silversolitaire

Now, please, don't tell me you never noticed the special kind of friendship between Judah (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd). They grew up together, then parted and when reunited suddenly find each other on different sides. Judah is still a jew, now a distinguished member of society, but Messala has risen to fame in the Roman Empire. They quarrel over politics and become fierce enemies.

Messala, the villian without motivation. Supposedly. But no. See it this way. They were lovers when they were young. Messala returns, full of hope and ardour and still desperately in love with Judah. But he has to realize they no longer share a life. Both have changed, up to a point when it is impossible for them to get together again. And then Judah even rejects him. This hurts. That's how he grew to hate the one he could not have.

Makes perfectly sense. And I didn't make that all up. Gore Vidal, one of the screenwriters of Ben Hur, said that it was just intended that way. It was all laid out. But then they said "We'll never get Heston to do that!" So they only let Stephen Boyd in and he pulled it all off, and Heston played along, absolutely clueless. It's brilliant! Just look at the scene when Messala returns and they drink together and practice with their spears again (not what you think!). Handsome Messala, madly in love, eyes sparkling, touching Judah carefully, and longingly and Heston goes all "Well, old friend! haha!"

I elaborated my thoughts about that one before. It's a rotten shame that they have butchered the message of this movie for the stage version. Although, if I'm correctly informed, they changed that for the all new Broadway staging. Sure hope so!

As for the movie, it's brilliant. I just love the scene when Brian hisses, "Screw Maximilian!" and Sally replies, "I do!" . Brian stares at her and then he mumbles, "So do I..." That's an ingenious dialogue, IMO. And I love the scene when Brian, Sally and Maximilian kiss at the same time. That's so tender...

My ideas about that one can be read a couple of entries below. The gay "sub"text would be absolutely obvious, IF the movie industry hadn't butchered around that one as well. You must be really over-subtle to get it from the movie. Once again, the play by Tennessee Williams is so much clearer. There it leaves no doubt that Blanche found her young husband with another man, yelled at him "You make me sick!!!" and thus brought him to kill himself over the shame.

Same goes for any other Tennessee Williams screen adaptation. 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', classical! I think I've also talked about this one below. Brick had a love relationship with Skipper (I still don't know if that's really his name!) and he never really got over the loss. This would also explain his veritable loathing of his wife and the thought of performing his marital duties with her. In cut-scenes from the movie, we can see dialogues between Brick and Big Daddy where he accuses his son almost openly of "unnatural love".

Another very bizarre example of Williams plays for the big screen with gay themes is 'Suddenly Last Summer'. I have not seen this and I seriously doubt whether I want to. Apparently, Williams wrote this on the advice of his psychotherapist on order to come to terms with his own sexuality by "exposing the evils" of homosexuality. The result was the tale of a "degenerate poet" who first uses his demented mother and later his older cousin to lure young boys into his trap, but finds his horrible end in the frantic attack of raging urchins.

The movie later only consisted by perhaps 40% of Williams' original play, the rest was written by Gore Vidal. The catholic Legion of Decency (hum...) then approached the matter with a pair of scissors and butchered it to pieces. Surprise, surprise! Yet they decided that this film could be shown, since it illustrated the perversion and horrors of homosexuality in a mixture of obsession, madness and cannibalism. They decided, however, that the poet should never make an appearance throughout the film. The result was quite fascinating. The actor who played Sebastian Venable was cut out everywhere. All that was left was a glimpse here and there of his arm, his sleeve, his legs... he became a demon without a face. The story was told in shady flashbacks by his cousin, played by Elizabeth Taylor. That way this film became a truly disturbing horror vision.

A funny notion about this film: Katherine Hepburn played the poet's mother. She had no clue what the fuzz was all about until the director and Spencer Tracy spent one whole evening explaining to her the concept of homosexuality. She then plain refused to believe that people would actually engage in such disgusting actions and then demanded the film to be altered!

That's almost classical. Young Plato, played by Sal Mineo is the obvious sissy. He has a photograph of a guy in his locker and follows Jim, played by James Dean, with ardent admiration. He probably was looking more for a father figure than a lover, but Jim returns his feelings so blatantly, that sparks fly. In a way, Jim's just as loving and caring towards Plato as he is towards his girl, played by Natalie Wood. But of course, in a time like this, none of them could act upon their desires, thus they were stuck in a constant balancing act between desire, suppression and anguish.

Of course, like so many queers in the movies, Plato finds his bloody end as well.

Ooooh yes, my beloved Spartacus with this wonderful dialogue about oysters I mentioned some posts back. Once again, the scissors erased the gay subtext, which really is a pity in this case, because that explained Antoninus' actions. He was shocked at the though of being asked to engage in actions he was not ready to do. That's why he fled from his master to join Spartacus and the other rebel slaves. I really want the DVD with the complete version!

Okay, not a film with real gay issues, but remember that guy who comes to visit Sam Spade? He's queer! It's suggested by him using perfume, but also the way he touches his lips with his walking stick in a very sensual way. Once again, this is not a figment of my sick mind, but I have proof. In the original novel, this guy is identified as a homosexual by Spade's secretary.

Haha! Gotcha! But this is very useful actually. See? These little facts give us hints to how Hollywood used to gloss over homosexuality and gives us a powerful tool to unveil it again. Like our own little Queer Stone of Rosette!