Contents:
GAY UNRCURRENT TRICKL THROUGH GREAT 'RED RIVER'
Their troductn has been much-discsed gay and amic film circl sce. This scene was discsed the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet which looked at the way homosexualy had always slipped to the movi, sometim wh the stars the know (as wh Stephen Boyd's lic work Ben-Hur) and other tim wh directors or screenwrers addg subtly when they uld pg the censor's notice. If the all-too-sane and tasteful Brokeback Mounta has whet your appete for a gay wboy movie, go out now and rent or buy Howard Hawks' magnificent Red uldn't rist toyg wh the emotns churng at the re of a homosocial world like that of ttle hands, and he sent the feelgs hurtlg to the surface one hilar tone Ireland plays gunman Cherry (!
"Still, unlike Brokeback Mounta, whose claim to art and entertament rts on s gayns, the bety of a movie like Red River is that has somethg for everyone. The gay ntent is like the Christian ntent The Chronicl of Narnia: The Ln, The Wch and the Wardrobe: proment a few scen, prent as an unrcurrent, but never allowed to swamp the exhilaratg mh of characters and epic sweep and be the Capta Queeg of ttle barons, shunng people who disagree wh him and shootg them for disloyalty.
Then there is the teasgly suggtive homo-erotic by-play that exists between Clift and gunslger John Ireland, wh a lot of emphasis on the affectn each shar for the other's gun. Ireland and Clift homo-erotilly pare big guns and exchange symbolic dialog. As Matt grows, he be an effemate, rather liberal figure, strikg up odd homo-erotic nversatns wh other gunmen and often refg to e his gun.