gay love triangle?

YES! I thought the whole thing very strange and unintentionally funny:Billy, when confronting Rio about previously filling the canteens with sand,:"Will you keep your eyes open while I do it?" !!! Too, has anyone else been struck by the physical facial similarity between Rio and Billy...as well as the pouty expression???

I just finished watching Leonardo Di Caprio's 'The Aviator' and plan to review 'The Outlaw.'

There's little doubt that Hughes had a thing for Jack Beutel and probably Jane Russell as well. Neither of them could act, although Jane got better. I think Jack's last picture was something called 'The Half Breed,' made in the early 1950's. If anyone recalls, he was also on the TV series 'Annie Oaklie.'

Walter Huston and Thomas Mitchell were two of the premier actors of the era and, by all rights, they should have been given top billing. Hughes should have said, and 'Introducing Jack Beutel as Billy the Kid and Jane Russell as Rio.' Something like that.

As for the gay context, that's pretty obvious, since Mr. Hughes chose Tchaikovsky's music as the main theme.

Bad movie? Probably, but I still like to watch it occasionally.

Probably the worst western I've ever watched.

...if characters or actors are gay. Most of the time, it's nonsense but here it's pretty obvious that Pat Garrett is jealous of the fact that Doc Holiday and Billy the Kid have fallen for eachother. You don't get jealous if your friend has another friend. You get jealous if your lover has another lover.

Of course the whole thing is nonsense. Doc Holiday never met Pat Garrett or Billy the Kid. Pat, by the way, was 6-4. Walter Huston probably would have been a better type to play him. Doc ided of tuberculousis, (which he doesn't appear to have here) in Denver Colorado. He wasn't shot by Pat Garrett in New Mexico. The whole thing is some kind of weird Howard Hughes fantasy.

It is fun seeing Huston and Mitchell, two of Hollywood's best character actors in the same film. I just wish it were a better film.

You really have to understand the difference not only to the 40s when this movie was shot, but also to the time period that they are relating too. Basically you have it all wrong here. During this period, the interpersonal relationships were far different than your personal issues that you are trying to portray on a movie here.

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Does anyone else think that the real love triangle here is not the one between Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday and Rio, but between the two guys and Pat Garrett? That whole speech that Pat Garrett gives in the end, saying he and Doc were best friends before Billy getting in the way

Every few years I get fascinated with Howard Hughes. Lately I've been rereading a book about him, and last night I decided to watch The Outlaw, a movie I had always meant to see but had never quite got around to. Before watching it, I did some web surfing, read a few reviews and commentaries, and so on. And among other things, I came across several web sites claiming that The Outlaw had distinct gay overtones.

I'm usually skeptical when I hear a claim that a movie has a gay subtext. I'll acknowledge that as a straight man I might miss a few hints here and there, but I'll also say that there are some people who are determined to read gayness into everything, and any film that even remotely approaches being a "buddy movie" is prime material for a claim of homosexual undertones. I expect that one of these days I'll see someone seriously suggest that in “All The President's Men,” there was more than a professional relationship between Watergate era journalists Woodward and Bernstein.

So I was watching The Outlaw, only half-paying attention -- let's face it, the movie is pretty boring. Even with Jane Russell's magnificent attributes on display, the movie is still pretty boring. I suppose my grandfather might have got a charge from seeing actual cleavage (gasp!), but anyone who could get seriously electrified from The Outlaw would probably have a stroke from strolling outdoors on a modern college campus on a warm spring day. So I was bored, only halfway paying attention, and I had just about decided that while there were elements in The Outlaw that could be seized upon by someone determined to read gay overtones into it, those overtones weren't really there.

Then it happened. About fifteen minutes before the end of the movie, in the cuckoo clock scene. Suddenly, Doc Holliday and Billy The Kid are holding hands, and the action freezes in a closeup while Doc smiles warmly at Billy. Doc makes his little speech about how if the two of them can survive that day's dispute, nothing will ever some between them. They prepare to depart to whatever happy, 'till death do they part life awaits them together. And then Pat Garrett "gives his speech"? -- no, he shrieks like a stereotypical jealous queen.

I could only say to myself, "What the hell was that?! Well, on second thought, I know what that was. Turns out those people writing those web sites were absolutely right."

I mean, c'mon. The only thing that could have made it plainer would have been if Jane Russell had strode forward and said, "Hold on. I've got the biggest Breasts in this room. Hell, I've got the only Breasts in this room. And they are not just ordinary breasts, but are world-class Breasts and so deserve to be capitalized. And you guys are fighting over each other?!"

It's almost enough to make me want to rewatch The Outlaw and see what I might have missed earlier. Maybe someday I will. But not any time soon. No matter what, the bottom line is that The Outlaw is pretty God-damned awful.

But on the topic question, yep. Definitely gay. If a remake is ever done, they should cast Perez Hilton, Richard Simmons, and RuPaul in the leads.

Watching it now...totally gay! And so bad too!

Remember the magic words: "Please", "Thank you" and "Step off bitch!"