And now, a short history of gay cowboy movies
Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, New Releases, Celebrities and Controversy
So everyone thinks that
Brokeback Mountain is the first gay cowboy flick? You haven't been paying attention.
What about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? I mean, jeez, look at suggestive that title is. And it even has the word "butch" in it! Or how about The Wild Bunch, the Sam Peckinpah western, which features "...the tenuous bond between the film's star, William Holden, and the obvious femme fatale, Ernest Borgnine, as solid and deep as a tounge kiss from George Michael"?
That's just a couple of the observations from writers Tod Goldberg, Fred Topel, and Peter Paras. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go try to wash from my brain the image of Ernest Borgnine and William Holden doing it.
[via Lee Goldberg]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-03-2006 @ 6:38PM
Jared said...
Don't forget Gus Van Sant's masterpiece (and I don't mean Drugstore Cowboy) but, My Own Private Idaho -- very much a western in its own right.
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1-03-2006 @ 7:37PM
Peter Nellhaus said...
Bob, who exactly do you mean by "everyone"? Some of the critical sites I've been to have discussed some of the films that preceded "Brokeback Mountain". I would also hope you are familiar with Leslie Fiedler's essay on homoeroticism in American literature. Have you seen Howard Hawks' "Red River", or "Left-handed Gun" written by Gore Vidal? There may have been gay cowboys in the Audie Murphy western I reviewed on my blog site. http://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.com/
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1-25-2006 @ 7:20PM
Greg said...
"Brokeback Mountain" is probably the first gay cowboy flick in which the main characters are obviously engaging in some kind of romantic/sexual relationship. A grand majority of older films do contain a homoerotic element, but with such obstacles as the Hayes Commision in the 1930's and public perceptions in the latter half of the 20th century, much of the homo-erotic element is hidden or hinted at, such as in "Red River Valley." A great resource for this is Vito Russo's book "The Celluloid Closet" (and the documentary of the same name) which delves deeply into the portrayals of gay men and women throughout the history of moviemaking.
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