Dear lennials, the generatn born durg the '80s, the are the gay-themed movi — some wonrful, some wonrfully terrible — worth your time.
Contents:
- THE PROFOUND GAY LOVE STORI OF THE OLD GUARD AND SONG OF ACHILL
- 16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
- 20 GAY GREEK GODS
THE PROFOUND GAY LOVE STORI OF THE OLD GUARD AND SONG OF ACHILL
Joe and Nicky aren’t the ma protagonists director Ga Prce-Bythewood’s film, but sce the film’s release on July 10, they’re the characters who have garnered a lot of attentn bee of how rare is that gay men are featured actn movi. That The Old Guard’s Joe and Nicky are unapologetic about their love allows queer people, and gay men particular, the opportuny to see that throughout all of history, we’ve been there all along — and such a mastream, typilly heteronormative medium, no ls.
At s heart is a simple msage: that straight people might not ever fully unrstand what ’s like to be gay and to fd love. Beyond that not-great movie, Achill and Patrocl’s homosexualy has been bated over and over, ually g down to dissectg ancient Greek culture and the semantics of “gay”. “I did not liberately set out to tell a liberately ‘gay’ love story; rather, I was eply moved by the love between the two characters—whose rpect and affectn for each other, spe the horrors around them, mol the kd of relatnship we all n aspire to.
16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
Though Miller says she didn’t liberately set out to create a gay love story, ’s a fantasy that unravels and jtifi the feelgs and vulnerabily of the LGBTQ experience, and of gay men particular. The noun ‘homosexualy’ was first ed the late-19th century, but the tras that we prently associate wh that word have likely appeared for thoands of years.
As we e closer to the prent, queer history be a rerd of proximate events (such as Stonewall, AIDS and the murr of Harvey Milk) more regnisable unr the terms of today’s gay subjectivi. Get the latt om the BFISign up for BFI news, featur, vios and filmmakers have long worked to show how homosexualy is neher morn dulgence nor historil aberratn. In Lookg for Langston (1989), Isaac Julien dreams of a Black, gay utopia spired by Jam Baldw and the eponymo Langston Hugh.
Different om the Others (1919)Co-wrten by Atrian filmmaker Richard Oswald and sexologist Magn Hirschfeld, morn father of the study of human sexualy, the German silent film Different om the Others exriat societal homophobia Weimar Berl. Wh sights centred on Paragraph 175, the provisn the German penal that crimalised homosexualy, tells the tragic tale of Pl Körner (Conrad Veidt, later seen The Cabet of Dr Caligari and Casablan), a talented gay vlist blackmailed after ught elopg wh a male stunt. As Oswald and Hirschfeld reflect the film’s tertl, his story is part of a long and sad historil leage, of gay men penalised for their very nature.
20 GAY GREEK GODS
He speaks as if liverg a fiery sermon, clarg that homophobia belongs to “the same sad chapter of human history as the Inquisn”.
Gay USA (1977). Gay USA (1977)A year after the 1969 Stonewall rebelln, the prott was marked wh the first gay Pri march the US – Chigo, San Francis and New York. Shot by 25 sttered mera crews the summer of 1977, Gay USA ptur the eighth Pri march, takg place simultaneoly across a number of ci the US.
It’s a fascatg social document: rarely are we afford such a ndid look at gay life the post-Stonewall and, ed, only 4 years after the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn had formally pathologised homosexualy. Nighthawks (1978)Nighthawks is a fascatg cultural artefact, pturg a very specific moment Brish queer history: ’s 1978, 11 years after the Sexual Offenc Act 1967 crimalised homosexual acts, and jt 3 years prr to the advent of HIV/AIDs. Though narrative fictn, Ron Peck employs an athetic style evotive of documentary realism, evokg the reali of the closet for English gay men the late 1970s.