Homoerotic cinema club

catalog

Well-known member
There's a few obvious big hitters:

1. Kenneth Anger, Fireworks especially (but also lucifer rising obvs)


2. Francis Ford Coppola - The Outsiders


3. Top Gun obviously, cos of the QT reinterpretatin of 'you can be my wing man'


4. Larry Clark, kids but mostly ken park, especially the 2 boys 1 girl threesome at the end


What else?
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
gotta distinguish between different kinds of homoeroticism - overt, coded/metaphorical, unwitting

Anger is obviously overt, as a groundbreaking queer artist

something like The Outsiders is more ambiguous. there's the obvious, some of which shades into 80s action levels of silliness - how could it not with the Swayze + Cruise involved - but the Pony Boy-Johnny relationship could be easily coded as queer, literally or metaphorically. Pony Boy, a literal like a closeted person struggling with identity, an outsider to the outsiders. He's full of melancholic yearning (not necessarily sexual). And so on.

80s action as a genre is deeply homoerotic - smooth oiled pecs, big phallic guns, nominal female interests or beards laughably disregarded in favor of intense male bonding - a cartoonishly heightened parody of homosexual warrior cultures (Ancient Greece, shogunate-era Japan, etc) with spray tan and steroids. but it is, seemingly, unwitting. it's often so over the top you wonder how that can be, but then many people were shocked when Rob Halford came out. A different time.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Ken Park is like a watered-down version of the famous Y Tu Mama Tambien scene

the rare film that had to the courage to have its bromance characters actually, you know, consummate their bromance
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Top Gun very much doesn't need QT's snark imprimatur to be homoerotic, tho

look no further than shirtless oiled-up jean shorts beach volleyball
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
as a comment notes

"I had to quickly switch to gay porn when my mom walked in as it was easier to explain"

that is pretty often the feeling 80s action homoeroticism evokes, like it is considerably gayer than dudes just having sex with each other
 

catalog

Well-known member
I just watched point break the other day and that's definitely got it. Obviously the surfer bods, but also the love interest is very androgynous looking.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
many of Warhol's film projects. everything involving Joe Dallesandro - one of the first modern queer sex symbols - especially Flesh.

this I like because of its simplicity, directness. he just presents m/m and f/f (presenting, anyway) alongside m/f couples in due course, no justification, no explanation. which in 1963 was a minor heroism.

Warhol was a massive and shameless art hustler, no doubt, but it's easy to forget how groundbreaking he was as a major queer artist
 

catalog

Well-known member
Can't not mention dezza jazza. The whole lot but there's this one film in particular where its loads of lads running naked round a tropical island
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I just watched point break the other day and that's definitely got it. Obviously the surfer bods, but also the love interest is very androgynous looking.
it does, but it's in a kind of liminal area at the turn of the 90s, so the homoeroticism isn't quite the same as yr typical 80s action thing

once you get into the 90s proper, action acquired a knowing wink - you know, the rise of irony

and also the style changed - steroids and glam were out, grunge and grittiness were in

Point Break definitely fits in that clearly the real love story is Swayze-Keanu

and there is a lot of gaze directed at supple male flesh but it's more of a Death In Venice - male beauty, longing, etc - via Fast Times At Ridgemont High (what if Spiccoli was an existential bank robber) vibe than the muscle gays fisting each other vibe of yr typical Arnie flick.

the point about the love interest is interesting, but again I think different. 80s action love interests are almost always intensely feminine, as if to compensate, which makes them seem fake. her androgyny gives it the feeling of a possible queer element, which feels believable. idk if it was totally conscious but Kathryn Bigelow is pretty savvy and again, early 90s we're talking about being on the cusp of the idea of queerness passing into mainstream culture.

btw Point Break is, no joke, in my all-time top 5, alongside exactly the pretentious bullshit you'd imagine like Tarkovsky.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
maybe the overt ones are less interesting
I don't think they're less interesting, just different

you mentioned (iirc) Querelle in that other thread. Brad Davis (RIP) another queer sex icon.

also pretty much any Billy Budd adaptation, i.e. Claire Denis' Beau Travail
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
the 00s/teens equivalent of 80s action homoeroticism btw is the comedy bromance

the testosterone levels are vastly lower (weed instead of steroids) and the sexual tension isn't as fierce or overt

but the two male characters are still clearly, vastly more interested in each other than their wives, gfs, etc

think Paul Rudd and/or Seth Rogen in any given Judd Apatow movie
 

catalog

Well-known member
Point break was enjoyable, manages to sustain interest despite a very hokey pulp storyline and some really sentimental spirituality. I think it's the action sequences, which to me are reminiscent of Michael Mann (who I really like) that raise it. That and the tightness of everything, in terms of managing to keep a few things together and not stretch the realms of believability too much.
 

version

Well-known member
the 00s/teens equivalent of 80s action homoeroticism btw is the comedy bromance

the testosterone levels are vastly lower (weed instead of steroids) and the sexual tension isn't as fierce or overt

but the two male characters are still clearly, vastly more interested in each other than their wives, gfs, etc

think Paul Rudd and/or Seth Rogen in any given Judd Apatow movie
Pineapple Express is a great example of this.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Point break
I think that's a very fair assessment

the first time I saw it I was 10 or so, the perfect age. those flaws don't come across but the kinetic action very much does.

I do still enjoy Swayze's bro existentialism tbh. obv it's ridiculous but it feels true for the character, who is equally ridiculous.

I have theory that the surfers are rich kids turned bank robber - if they were real locals, they'd be the kind of scrappy lower-middle class Socal punks who more or less invented both skateboarding and provided the cultural impetus for hardcore. into drugs, fucked up living situation. more like the first crew Keanu + Busey mistakenly raid, actually.

anyway yeah, Bigelow knows both how to film an action scene and how to keep a narrative tight

also had a massive crush on Lori Petty tbh. the beginning of a lifelong attraction to androgynous looking people.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
underrated in the pantheon of great Point Break lines. the just totally nonchalant way Swayze delivers it. back off Warchild seriously.

@version you'll notice the guy playing Warchild is none other than the villain of Cyborg
 
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