esrosedotblog

TWO IN A ROW

I am aware that I have seen two films in succession which are wild kick ass thrillers and feature two men and insignificant women. Both have more than a tinge of the homoerotic as they are buddy films but buddy films with a wink.

Almost all buddy films have a queer subtext.

I know that most people don't see this or care but it is a sort of closety satisfaction to see it unfold as it has over the last fifty years. Or more. I am only talking about the films that I have seen.

Some have involved cross dressing. Tootsie and Some Like it Hot

Some are in the form of musicals. The national song book of gay men.

And, of course, there is the western.

Film noir? Absolutely. When Adolph Menjou and Humphrey Bogart stroll off together in Casablanca a million closet queens silently cheered.

I do not mean to point out that all buddy movies are gay-ish. I do not find the Paul Newman, Robert Redford films at all homo-erotic. Perhaps the opposite. And that is fine.

Clint Eastwood? Never had a buddy.

John Wayne. Well, I can tell you that I found Red River riveting every time I saw it. Montgomery Clift and the old man have a bond that goes beyond mentor and student, father and son.

In the same way that most gay men have superb gaydar about other men, they also have it around the movies that they see and see again.

Try those sailors in On the Town.

Of course Frank Sinatra was straight but he was sexy across the board until he aged out of it. Gene Kelly? Hmmm. Rumors. Jules Munshin? The jury is out.

But that is not the point. It is the direction, the acting, the closeups and the banter. The actual orientation of the actor is secondary. Or totally unimportant.

End of lecture.

Tomorrow's Romanian comedy is relentlessly heterosexual.

Labels: films