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Hi. I'm Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
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and this is Frame By Frame. And today I want to talk about gay and lesbian identities in Hollywood cinema,
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from the beginning to the present.
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Hollywood has never been a leader in this area. Gays and lesbians have always been marginalized in the cinema.
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Early portrayals of gay characters or lesbian characters in films were always stereotypical,
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and often deeply insulting.
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BAND CONDUCTOR: "Boys will be boys. Woo!"
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They were relegated to "pansy" roles or stereotypical "limp-wristed" roles,
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and these early films are very difficult to look at because they basically just completely marginalize characters.
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JAMES CAGNEY: "Don't forget. Plenty of room in there."
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TAILOR: "Oh, sir. Here's where you need the room. Such a muscle!"
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Interestingly, there were many gay people working in Hollywood during this period.
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Dorothy Arzner, the director... and George Cukor, of course, who was gay as a director,
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and basically directed most of "Gone With the Wind," unitl Clark Gable's homophobia forced him out of the production.
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But you had to wait a long time in Hollywood before gays and lesbians were actually sympathically
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and realistically portrayed on the screen.
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Even in the 1960s, you had things like "Midnight Cowboy," "The Boys in the Band," "The Killing of Sister George,"
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and "Cruising," one of the most infamous films of all time, directed by William Freedkin.
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It's not until very recently that you have films like "Sunday Bloody Sunday," which is the first real gay onscreen kiss.
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LIZA MENELLI: "You have to understand the way I am, mein herr."
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"Cabaret," which was a more direct look at this sort of thing.
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"An Early Frost," "Parting Glances," "My Beautiful Laundrette"...
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These are films which basically treated homosexuality and lesbianism as part of the human experience.
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"Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" is another one. "Poison," by Todd Haynes,
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"Swoon," "The Living End."
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These are all films that basically portray things in a more positive light.
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And, of course, the ascendency of pop artists like Andy Warhol, who brought gay concerns into the mainstream,
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is another factor in moving films forward in this area.
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There's still a long way to go.
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American cinema is absolutely heterotopic. Gay-bashing jokes, unfortunately, still occur in too many comedies as a staple.
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This is something where Hollywood has a lot of catching up to do.
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It's just like the same thing that happens with racism.
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Homophobia and racism, unfortunately, are part of American cinema, and go hand in hand,
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and they have yet to be erased in terms of the way that Hollywood represents everyone equally on the screen.
