Posted on 03/01/2006 3:15:51 PM PST by SirLinksalot
Mar 01 5:27 AM US/Eastern
The awards success of a posse of Oscar hopefuls led by frontrunner "Brokeback Mountain" has made gay okay in Hollywood, where once-skittish filmmakers are embracing same-sex love.
In what has been billed Oscar's "year of the queer," the romancing cowboys of "Brokeback" are joined by "Capote," the story of gay US author Truman Capote, and "Transamerica," the moving tale of a transsexual in the process of becoming a woman, starring Felicity Huffman.
And as this year's pink contenders for Sunday's Academy Awards have been warmly embraced by both awards show juries and audiences, at least two more gay-related films are already in the works.
"Infamous," also about Capote, stars Gwyneth Paltrow and James Bond star Daniel Craig and is due for release this year, while a top producer last month bought the rights to Peter Lefcourt's novel "The Dreyfus Affair," about a major league baseball player who falls in love with his second baseman.
"Before 'Brokeback,' Hollywood wouldn't touch gay love stories, no-one wanted to spend the money or weather the criticism," said author Patricia Nell Warren who published "The Front Runner," a novel about two gay track athletes, in 1974, and followed it with a story about gay cowboys two years later.
"A number of projects have been out there for some time but everyone was too scared to touch them. Now Hollywood is seeing that you can make money with a film about gay people, and it's opening the door to other projects," she told AFP.
In addition to the rash of gay-themed films, country legend Willie Nelson has issued a single about gay cowboys called "Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)."
And more than 30 years after "Frontrunner" shocked US readers unwilling to believe that athletes could be gay, Warren says she is seeing renewed interest in her book, as well as speculation of a movie version with Paul Newman.
"My book was back on the Amazon best-seller list shortly after 'Brokeback,'" she said.
"Brokeback's" popularity is so widespread that the catchphrase uttered by cowboy Jack Twist to his secret lover of 20 years, "I wish I knew how to quit you!," is being bandied about in offices and bar-rooms across America.
The film leads the Oscars posse with eight nods including best picture, best director for Ang Lee and best actor for Heath Ledger, while Capote has five, including best picture and best actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman.
"Transamerica" scored two nods including best actress for Huffman, while all three low-budget movies, while not in blockbuster-style release, have been generally well received by audiences.
But only 24 years ago, director Arthur Hiller's drama "Making Love," about a married doctor who discovers he is bisexual, caused movie-goers to leave theatres when the lead character kissed another man in 1982.
And while films such as the 1993 AIDS tale "Philadelphia" with Tom Hanks and 1999's "Boys Don't Cry" touched on gay issues, they never tackled the love stories and were never nominated for a best picture Oscar.
Now that Hollywood has finally opened its arms to gay stories it will continue pursuing them, awards expert Tom O'Neil predicted.
"Gay people still suffer discrimination because of who they are and Hollywood now feels its important to keep fighting that battle, especially with a conservative administration in power in Washington," he told AFP.
Gay groups applauded the recognition that the crop of gay-related movies has given the homosexual community on screen, saying Hollywood is finally catching up with reality.
But Larry Gross, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications, said that a few films with gay characters did not mean Hollywood was ready to come out of the closet.
He pointed out that all the actors playing the gay or transgender characters in "Brokeback," "Capote" and "Transamerica" were avowedly straight, while there are few, if any, A-list Hollywood stars who are openly homosexual.
He pointed out that the explosion of quality black roles in Hollywood that many industry observers predicted when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won the best actress and actor Oscars in 2002 has not materialised.
"Gay stories are making money this year, but I'm not sure Hollywood's really ready for widespread gay content in films yet," he said.
They make a creme for that ;-)
San Francisco will collapse into ruins under the unsustainable burden of quaint. It could be anything -- the final seed planted in a window box, the opening of a new over-priced restaurant with a clever name, the last antique cookie jar bought on eBay and delivered to a home in the Mission District...who knows what will set off the devastation.
Brokeback wouldn't have made that much but without curiousity factor, look, even we are talking about it here on FR and it just increases curiousity in people. But, I don't care I will never watch it
Maybe in a few years they could bring back some of the old TV shows, like:
Queer for a Day
The Odd Couple (wouldn't even have to change the name)
I Love Lucy and Ricky and Lucy and Ricky
Voyage to the Bottom of the Semen
(help me out here)
You believe gay guys are passing out free tickets to the movie?
I keep saying they are not COWBOYS ---they are sheepherders
If NASCAR had a gay driver, would it be discrimination if they didn't always let him sit on the pole?
You mean
Translation seems like the woman: If it is beautiful, being faithful or, if faithfulness, then it is not beautiful rarely.
Dont you?
No, I don't believe they are handing out free tickets, but if it is something they believe in and with more disposeable income, they could give tickets to their friends to try to promote their cause. That is what I meant, if they are indeed driving up the ticket sales, that could be a possibility. After all how many times could one sit thru that movie
No, I don't.
Trust me, that's not what's happening. People are just going to the movies.
Mamet wrote an essay on the subject. He was shocked -- shocked I tell ya! -- on the good taste movie people exhibited in their private lives as opposed to the bad taste their exhibited in their work...
their = they
Yeah right! What a crock.
>>>"Before 'Brokeback,' Hollywood wouldn't touch gay love stories, no-one wanted to spend the money or weather the criticism," said author Patricia Nell Warren who published "The Front Runner," a novel about two gay track athletes, in 1974, and followed it with a story about gay cowboys two years later.
I KNEW it! As soon as I read the article where they had to change Bond's car because Craig couldn't drive a stick, and he talked about being nervous working the Bond scenes with guns! I knew it!
Yup! Judgment Romans 1 style!
I heard it was going to be The Hanes Grazers..
“Brokeback Mountain” Success Inspires Hollywood
Exhibitor Relations Co. reports that over Dec. 10-11 weekend, the film brought in the highest per-screen average for any film release in 2005. "Brokeback Mountain" has also landed awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Associations and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Plans are now in the works to do a gay/bestiality version of the “Lone Ranger.”
Pinky Sfinktir, press secretary for the Screen Actors’ Guild, called the move a “no-brainer.” “If movie-goers turn out to see two no-name cowboys go at it, imagine the impact when icons like the Lone Ranger and Tonto hit the sack together,” said Sfinktir.
The bestiality angle is motivated by two goals, says Sfinktir. “On the one hand, there is the creative desire to push the envelope,” Sfinktir said. “The gay thing has been pretty much mainstreamed for the American viewing audiences. We need to take it to the next level.”
“On the other hand, the famous ‘hi-yo Silver’ catch-phrase is a natural marketing hook for promoting the film,” said Sfinktir.
The plotline starts out with the Lone Ranger’s special relationship with Silver. One evening, Tonto dons the rear half of a horse costume and seduces a drunken Lone Ranger. Eventually, a passionate three-way relationship is established. When not engaged in carnal interactions, the heroes track down and arrest an outlaw gang that has perpetrated a series of hate-crimes against a gay “Dude Ranch.”
Other homofied stories in the mill include action-adventure “Batman & Robin (the Boy Wonder),” historical epic “Robinhood & His Very Merry Men,” and a musical-comedy “Man of la Macho.”
read more at...
http://www.azconservative.org/Column_Archives.htm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.