Latter Days:)

I gave the incorrect title of the movie. It is Friends and Family.

It is about a gay couple that serve as bodyguards/enforcers for a mob family.

It pokes fun at stereotypes in both directions.

It should be easy to rent a copy or get one fairly inexpensively on e-bay.

T.

Happy days! My faith in humanity is restored.

The Gay experience is largely an unhappy one, and i believe that this is reflected in the writing of many of these films. Happy, well adjusted people are not as interesting to watch as people who are challenged by their surroundings. Gay authors write about their heartaches, and often, these have to do with acceptance, rejection, and hidden agendas.

What makes Brokeback Mountain so compelling to watch is that it is a period film. It takes place in the 60's when gay culture was severely frowned upon, especially in the heartland of America. Much of strait America scoffed at the concept of two COWBOYS being in love, because humans love their stereotypes. Had Brokeback been about two hairdressers, no one would have even blinked.

Homosexuals have lead secret lives for thousands of years. What is GREAT about these movies is that they allow us to open a dialog in public that had not really been seen before. Clearly 10% of the population of the planet is gay, perhaps more. Just as racism is SLOWLY dying, so will homophobia,and it will be due in large part to the courageous writing of gay people worldwide who are no longer willing to live secret lives.

I find great solace in knowing that these film exist, without them, the stereo types would continue...

Taylor (imported) wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:50 am I gave the incorrect title of the movie. It is Friends and Family.

It is about a gay couple that serve as bodyguards/enforcers for a mob family.

It pokes fun at stereotypes in both directions.

It should be easy to rent a copy or get one fairly inexpensively on e-bay.

T.

I started to watch this movie, but it lost my interest rather quickly. I seem to recall the guys having the mob characters dress up in women's clothing to hide from a rival mob group. I guess this was supposed to be funny. However, it left me flat and thinking this is another example of offensive stereotyping. Also, it seemed as if the movie was created completely by STR8 men.

What does anyone think about the ending of the movie "Longtime Companion?" All the cast assembles at the beach as if no one ever died.

Film is inherently a dramatic medium, and most drama is based in conflict - albeit conflict with others, or conflict with oneself. The Gay story in US culture is largely the story of one or both of those conflicting dramas.

"Beautiful Thing" is about as close as it gets to 'normal happy & gay.'

There's also the punk-acid-psycho-wack "Hey Happy" if you can find it.

"Latter Days" has a happy ending .... as does "Happy Endings" (a US film, although an indie - not Hollywood).

Lurker, you make a heartfelt and compelling argument. Very well written.

I suppose I'm just impatient. I imagine Brokeback and Milk were both revelations for the general public, and that they advanced the cause. Still, I remember when every black man in a Hollywood film had to be admirable instead of human. It took 40-50 years after that to elect a black president, and blacks are still troubled even though their position is improving. Now it's nice to see a gay cowboy, but that's the opposite extreme from a hairdresser. That may be a necessary balancing, but I'm eager for the day when gay men can be just human in films, neither cowboys nor hairdressers.

Doctor Leo Bersani, Professor Emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in Friendship as a Way of Life (1981),"People can tolerate two homosexuals they see leaving a bar together, but if the next day they’re smiling, holding hands and tenderly embracing one another, then they can’t be forgiven. It is not the departure for pleasure that is intolerable, it is waking up happy we can’t abide."

That was certainly true twenty-eight years ago but I believe it's changing. And I also believe that it's the women who are the primary movers in this change.

I'm the author of three books. the genre is primarily intrigue (no sex). My main character is gay. I wrote these books with paunchy old duffers sitting by the seaside eager for a summer's read in mind. To my surprise my fan base (if I have one) turns out to be married women with children. These women like my books and so do their children. Their husbands not so much. My point is the old adage that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world is alive and well.

Hollywood is gradually responding but with so much $$$ at stake the easiest route is to look to Bersani's words and take a lesson. A lesson that sadly takes us backward. Fro example in Brokeback Mountain the love / sex scene between Ennis and Alma is filmed in bright light. The love / sex scene between Ennis and Jack is filmed in gloomy camp fire shadows. Ennis and Alma are playful in their passion, while Ennis and Jack's coming together borders on violence. See what I mean?

We take a great risk with our way of life when we smile on a people who's

lives are so removed from our own experiences and desires. Hollywood will get there eventually but theater goers will have to show a real willingness to part with $$ before Hollywood gets on board in earnest.

M

Yes, it's ultimately about money. Yet Hollywood spits out an endless stream of money-losers. In fact, I think the majority of films do little better than break even. It's sad that, in their eagerness to avoid financial risk, the studios pursue stale formulas guaranteed to disappoint audiences and lose money.

Your point that men are more threatened by happy homosexuality than are women is true and important. Women can't become gay men, so they can risk being sympathetic. Men, especially men with unacknowledged homosexual interests they want to suppress, are the ones who fear being seduced into a troublesome way of life. The greater the risk of gayness, the greater the effort to reject it. For such men, Brokeback Mountain - the story of two macho men who slip unexpectedly into homosexuality - must be really unnerving. That's why I still hear sniggering jokes based on the movie's name. But the movie found a large audience, and that's probably why Milk was made. I don't doubt more will follow.

I think Hollywood plays it safe by doing "period" pieces; those that take place in an era where gay relationships and individual lives are lived out in self-loathing and secrecy and ultimately end in tragedy. Tragedy in the Greek sense in that the fatal flaw exists within the character (real or fictional) and so cannot be remedied except when it is addressed in brutal sadness.

Of course this is far from the realities of everyday gay life as it is lived in most countries. There are exceptions e.g. being gay in Iran will get you hanged regardless of age. I cite Iran here but there are several nations where being gay is severely punished. Hollywood will never remedy that on its own.

M