The emerging homosexual presence in film

Over the past few years, gay-themed movies have been coming out of the closet in droves. The first movie that springs to everyone's mind is "Brokeback Mountain," but the truth is that there is currently an influx of similarly themed movies that are making their way into the mainstream in record numbers.

It's been a long road from the suggestive kiss between two women in the 1930 film "Morocco" to the anal sex scene in "Brokeback Mountain," but there has been a slow and gradual emergence of gay films over the past few decades.

Professor Elayne Rapping, a professor of American studies and an expert on the development of homosexuality in film, comments on how so much has changed in recent decades.

"In the past 20 years, when filmmakers first began to include the theme of homosexuality, they were all ridiculed," Rapping said. "The first serious movies about gays were largely about gay men that were tragic such as 'Boys in the Band,' the first movie that really dealt with the gay male community. Since then, there have been horrible movies with gay themes."

One of the films that mischaracterized the gay community was the 1980 film "Cruising" starring Al Pacino, who goes undercover to explore the supposedly dark and dirty gay underworld. Professor Rapping was so upset with the inaccurate portrayal of gay culture that she protested the film.

"This movie was picketed by me actually," she said. "The film infiltrates the gay bars and the gay culture that's shown is brutal, scary and extremely negative."

The misrepresentation of homosexuals in films can be just as misconstrued now as it was then. Gay men are often plucked as stock characters, usually as the "sissy" or a social outcast. Too often has there been one-dimensional characters acted by the likes of Harvey Fierstein ("Independence Day," "Mrs. Doubtfire"). Even in last year's "Wedding Crashers" there was a caricature of a confused, sexually deviant gay male.

But lately there's been a diverse rush of films that have more aptly portrayed a diverse sexual community.

"I think one of the things that is great about 'Brokeback Mountain' is that it doesn't pound you over the head," said Rapping. "Sometimes being gay is another way to sensationalize movies. I didn't think that way about 'Brokeback Mountain.' I think 'Brokeback' opened up movies about gay people that are just about people who happen to be gay. It caused a lot of public debate and discourse in a context that wasn't sensational or propagandistic."

Directors like Ang Lee and Pedro Almodovar ("Bad Education," "Talk to Her") focus less on highlighting the story's atypical sexual themes, and more on depicting love in its many forms.

With this incursion of open-minded filmmakers who present different sexualities in a normal context, movies are opening a forum for discussion and promoting an air of acceptance. The forthrightness of the films nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards this year show the industry's movement towards the socio-political.

"It's a good sign because it seems to me that Hollywood really was getting very fed up with what's going on in the country in order to get these films green-lighted," said Rapping. "These are gutsy movies. I think a lot of people in Hollywood were upset and desperate about the state of things."

Films like "Kinsey," "Transamerica" and "Capote" follow in the same vein with films that present homosexuality in a conventional light. Not only do these films reflect the society in which they're shown, but they can be a force that generates discussion and may prompt change.

What is unfortunate about these films is that they lack an appeal to large audiences. Many of the aforementioned films are only played in art house or independent theatres like Dipson.

"'Brokeback' didn't intend to scare anybody. I think we'll be seeing movies like this again but I think that the unfortunate thing about it is that we no longer have a mass audience to see these films who would have in the days of 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and 'On the Waterfront' when these films depicted controversial issues."