If you think Bruno is bad, then you obviously don't know what bad is. Compared to this movie, Bruno is a David Lean classic.
By the way, there is one more gay character in this movie; a young man caught cruising in a public park. In an ugly scene, he is so weepy at the police station that the officer lets him go.
Then later, he returns to the public park where he is killed by an officer having a Vietnam flashback.
Thanks for the sour persimmons, Choirboys.
It just goes to show that no matter how bad we may think things are regarding lgbt representation in movies, it's much better than what it used to be.
Past Know Your LGBT History postings:
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
A well-meaning teacher gave me the book. It wasn't a reading assignment-he gave several of Joseph Wambaugh's books as a gesture of friendship. He thought they were funny and figured I might too. (I wasn't out to him or anybody else in high school). I honestly don't think he knew how upseting the book would be for me to read, and I couldn't even explain to him WHY, at the time.
ReplyDeleteIf you can believe this, it's actually WORSE than the film. The gay teen, Alexander, was literally the first gay teen character I'd come across, and the book painted a pretty grim picture of what it meant to be a gay teen. I should mention I went to high school in the late '70's and early '80's. I suspect the book was written about a decade earlier, so the attitude reflected might have been pretty dated by the time I read it. (I think the movie came out in 1977).0
When Alexander is arrested, he's actually disappointed that the undercover cop (who he's attacted to because he seemed so "clean and decent") behaves like an asshole who couldn't care less about him-at least (the author tells us) if the guy had beaten him up, it would have been SOME kind of reaction.
After he's killed, we're told his parents are actually relieved, and the cop guilty of the shooting is treated sympathetically. After all, he didn't kill anyone important.
What a great book to read when you're a depressed gay teen who's thinking of killing himself.
Even without that gay teen subplot, it's a lousy book-all the principle characters are obnoxious and revolting, and the book's misogyny is as bad as its homophobia.
Typo: Alexander was ATTRACTED to the good-looking undercover cop, not "attached". That's an important distincttion.
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