It tells the story of Smitty, young man who enters prison for a six-month stretch and has to deal with the ins and outs of this rough world.
He becomes the victim of this prison life dichotomy and has to fight for survival.
I will be honest - I don't know that much about this movie. I do know that it was controversial for its time, particularly the following scene.
Despite the supposed "hotness" of the men involved, this is still a vile scene:
Past Know Your LGBT History postings:
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
Isn't rape like pedophilia, it's not about the sex but the power.
ReplyDeleteSo true. All the more reason to realize that neither has anything to do with the lgbt community.
ReplyDeleteActually, the title is "Fortune and Men's Eyes," from the first line of Shakespeare's sonnet 29, "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes..."
ReplyDeleteThe Fortune Society, which works to help former inmates, took its name from this play and film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_and_Men%27s_Eyes
You got me, Mary. Thanks for the correction ;p
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome, BT. This site is always interesting and worthwhile to read. This particular post was a real blast from the past.
ReplyDeleteI was going to point out the sonnet link, but someone beat me to it. Nice poem. As for the film, I'd heard of it but have never seen it. Yes,BT, it's a vile scene, but a powerful one, well directed. In those days, gays were always portrayed as either helpless, limp-wristed victims or really baddies. I'm glad that has changed in so many movies and TV dramas - well, over here in the UK, anyway. Sometimes we get a gay character and his gayness is not an issue: he's just a character who happens to, say, have a partner of the same sex. Thanks for the vid.
ReplyDelete1971. When homosexuality was still considered a mental disorder. I haven't seen all this film but the rape suggests that the gay is innately psychotic. This type of representation is slanderous, and would not be so easily accepted by civilised society, today. Hence, I hope that this film is not seen by some ignorant audiences as their only perspective of gay identity. John Elliott England
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