LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Talk |
by Bill Sievert |
Indies Soothe Hollywood's Broke Back
It was a mere moment during the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards presentation last month, but it said loads about the emerging clout of gay characters, their stories and their independent-minded architects in American entertainment. When the cast of Desperate Housewives was named best "comedy acting ensemble" of 2005, a throng of the show's stars and supporting players leapt to the stage to share the honor. Most of us viewers expected to see one of the four major divas, or perhaps creator Marc Cherry, step to the microphone to speak on behalf of the cast. But, whisked to the front by his peers was young Shawn Pyfrom, who plays the occasional role of Bree's amorous gay son, Andrew. As any regular watcher of the series recalls, in one recent episode, after uptight Bree discovered Andrew happily naked in bed with his pal Justin (Ryan Carnes of the film Eating Out), the show closed with a stunningly passionate kiss between the two young men in Andrew's front yard. Not counting a frowny little mouth peck between Will and Jack on a 2000 episode of Will & Grace, it was the first time that network episodic television had aired a kissa real kissbetween two males. Pyfrom, who seemed surprised to be the one designated to thank the Guild for the group honor, didn't have to mention the kiss for many of us to appreciate that it had been a big event in the series, a major moment in his young career and a scene destined to live in television history. A few minutes earlier, Sean Hayes, the out-in-real-life co-star of Will & Grace had accepted his award as best supporting comedic actor by joking that it had been quite a risk for him to portray a gay man but that the exposure might lead to better roles. That's the way it used to be with Hollywood stars; if they took a homosexual role, they apologized for it, reducing it to a stepping-stone to greater (read: more normal) success. Fortunately, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger have been anything but apologetic about accepting the leads in Brokeback Mountain, a movie that has taken both of them from minor star status to superstardom. In promoting the film in television and print interviews (including many with the national gay press), both have downplayed the titillation factor. In fact, the only time they were a bit titillating was when they appeared on stage together at the SAG awards, and Jake gave Heath a couple of coyly cute winks. For the most part, the position of Brokeback's two leads has been blunt. As Ledger told The Advocate, "Jake and I convinced ourselves of the love story and committed to it 100 percent." The result of their dedicated acting has brought their film and its director Ang Lee a mountain of laurels, including best-of-year awards from the Directors Guild, the Golden Globes, and many critics' groups. Unfortunately, neither Jake nor Heath has received many personal awards for their work thus far, but that's because the man who has been grabbing all the top male actor trophies also did a superb job playing a gay character: Truman Capote. Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of our finest actors (remember how wonderful he was as the cross-dressing singing teacher in Flawless?). It's hard to imagine anyone capturing the gay author of In Cold Blood as convincingly as he did. In one way, it is fortunate that we have Hoffman's performance to grab the lead acting awards, as we wouldn't want either of our cowboy heroes to be left out in the cold (again). Perhaps that's why almost all of the awards groups nominated Ledger for best actor and Gyllenhaal for supporting actor: Give them both a shot at a trophy. In my book, however, I'd have switched their places, nominating Jake for the higher honor. While Ledger's ranch hand Ennis Del Mar remained standoffishly stoic (at least until the final scenes), Jake's Jack Twist was the leader of the couple, the one who seized the initiative from day one, the one who wouldn't take nonchalance for an answer. With the slightest nod of his head or twinkle in his eye, Jake gave the movie its romance, and much of its soul. Though I may nitpick about who should be honored at the top of the bill, the heartwarming and heartbreaking Brokeback Mountain is a momentous achievement in American entertainmenteven to someone like me who, as a straight friend of mine pointed out, doesn't usually like gay stories with unhappy endings. That's because it used to be pro forma to end any gay-themed tale with a suicide (The Boys in the Band) or something equally tragic. I definitely prefer to see gay, lesbian and transgendered characters end up, if not happy, at least okay. But Brokeback is an exception to my rule because of the time and place in which it is set, because of what happened to Matthew Shepard, andperhaps, most importantbecause Ang Lee has already made a great film about a gay couple, one with a most delightful ending: If you've never seen his The Wedding Banquet (1993) do yourself a big favor and rent or buy it. When the Motion Picture Academy, which has bestowed eight nominations on Brokeback Mountain, hands out its Oscars, the evening will cap a remarkable awards season during which independently produced, socially relevant fare has knocked all of Hollywood's crassly commercial action flicks and lame comedies right out of contention. It's not just Brokeback and Capote. It's also Transamerica, with Felicity Huffman's great performance as a transgendered woman. It's Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck (good work, George Clooney).28 It's Munich, The Squid & The Whale and Crash, the latter of which led my list of the best films of 2005until Brokeback galloped to the starting line. If you missed Crash when it had its brief theatrical run last spring, be sure to see it on video: What a powerful yet entertaining look at how bigoted we all can be, even those of us who have faced persecution ourselves for being different. I predict that Crash will win Best Picture at the Oscars, partly because it is excellent, and partly because some Academy voters don't like to give their biggest honor to a film that the President of the United States is afraid to see. But, whichever title ends up with the most trophies, we movie viewers are coming away the big winners, having so many remarkable stories to treasure despite a disastrous drought for the old-time Hollywood hit-making machine in 2005. Bill Sievert can be reached at billsievert@earthlink.net. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 16, No. 1February 10, 2006 |