if ever anything like this.
Rest in Peace, Ray Harryhausen
(June 29, 1920 May 7, 2013) -
preppy-3 — 12 years ago(May 13, 2013 03:50 PM)
Either way it DID work. A lot of people didn't pick up on the gay relationship anyways. Only Vidal, director William Wyler and Stephen Boyd knew about it. Boyd was fascinated about that angle and played it up. Heston was totally oblivious and I think it's hilarious to see those two guys playing it for completely different reasons:) I think you're right thoughVidal probably wanted to sneak it in. He knew gay guys would get it and probably love it:)