what makes a movie gay [part 2 of 3]

and so, we continue from where we left off, on how I'm over-thinking what makes a gay movie...

Fourth: Gay Icons and Camp



-these films aren't really gay but are more about the impact the stars and the movies had on gay culture. it features accepted gay icons like judy garland, barbara streisand, rock hudson etcetera. or at other instances, these films feature famous lines that every queen/queer will move themselves to quote like "as god as my witness, i will never go hungry again"



All About Eve, The Wizard of Oz, Now Voyager, and the many judy garland and bette davis movies comes to mind...and let's not forget barbara...we must not forget barbara [although i'm not a fan].


"Fasten you seatbelts... it's going to be a bumpy night." from All About Eve



Fifth: The Unspoken

-these movies are best described as movies wherein you are led to believe that there are gay undertones in the story...such stories are of friendships between boys/men that only the two of them can understand...oftentimes, the characters are as i could coin it, 'too pretty to be straight". but there is a deep human emotional quality to these stories. stories that transcend the basest/simplest of the things we seem to neglect/make ordinary in the dynamics of human connections.


a scene from NAPOLA or in other releases "Before The Fall"

NAPOLA (before the fall) -about two teenage boys sent to a Nazi elite high school at the end of the 2nd world war. one a poor German boy from the city and the other, the son of a high ranking Nazi official. a moving story of how the idealism of youth is shattered as the very belief systems they foster crumble before them. moving is the attempt of one to reclaim his friend's soul. note, there's boxing here and has a lot of good looking German teenage boys (if that's your thing)





Sixth: I Can't Stop Dancin' I Can't Stop Singin' [add acting...]

-if you're a show tune queen/queer, if you love the rap-a-tap-tap, and all that jazz -then you are very familiar with this category. far be it for me to generalize that the film musicals are gay, they indeed have a following in the gay community. Whether it be musicals that deal with life in the theatre or the performance arts -whether there be the 'token gay guy' or not; these movies have held a special place in out hearts. they're the reliable pick-me-up when you're down. they can also be plays adapted to film...




-CAMP, made famous by the line, "oh my god, a straight boy!!! an honest to god straight boy!!!" - Vlad,a straight boy battling his demons of fitting-in and teenage angst decides to enroll in a summer camp for musical theatre called camp ovation. and right off the bat, everybody falls in love with him: gay or straight. as he becomes the object of affection of the many -which he enjoyed tremendously, the whole camp is turned over as they move from show to show performing songs like 'i'm still here' (from Company), 'and i am telling you' (dream girls), trukey-lurkey time (promises, promises), and the anthem to many a drag queen's 'ladies who lunch' -add to that a great song composed by ahrens and flaherty(the people behind 'once on this island') entitled 'i sing for you'



-TRICK, the story of a struggling musical theatre writer named gabriel (played by a loveable christian campbell) who meets a go-go by named mark on the new york subway; and their misadventures overnight ass they try to find a place to be 'private' -in full compliment, tori spelling as a fag-hag, a drag queen, a n on the rocks gay couple, and lots of opportunities to be musical...


Seventh: Eye Candy

-the title says it all; shallow but true, there are movies that fill up the screen with many a goodlooking people. and be it beauty or sex appeal they try to sell, we just cant forget them. this varies upon preference...

-She's The Man: a modern deconstruction of Shakespeare's gender-bender play on appearance versus desire called Twelfth Night. I love Channing Tatum in this movie; so let the photos speak for themselves...











this has been rather enjoyable, and we shall continue this next post...

thus spake the barefoot baklesa