Warren Beatty didn't know Ellen DeGener was gay when they met |

Contents:

• DIRECTOR OF ACCLAIMED GAY GBY FILM IN OM THE SI ON MUD, SWEAT AND ‘IDT’ HOMOPHOB
• TO GAY GBY, WH LOVE – MATT CARTER ON MAKG ‘IN FROM THE SI’
• IS MARC WARREN GAY? AGE, HEIGHT, WIFE, WIKI & NET WORTH
• WARREN WAGNER IS GAY
• WARREN BEATTY DIDN'T KNOW ELLEN DEGENER WAS GAY WHEN THEY MET

DIRECTOR OF ACCLAIMED GAY GBY FILM IN OM THE SI ON MUD, SWEAT AND ‘IDT’ HOMOPHOB

As a "B Squad" of gay athlet tri to overe experience and ph past rivalri to sre an elive w, a secret affair simmers among them. (Image cred: Alamy)The actor Sam Elltt's ntroversial recent ments cricised The Power of the Dog's 'allns to homosexualy', but queer readgs of wterns stretch back s, and Zachariah is a prime example, wr Sean the ialistic 1960s gave way to the cynil 1970s, US cema began servg up creasgly nihilistic and psychologilly plex stori, all wh sour endgs to match.

Zachariah ptur the overlap between anti-Vietnam War, rock mic, sexual liberatn, femism, the emergence of gay rights, civil rights, environmentalism – they're all alcg – Gary NeedhamZachariah's screenplay was rewrten many tim. In all s Firign-fuelled youth-culture provotn, Needham tells BBC Culture, the film "ptur the overlap between anti-Vietnam War, rock mic, sexual liberatn, femism, the emergence of gay rights, civil rights, environmentalism – they're all alcg" wtern was a predomant mo through which mascule performance was tght, pecially to young whe Amerin menThe boys' embrace at the end of Zachariah, then, is an earnt rebuttal of the toxic, vlent mascule mor on which the wtern genre was built.

TO GAY GBY, WH LOVE – MATT CARTER ON MAKG ‘IN FROM THE SI’

So is Zachariah a gay wtern? The gay prs asked the same qutn.

Wh Don Johnson gracg s ver, the March 1971 edn of The Advote, the US's olst LGBT publitn, featured a review wh the headle "Are they gay?

IS MARC WARREN GAY? AGE, HEIGHT, WIFE, WIKI & NET WORTH

On the homosexual implitns of the iendship, he wrote, "I'm aaid that's all is – iendship, " addg that the film's script leads to the brk of homosexualy only to back away before be explic. " Gay people will be posive that the boys were lovers, and the straights will be left wh only spicns. The New York Tim' Roger Greenspun looked closer (too close, perhaps), ncludg that the film "propagandised homosexual love".

In his book Idol Worship: A Shamels Celebratn of Male Bety the Movi (2003), Michael Fergon refers to Johnson at this stage of his reer as "an stant h wh gay dienc", and "sold as chicken feed and pecked at wh light". Nu stills om his works were regularly prted gay magaz, and Johnson was, says Fergon, "extremely gay-iendly and gay-thankful".

When Zach first approach Matthew, he’s shirtls and sweaty, wearg ltle but a blacksmh's smock, Fergon wrote: "the homoerotic possibili of this exchange [might] turn to the first gay wtern sce Andy Warhol's Lonome Cowboys (1969)". But the sequence speaks to the experienc of many gay men too. Red River (1948), a film laced wh nuendo which John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, a closeted gay man, admire each other's firearms, was labelled a queer touchstone – alongsi Calamy Jane (1953) and Johnny Guar (1954), which also upend genr rol – Vo Rso's 1981 book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexualy the Movi, and the documentary of the same name (1995).

WARREN WAGNER IS GAY

Andy Warhol's Horse (1965) and Lonome Cowboys (1969) make clear the nnectns between stume, Amerin male inty and homosexualy.

"The wboy has always had a lot of currency gay eroti and eventual pornography, " says Needham, who pots also to gay-liberatn films such as Song of the Loon (1970), and gay porn featur such as The Savag (1971), as exampl. Zachariah picts men, even if they're not terpreted as gay, as unbound by the mascule paranoia that surrounds touch, feelgs and emotnsIn 1969, Midnight Cowboy would repackage the them and athetics to ask qutns about Ameri's mols of masculy.

Needham wr his say Hollywood Tra: Midnight Cowboy and Unrground Cema, the film "'outs' post-war gay culture's cultural productn and erotic fascatn wh wboys". That, says Needham, might be part of Zachariah's appeal to gay dienc: bee picts men, even if they're not terpreted as gay, as unbound by the mascule paranoia that surrounds touch, feelgs and emotns.

WARREN BEATTY DIDN'T KNOW ELLEN DEGENER WAS GAY WHEN THEY MET

There was clearly a precent for gay wboys by 1971, even if was mostly unknown to Zachariah's makers.

And as Sam Elltt's ntroversial ments regardg Jane Campn's The Power of The Dog's "allns to homosexualy" this week show, 's an archetype that some fd hard to shake. At first seems like the film is about two gay men who have an affair, but there is so much more gog on this highly engagg film grabs your attentn om the start and holds throughout what is actually rather a long film, but didn't feel a sgle moment was wasted.

I've never seen a film like this before, where beg a gay man was so well. I thk this film will appeal to a very wi dience and may also show people that gay men e all shap and siz and n't be easily fted to standard stereotyp.