SGN Page 45

Friday
July 28, 2006
SGN.org

Volume 34
Issue 30

search only SGN online

Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008

SGN ADVERTISING INFORMATION

site map

The Real Spin

Gay movie buddies have a long history of keeping it in their pants
by Ron Anders - SGN A&E Writer In a perceptive comment about buddy movies, actor Susan Sarandon muses on Paul Newman and Robert Redford's climactic, fatal gunfight in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: "They did what guys do in movies - they got their guns out because they couldn't get their dicks out - and went down with their guns - that's what boys do." She acutely observes that Hollywood movie buddies have a long history of keeping it in their pants, literally and metaphorically. Buddy movies have a financially rewarded niche in American cinema: Lethal Weapon (Mel Gibson and Danny Glover), 48 Hours (Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte), among others. Glacial progress in Hollywood boardrooms (and bedrooms) has evidenced meager progress in giving us credible Gay characters - but hope springs eternal. The latest buddy movie on the DVD scene is Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. What distinguishes this from the rest of the pack? Not much. With a sarcastic film noir edge, the film tries very hard to be hip and slick. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Harry Lockhart, a hapless small-time thief who accidentally crashes an acting audition, landing a screen test as a detective. Arriving in Los Angeles, he encounters Gay tough-guy detective Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), who tutors him in the ways of a detective. This type of improbable plot needs grounding to give it a semblance of believability, which Kiss Kiss has in short supply. The film has obvious affection for noir classics, but its tribute falls flat. Downey and Kilmer are expert performers, but they are up against impossible odds in a film that is all style and little substance. Their banter - meant to be staccato, sharp and funny - is just endlessly annoying. Yes, we get the irony of the Gay character being the hard-nosed one, but this doesn't quite bring the film onto the A-list. Screenwriter Shane Black (who authored the above-mentioned Lethal Weapon franchise), makes his directorial debut here. He succeeds in giving the film a dark, moody aura. Unfortunately, it's all icing and no cake. Looking into Hollywood's vault, we can find many variations on the (mostly male) buddy theme. Some of them even have odd-couple Gay characters. A rather pale example is Partners, a 1982 film in which Ryan O'Neal plays Gay in order to investigate a series of murders in the Gay community. He is teamed with a fey John Hurt. Queasy stereotypes abound, illustrated by the movie's poster image, in which O'Neal is brandishing a gun and Hurt is toting a hair dryer. The less said about this film the better. My Own Private Idaho is Gus Van Sant's hauntingly photographed, Portland-based take on Shakespeare's Henry IV plays. River Phoenix stars as fragile, narcoleptic hustler Mike Waters, in a delicate and heartbreaking performance. Mike's partner on the streets is Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), a Gay-for-pay hustler, who is the rebellious son of the mayor of Portland. Mike's love for Scott is unrequited, but there is much tenderness in their relationship, as their journey takes them to Idaho, Seattle and Rome. The movie's visual shorthand has the two men in one pietá pose after another. The film has a devoted following, its legendary status cemented by the untimely death of Phoenix two years after the film's release. Idaho has been given the royal treatment by the folks at Criterion, including a pristinely restored print and lots of extras. Idaho's archetypal predecessor, Rebel Without a Cause, arrived in 1955. James Dean and Sal Mineo created the original unrequited-love-for-a-buddy scenario in this seminal film about disillusioned youth. In what may be the screen's first positive portrayal of a Gay man, Mineo creates a portrait of a teenager awakening to his desire for his best friend. This is done with McCarthy-era restraint, of course: he has to die at the end of the film. Screenwriter Stewart Stern has commented that, although the script made no actual reference to the character's sexual orientation, the powerful connection between Plato and Jim Stark (Dean) connected deeply with Gay audience members. James Dean died just after the film's release. In the ensuing fifty years, Dean, Mineo and Rebel have been enshrined as myths in the cinema firmament. (Warner Brothers has produced a two-disc special edition with a jackpot of features, including a screen-test scene with Dean, Mineo and Natalie Wood, all devastatingly young and beautiful.) Buddy movies have had an uneasy relationship with the Gay moviegoers. Ever since cowpokes Montgomery Clift and John Ireland fondled and fired each other's guns in Red River, Tinseltown has been on the fence about just how far buddy-dom can go.