Know Your LGBT History - Set It Off

Set It Off (1996) is the only case in which the presence of a seemingly stereotypical gay character actually saves the movie.

Set It Off is a "hood movie" in which four black women decide to rob banks because the "system" has done them dirty.

And therein lies the problem. The movie bends over backwards so much in order to showcase how three of them are wronged that the scenes and the characters become ludicrous.

First, there is Frankie (Viveca Foxx) who loses her job at a bank because she forgets the correct procedure of how to handle a robbery. This is probably because the robber blasted a woman right in front of her.

The scene where she is fired is also one where she is grilled by a merciless and uncaring police officer (John McGinley) simply because she knew one of the robbers from her neighborhood.

Did I mention that during this same scene, her clothes are still marked with blood and brain matter from the shooting victim?

Then there is Stonie (Jada Pinkett) who prostitutes herself to a hateful man so that she can get some money for her brother's college tuition, only to find out that her brother is not going to college. And to make matters worse, her brother is later brutally slaughtered by the police in case of mistaken identity.

There is Tisean (Kimberely Elise), a whimpering, simpering single mother who loses her child to a heartless social worker (Anna Maria Horsford) because the child accidentally ingested some chemicals at her job where she takes him because she cannot afford daycare.

And then there is Cleo (Queen Latifah), a stereotypical "butch" lesbian who, luckily for us has no backstory of victimhood. All she wants is to get high, take care of her car, and her girlfriend (big props to the movie for not only devoting time to Cleo's relationship with her girlfriend  but also showing it in a positive light).

Maybe the writer felt that Cleo didn't deserve a backstory. Whatever the case may be, it was up to Queen Latifah to fill in the gaps on Cleo and she does so in an excellent performance that, if the movie was better, would have probably garnered her an Oscar nomination.

Cleo is the spark that the movie needs. It is she who comes up with the idea of robbing banks, it is she who provides the guns, and it is she who saves the group from capture in a wild scene.

That's not to say that she is not without her faults, but that's what makes the performance good. In Cleo, Queen Latifah creates a three-dimensional devil-may-care characterization which is solely missing in movies these days:



This being a "hood movie" means unfortunately that the characters are headed for a sad end. Only one of them survives (Stonie) to escape.

However when Cleo is killed, it is spectacular and sad at the same time. I remember being told by friends who saw the movie at the theatre that the following scene had many women in the audience crying:



Past Know Your LGBT Posts:

Know Your LGBT History - The Wedding Banquet

Know Your LGBT History - Bachelor Party

Know Your LGBT History - Starsky and Hutch

Know Your LGBT History - The Naked Civil Servant

 Know your LGBT History - Partners

 Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family: Cousin Liz

Know Your LGBT History - Rebecca

Know Your LGBT History - urban African-American movies

Know Your LGBT History - Charles Pierce

 Know Your LGBT History - Torch Song Trilogy

The Best of Know Your LGBT History

Know Your LGBT History - Masters of Horror - Sick Girl

 Know Your LGBT History - MadTV

 Know Your LGBT History - Gimme A Break

Know Your LGBT History - Not Another Gay Movie

Know Your LGBT History - My Beautiful Laundrette

Know Your LGBT History - The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Know Your LGBT History - I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Know Your LGBT History - The Gay Deceivers

 Know Your LGBT History - Reflections in a Golden Eye

Know Your LGBT History - Dynasty

 Know Your LGBT History - Milk

 Know Your LGBT History - Black Shampoo

Know Your LGBT History - Never Too Young To Die

 Know Your LGBT History - All About Eve

Know Your LGBT History - Hotel

Know Your LGBT History - The Streets of San Francisco

Know Your LGBT History - Two looks at transgender characters in films

Know Your LGBT History - Flawless

Know Your LGBT History - Mahogany

Know Your LGBT History - Beverly Hills Cop

Know Your LGBT History - Some Like It Hot

Know Your LGBT History - Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia 

Know Your LGBT History - Dirty Laundry

Know Your LGBT History - The Willie Witch Project

Know Your LGBT History - Spartacus

Know Your LGBT History - Caged

Know Your LGBT History - The Birdcage

Know Your LGBT History - Maude

Know Your LGBT History - That Certain Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Boat Trip

Know Your LGBT History - Staircase

Know Your LGBT History - Beautiful Thing

Know Your LGBT History - Armed and Dangerous

Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family

Know Your LGBT History - Suddenly Last Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Gay TV Now

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story

Know Your LGBT History - Victim

Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple

Know Your LGBT History - Making Love

Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community