opinions wanted :)

[thatotherperv]

heyyyy. ok, so I'm visiting my sister, and yesterday was full of bouncy kittens and weeding the vegetable garden and eating said home-grown vegetables...all in all, life is pretty sweet. probably won't have much lj time over the next two weeks, but on the plane, they were showing Blades of Glory, and I was wondering how fandom folks felt about something I've been chewing on.

There's been some talk about how I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry or whatever the fuck the movie is called is Very Bad because it makes a mockery of the issue (which, having never seen the movie, I agree with...who knows, maybe it circles around to something redeemable at the end where they All Learn a Lesson about posing to be gay and how real gay dads must feel...but whatev.)

but what about all the other movies that get laughs out of gay scenarios or homoerotic...err...are they still undertones when they're played up for obvious? Will Farrell has a number of movies like this...Blades of Glory, and the uh...NASCAR movie. does the fact that these scenarios now have a popular comedic appeal reflect something good or bad for the gay community and gay rights? do these movies do good or bad things for the same?

simple and very un-nuanced poll because I don't have time for a better one:

[Poll #1027038]

Comments

[laisserais]

I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, "The Gay Mafia: They'll Break the Legs off Your Coffee Table."

i picked good, and here's why: dude, it's Hollywood. There is no way that any movie's gonna come out of there with anything less than a 'far left agenda'. so, even in stupid movies like blades of glory or talladega nights (which: AWESOME) there's going to be some moralizing sneaking through the back door (erm, to coin a phrase. :P)

IMO, having seen talladega nights and I now pronounce you chuck and larry (but not blades of glory yet - can't wait! -) i would say that it's fairly clear that there's a message for tolerance built in to that kind of stuff.

actually - chuck and larry ... eesh. the morality hits you over the head. seriously, i almost got up and walked out at the end it was so blunt. but how they led up to it was awesome, and (really) subtle. adam sandler's character learns tolerance in a pretty cool way. as do a bunch of other meatheads. the message was clear long before the end of the movie.

and what i always think about is the target audience. right? because these films are being seen by millions of average americans who either don't think about issues like this or, if they do, could be quite intolerant. so... having the message wrapped up in humor is, i think, a really good thing. especially if the average american empathizes for most of the movie with the oblivious manchild character will farrell plays? then, when the Big Gay Incident happens, it's like... hm. not such a big deal?

but i could be crazy. i do live in SF after all. i could just be sitting here in my cozy little left-wing world, nodding my head over what 'average america' needs. *shrug*

btw - adam sandler in a skeezy tracksuit and a gold chain? SO made my evening. :P i'm a perverted little girl.

[cafedemonde.livejournal.com]

Funny is funny.

If we began caring about whose feelings got hurt, or mocking the issue, then nothing funny would ever get aired.

Folks need to grow a pair and fucking stop being picky over everything thing. IT'S MAKE BELIEVE

[yourlibrarian]

I don't know that I've really seen any of these films, so I am speaking from absolutely no knowledge beyond what I see in previews. However I'm not sure that just having a gay theme to the film makes them any different to earlier movies. I mean, depending on your POV, Some Like It Hot could have been a gay themed film, but I'm not sure it really did anything but serve as a plot device. Although I will say that it, along with every other cross-dressing film I've ever seen, used the tired device of a man who, the moment he dresses up as a woman, is attractive to other men. I'd be willing to bet this doesn't happen that much in real life and I am so sick of seeing it.

Really to me the question is whether or not this plot device ends up telling the audience something they don't know. I think a successful movie won't just make the audience laugh, it will make them uncomfortable.

[shiny-n-new.livejournal.com]

I think that funny can often be a seperate thing from real world issues, e.g. I laugh at 'dead baby jokes' but obviously don't find anything funny about dead babies in RL.

However, movies about gay people, especially comdies, can certainly frustrate me if all they do is play into gay stereotypes. Y'know, high-pitched voice, limp wrists, everyone is a gorgeous fashion designer and refering to each other as 'girfriend!'. What could make me enjoy a movie a little more is if they actually took sort of introspective look at the whole issue of civil unions and how others react to two people being openly gay and together.

I'm not asking for deep thoughts or anything (it's an Adam Sandler movie for God's sake :P )but maybe just something that might make someone in the audience think. If one of the characters were to comment, "Y'know, all this crap we've been getting from everyone sucks. How bad would it be if we really were gay?" Generally, if a movie treats a gay person like a human being, instead of a walking stereotype, I think it is a good thing no matter what the movie.

[chatai.livejournal.com]

I really think it depends on the film. Personally I find accidental gay innuendo, or homo-eroticism funny, because quite often the way that these things are acted, and therefore quite often the discomfort that goes along with it for the "straight" actors is something that we need to laugh at, rather than take offense to. So I kinda think that this type of film encourages people to be more comfortable with the idea of gay people. In some cases it might be there only contact with the "gay community", even though, obviously through fictional characters. And I think that familiarity with a subject, which is in some cases still very taboo, helps to encourage tolerance. Anyway that's how I see it.

[tjgoldstein.livejournal.com]

ok.. it really does depend on the movie and the actor playing the part of the 'gay'.

I just can't give any examples at the moment... I'm currently chucking a sickie from work and would you believe, I now actually feel legitimately sick?

:: sniffles.. coughs... blerghs ::

Anyhow, my two cents is that no actor is a 'true' actor these days unless he's played gay. Doesn't matter what the role is.. whether he's played a 'real' gay dude or just been mistaken for one and had to go with it for a while. Of course, if he has an onscreen kiss with another male, then his rep goes up by a mile... good on him for being soooo *daring* and macho for actually allowing the kiss to make the bigscreen! :: grimaces ::

For a male actor to play gay, it's almost compulsary these days and pretty much a 'tour of duty'.