A Single Man: Another Dead Gay Lover Film:

A Single Man: Another Dead Gay Lover Film:

My partner persuaded me to see A Single Man. For a review of how wonderful the film is, please follow this link: asingleman-movie.com. You see, I walked out after fifteen minutes.  The reason? I’d like to see/ hear something positively gay in the main stream for a change.

 

There is no denying the film A Single Man was beautifully shot, wonderfully acted (congrats on those awards) and will make everyone who sees it, feel compassion for yet another dead gay lover…This is my gripe; for a gay themed film to get any mainstream recognition, it has to follow the rules. As we all know, depending on the type of film, there are a set of rules to follow, be it a horror film, rom-com, or (mainstream) gay film. For example:

Horror Character: Boy-meet-girl, Girl loses viginity, boy looses head.

 

Straight Characters:  Boy-meets-girl, boy-looses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back

 

Gay Characters: Boy-meets-boy, boy-looses-boy, film-ends

 

There may be an argument that the film A Single Man was showing us that for all the riches, without love, ‘material wants’ mean nothing. Fair enough, it fits with are celebrity obsession and all that glitters, but I’d like to see just one mainstream gay film with a positive ending. I’ll even go with the good guys walking off hand in hand into the sunset. (Oh come on, you have to have at least one cliché.)

The problem seems that just like Perry’s ditty, ‘I kissed a girl’, we look as if we’re just grateful to have our gender flagged up, no matter how bitter the after taste. Don’t believe me? Try and think of five mainstream films that have had a main gay character in it, then check the mortality rate. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Philadelphia, Home at the End of the World, , Brokeback Mountain. Last Exit to Brooklyn (okay, no one comes of lightly in last exit, but the queen in it still had to die.) The major film companies have been happy to make a gay or lesbian themed film, as long as the Happy ever after if for our straight counterparts. But hey, let’s not think of it as homophobia, at least they’ve given us a voice, isn’t that right Katy?!

However, for every Brokeback Mountain, www.imdb.com/title/tt0388795 there are independent gems just waiting to be discovered, if you like those gritty story lines that don’t involve the main leads biting the dust, then I’d recommend the 2007 gay surfer film, Shelter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93IVhORpIbc for starters.

All comments welcome.

Posted on by Glenn Stevens in Fiction & Books, film, Leisure, Literature, QueenSpark Books, Zhoosh Leave a comment

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