OVTV was playing a bunch of 'gay movies' last week for pride. I just saw Torch Song Trilogy for the first time. WOW, what a powerful movie. I'm pretty much blown away. I know think Harvey Fierstein is about 1000 times more awesome than I believed previously. Hilarious and sad and brilliant.
So when I was younger, I thought The Birdcage was a really funny movie, but when I saw it this year I was severely Not Amused and I found it really sad (because Nathan Lane's character can't get any respect from his son or husband because he's inordinately queeny, and because the gay family turns the other cheek and rescues the Senator's family and gets no recognition or reconciliation for their efforts. Both of those things are deeply sad and make the movie more of a tragedy in my mind. The moral seems to be, gay people will be shunned by straight people no matter what, and if you're too gay, even the gay people will shun you! I had thought the ending was happy, but it's not, it's awful! They don't get so much as a thank you, a nod, a wink, a hint that things might be ok between them, the Senator's family just drives off for good.). I know these movies are both about characters who don't like gays, but in TB, it seems like the movie doesn't really like gays.
Anyway, my partner said I didn't like The Birdcage because it's dated (1996) and attitudes were different back then, and the things you could put in a movie were different too, so it's not fair of me to judge its morals by my own current ones. Fair enough. But Torch Song Trilogy is older (1988) and yet the MC expresses a pretty much modern take on the issues. (I know TST is based on a 1978 play and TB is based on a 1978 French film (and play before that!), but I think each remake left its creators somewhat free to decide how to portray things.)
Anyways, that's a rather long rant just to say, if the world was capable of making Torch Song Trilogy in the 80s, can someone please explain why The Birdcage is so troubling?
So when I was younger, I thought The Birdcage was a really funny movie, but when I saw it this year I was severely Not Amused and I found it really sad (because Nathan Lane's character can't get any respect from his son or husband because he's inordinately queeny, and because the gay family turns the other cheek and rescues the Senator's family and gets no recognition or reconciliation for their efforts. Both of those things are deeply sad and make the movie more of a tragedy in my mind. The moral seems to be, gay people will be shunned by straight people no matter what, and if you're too gay, even the gay people will shun you! I had thought the ending was happy, but it's not, it's awful! They don't get so much as a thank you, a nod, a wink, a hint that things might be ok between them, the Senator's family just drives off for good.). I know these movies are both about characters who don't like gays, but in TB, it seems like the movie doesn't really like gays.
Anyway, my partner said I didn't like The Birdcage because it's dated (1996) and attitudes were different back then, and the things you could put in a movie were different too, so it's not fair of me to judge its morals by my own current ones. Fair enough. But Torch Song Trilogy is older (1988) and yet the MC expresses a pretty much modern take on the issues. (I know TST is based on a 1978 play and TB is based on a 1978 French film (and play before that!), but I think each remake left its creators somewhat free to decide how to portray things.)
Anyways, that's a rather long rant just to say, if the world was capable of making Torch Song Trilogy in the 80s, can someone please explain why The Birdcage is so troubling?
