"Brokeback Mountain" may be the first major openly gay cowboy movie but it isn't the first gay cowboy movie. some academic will one day write a dissertation abt all those hunky cowpokes & their "sidekicks." I remember abt a year ago seeing a Gene Autry film which astound'd me with the richness of its subtext revolving around a character playd by Sterling Holloway.
but perhaps the gayest classic western is Howard Hawks' "Red River." it's a great film with so many things going on in it & at so many levels that I can only hint abt its complexity here. but at the core is a love story between the characters playd by John Wayne & Montgomery Clift. major stuff. & then there's a lust story between Clift & John Ireland with some of the best double entendres since Mae West.
I hesitate to say more because if you haven't seen it you shd look it up.
3 comments:
Hawks is a tricky case to figure. So many of his films have gay undertones and I might add drag, but yet he himself was homophobic. Red River is quite good, and would like to see it again in a good print. Love John Ireland and yes his scenes with Monty were terrific. Ireland was a wonderful supporting actor he was nominated for a supporting actor in All The Kings Men, and his scenes with Mercedes McCambridge were memorable especially the scene where he slugs her. Her reaction of shock and pain was real, as Rossen didn't tell her that Ireland was going to slug her good. Watch her reaction. Amazing and one reason why she won the Oscar that year. Supposedly Ireland had one of the biggest you know what in Hollywood.
Hawks didn't like Ireland -- according to Gerald Mast in "Howard Hawks, Storyteller." this afternoon I read his "Red River" chapter & was surprisd to learn there are 2 versions of the film. what I saw last nite -- the "Book version" -- is longer.
Gosh, I need to get a dvd player. Now I really want to see these films again. I'm missing so much. It's almost the only thing a TV is good for. I remember when I was a kid these great films were on all the time, not to mention Gumby.
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