movies like Spike
Lee’s Get on the
Bus and Tim Reid’s
Once Upon a Time
When We Were
Colored.
It is
unfortunate that
among movies that
feature a largely
African American
cast, one like Eddie
Murphy’s extreme
ly silly and crass
The Nutty Profes
sor can gross over
$100 million dol
lars while films
like Get on the Bus
and Once Upon a
Time pretty much
die on the vine. Both movies do a wonderful job
of exploring the complexities of issues surround
ing the African American community of the past
and present. Anyone who concluded that 1996
was a bad year for movies but didn’t see these two
pictures was not looking in the right places. Many
white people might believe—based on the fact
that these were black-themed movies—that they
might not relate to them and in the process miss
out on films that do more to explore human nature
As far as queer-themed movies go, 1996 seems
skimpy with the aforementioned Beautiful Thing,
the immensely popular Birdcage, The Celluloid
Closet, It’s My Party and Stonewall, as well as
Everything Relative and Maybe...Maybe Not.
In retrospect, 1995 was a much more bountiful
year for lesbians and gay men. To refresh your
memory, we were treated to (or subjected to,
depending on how you look at it): Strawberry and
Chocolate, Jeffrey, Priest, Wigstock: The Movie,
Boys on the Side, The Sum o f Us, Bar Girls, Love
and Human Remains, The Incredibly True
Adventure o f Two Girls in Love, Lie Down with
Dogs, When Night Is Falling, Carrington, A Man
o f No Importance, Sister, My Sister, Wild Reeds,
Total Eclipse and To Wong Foo, Thanks for
Everything, Julie Newmar. Lesbian and gay male
characters were featured in Home fo r the
Holidays, Higher Learning, The Madness o f King
George, Exotica, Erotique, The Basketball
Diaries, Clueless and the controversial
Braveheart. Even 1994 seemed a bit better, with
Six Degrees o f Separation, Philadelphia, Four
Weddings and a Funeral, Go Fish, The
Adventures o f Priscilla, Queen o f the Desert, The
Boys o f St. Vincent and the insipid Just Like a
Woman.
Though lesbian and gay characters appeared in
a number of mainstream movies this past year—
Flirting with Disaster, Sleepers, Basquiat,
Guillermo Diaz in Stonewall
than just celebrate the black experience.
Likewise, if straight people decided that they
couldn’t relate to the queer-themed Beautiful
Thing, The Celluloid Closet, It’s My Party or
Stonewall, they would also be missing out on
unique cinematic explorations of the human
experience. The dominant culture can see itself
reflected in the bulk of movies released every
week, and there doesn’t seem to be much initia
tive to seek out movies that stray from what is
familiar. That leaves people of color and queer
folk to embrace those motion pictures that reflect
a bit of our realities.
ther favorite films of the year were more
general in their appeal. Dead Man
Walking and Sense and Sensibility were
released in late 1995, in time to gamer a number
of Academy Award nominations, but I didn’t see
them until the beginning of 1996. Both are excel
lent. Fargo was a smaller film that was entertain
ing because of its quirky Midwestern cast of char
acters, including indie film mainstay Steve
Buscemi. Welcome to the Dollhouse was a
wrenchingly accurate portrayal of a young
woman’s coming-of-age experiences in high
school, thankfully without a pat happy
Hollywood ending in sight. This film featured the
kind of direction and acting that rise above any
thing the Oscar™-nominating community could
ever be capable of acknowledging.
O
Independence Day, I Shot Andy Warhol and
Diabolique—there are a few movies worth par
ticular mention for the way these characters were
unleashed upon an unsuspecting audience. One
suspects that for many filmgoers the novelty of
the suspense thriller Bound stemmed from the
well-publicized fact that the two main characters
were women involved in a lesbian relationship.
But the queer content in movies like First Wives
Club, Antonia’s Line, Get on the Bus,
Independence Day and Set It O ff had to come as
much more of a surprise—or a shock—to many
strait-laced audience members.
The inclusion of the gay Harvey Fierstein
character in Independence Day is hardly worth
noting, since it was so clearly used for comic
relief and played a very minor part in the picture,
however, among all of the complex relationships
featured in Antonia’s Line, the most memorable
and respectfully portrayed just happened to be
between two lesbians.
I delighted in the presence of a queer character
as Diane Keaton’s daughter in First Wives Club. 1
loved imagining Middle America flocking to see
such a slick Hollywood vehicle starring Goldie
Hawn, Bette Midler and Keaton, only to find
themselves exposed to an unrepentant lesbian
character. Granted, once again the whole queer
content was played for laughs, but no more so
than the rest of the sociological issues brought up
by the film.
PHOTO BY PAUL CHEDLOW
ju st out ▼ d ecem b or 2 0 , 1 9 9 6 T 21
Glen Berry (left) and Scott Neal in Beautiful Thing
and have the audience still find us lovable and
root for us to get away” kind of movie. It turned
out to be more involving, exploring what leads
people (in this case, four African American
women) to make certain decisions in an attempt
to better their lives. But the most notable aspect
of this film was the performance of Queen
Latifah as “turbo-driven Cleo,” a lesbian in a
very realistic relationship with another black
woman (complete with major kissing action). I
witnessed a Lloyd Cinemas audience’s reaction
of revulsion; you can bet the irony of the love
scene receiving more negative response than all
the murders in the film combined was wasted
on most people in attendance. But the Queen
carved out a unique character tough enough for
The Village Voice to proclaim her a “carjacking,
orgasmic, ganster dyke” and “the new Cagney.”
She was riveting.
Though there are still major releases coming
in the next couple of weeks, I find it hard to
believe that anything will match my two
favorite movies of the year. I have a hard time
choosing between them, because Antonia‘s Line
and Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored
share so much in common. Both are gentle
movies that celebrate the human spirit. Both
were small films that
could
easily be over
The dominant
looked by those who
culture can
whine about the lack of
good movies these days.
see itself
Once Upon a Time is the
reflected in
story of a young African
American boy who grows
the bulk of
up in the South, and the
movies
positive influences of
every community and family
released evei
and the difference each
week and
makes in his life. Both
Antonia’
s Line and Once
there doesn’t
Upon a Time When We
seem to be
Were Colored are highly
recommended for video
much initia
rental.
tive to seek
As for the queer
movies of ’96, it is fitting
out movies
that
The
Celluloid
that stray
Closet— based on the late
Vito
Russo’s landmark
from what is
book that examines the
familiar.
images of lesbians and
gay men in film— ranks
among the best. It is fasci
nating to watch successive
Jeffrey Wright in
Q
chapters
unfold with each
s
Basquiat
new portrayal of the queer
experience. Here’s hoping that Hollywood and
experiences.
independent filmmakers alike continue to help
I wasn’t prepared to appreciate Set It O ff as
us share the truth of life as we know it with the
much as I did, because it seemed like yet anoth
masses.
er “let’s rob a bank, kill people, create havoc
My two favorite examples of queer characters
in not-so-queer movies this year are found in Get
on the Bus and Set It Off, two movies that many
Just Out readers may not have seen. Spike Lee’s
last three movies, Clockers, Girl 6 and Get on the
Bus, have all benefited from being scripted by
writers other than himself. Lee had been criticized
in the past for his portrayals of women and gay
men and has become irate and defensive when
questioned about anti-Semitism, homophobia and
sexism in his films. Get on the Bus, a story about
a busload of African American men traveling
from Los Angeles to attend the Million Man
March in Washington, D.C., features a refreshing
portrayal of a black gay male couple in the throes
of redefining their relationship. It is a surprising
ly sensitive treatment and not steeped in stereo
typing. There was criticism of the film from some
in the African American community concerning
what were perceived to be negative images of a
number of the men on the bus, but that continues
to be the desire of certain people to see their
hopes rather than reality realized on the screen.
Get on the Bus is a wonderful film that manages
to get beyond simply portraying a parade of dif
ferent black men to exploring diverse perspec
tives through a number of characters with unique
,