The ntroversial bt-picture wner wh Dt Hoffman and Jon Voight arrived at a ght moment not jt the evolutn of filmmakg, but the stggle for visibily of gay liv. An excerpt of a five new book.
Contents:
- HOMOPHOBIC? MAYBE. BUT AT LEAST MIDNIGHT COWBOY SHOWED ME GAY MEN ON SCREEN
- DT HOFFMAN WIFE, CHILDREN, GAY, FAY
- IS DT HOFFMAN GAY?
- IS DT HOFFMAN GAY
- IS DT HOFFMAN GAY?
HOMOPHOBIC? MAYBE. BUT AT LEAST MIDNIGHT COWBOY SHOWED ME GAY MEN ON SCREEN
* dustin hoffman gay *
” So is wh Midnight Cowboy, one of the classics of the short-lived New Hollywood era and the only X-rated film ever to w an Amy Award for bt long-standg myth is that the Motn Picture Associatn of Ameri’s pdish ratgs board, repelled by Midnight Cowboy’s scen of fellat, sodomy, homosexualy, and sadomasochism, slapped an X on the film before s release May 1969. Fortunately, the tth is a better st of characters clus one of the film dtry’s preement power brokers, who got squeamish over the sex scen and generally rnchy subject matter of the movie; a gay film director who was still the closet even while he sought to make a movie that alt openly and ankly wh sexualy, straight and gay; a polilly nnected former ai to Print Lyndon Johnson who tried to steer the motn picture dtry around the shoals of ntroversy; and a clever psychoanalyst wh a passn for power who provid the phony ratnale that allowed the stud head to do exactly what he wanted to story tak place at a pivotal moment Amerin cultural and polil history, when homosexualy was still wily viewed as a ntag disease and a dire threat to Amerin youth, while filmmakers were stgglg for more eedom to tell adult the storm ro Midnight this is a Hollywood story, let’s start wh the man wh the most money and power. ” Adultery, premaral sex, homosexualy, and abortn for any reason were not allowed, nor was anythg else that might “lower the moral standards of those who see .
Hollywood was even more squeamish when me to homosexualy. Still, jt as other adult them started to seep to mastream Amerin films, homosexualy took s first baby steps out of the closet, but only films that picted gay people as praved, unhappy, and self-stctive.
DT HOFFMAN WIFE, CHILDREN, GAY, FAY
Growg up, I hankered after imag of other gay men, however they were treated, wr film cric Ryan Gilbey * dustin hoffman gay *
The films should have rried a surgeon general’s warng: Homosexualy, like cigarette smokg, n be hazardo to one’s first Valenti toyed wh the ia of killg the Productn Co outright and replacg wh a simple utnary label: “For Mature Audienc.
His bs plan turns out to be fatally flawed—the only ctomers who show any tert Joe’s sexual prows are a handful of gay men, while he himself be fair game for a seri of predators who quickly relieve him of his small stash of sh. One of those on his feet appldg was Arthur soon had send was early sprg 1969, and New York was enterg a new era of revolutnary change the way many creative people thought about and picted homosexualy. Mart Crowley’s The Boys the Band, the first mastream play to foc on gay men, had opened six months earlier to sold-out crowds off-Broadway.
The Stonewall rts, a landmark three-night nontatn between ps and gay and lbian bar ctomers Greenwich Village, were jt around the rner. Still, sodomy even between nsentg adults was a crime 49 stat, and would be four more years before the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn erased homosexualy om s official list of mental disorrs. Not jt the cy’s lg ele but a large subsectn of s llege-ted middle class was unr the fluence of the psychiatric tablishment, which 1960s Manhattan enjoyed the sacred stat of a secular prithood and which by and large viewed homosexualy as a scen Midnight Cowboy troubled Krim.
IS DT HOFFMAN GAY?
Is Dt Hoffman Gay? Come and learn what has been said lately about this and what is Dt Hoffman sayg about this. * dustin hoffman gay *
But like many of his fellow shrks, he clung to the nventnal wisdom that homosexualy was a viant liftyle choice that children need to be protected om at all sts. Homosexuals, he argued, were narcissists who chose to be gay bee they uld only love people exactly like themselv.
)It was Midnight Cowboy’s “homosexual ame of reference, ” Stern would expla a 1971 rad terview, that ed him the most ncern. If you choose the homosexual life, that’s fe.
But before you make that choice, you should unrstand what homosexualy stands for.
IS DT HOFFMAN GAY
”Peerg past the nvoluted language, Stern was basilly sayg that Midnight Cowboy uld e young men to bee gay. ”Farber says he found Stern’s notn that a movie might have the power to change a teenager’s sexual orientatn “bizarrely I thk [Stern] was fely reflectg the views of the time about homosexualy wh the psychiatric profsn. Midnight Cowboy moseys to UK cemas aga next month on the ocsn of s 50th anniversary, and wh another opportuny to ask whether this is a film about homophobia or a homophobic film.
IS DT HOFFMAN GAY?
My feelgs toward the film were formed by seeg my early teens, when I already knew I was gay and hankered after imag of other gay men on screen whout rg whether they were problematic or toxic – words, cintally, that would never have been ed that ntext when I first saw the s portrayal of the iendship between two New York Cy street htlers – the buddg gigolo Joe Buck (Jon Voight), tall and sweet as an ice-cream sundae, and the stunted, snivellg chancer “Ratso” Rizzo (Dt Hoffman) – the picture hts at the exprsible sir any bromance. Evintly the homophobe doth prott too much, for we have been privy to Ratso’s fantasi which Joe ns shirtls wh him along the beach. Photograph: Louis Goldman/Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockIt is the penultimate scene, when Joe robs, beats and perhaps even kills a gay client, that throws the movie to disarray.
The scene self provis a snapshot of Joe’s own shame and self-doubt, and a film should be allowed to pict the nsequenc of homophobia whout beg acced of perpetuatg . But ’s the way the attack on that man is swept blhely asi the next scene that sts doubts on the motiv of the film, and on the tegry of s gay Brish director, John Schlger.
What we look for our formative years n be very different om the mands we make later as analytil adults, and was certaly more important to me that reprentatns of gayns were plex or lourful than that they were posive, whatever that meant. As far as I was ncerned, film-makers were wele to be hostile or mockg toward homosexualy jt so long as they didn’t ignore . Photograph: Uned Artists/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockWhat heterosexual dienc may need longer to appreciate, havg grown up surround by reflectns of their own kd on every screen and billboard, is that gay dienc will take whatever image they n get and then dra for meang and nourishment.