MovieChat Forums > The Tall T (1957) Discussion > Homoeroticism in the TALL T

Homoeroticism in the TALL T

posted 14 years ago by jonchopwood
17 replies | jump to latest

It's not mentioned in any of the DVD commentaries, but isn't it obvious that Richard Boone's character is "smitten" with that played by Randolph Scott, that he may even be in love with him.

The homoeroticism is thick & heavy in this film, such as Boone's disgust when his two companions are talking about women.

That John Wayne & John Ford cut out the "male love" aspects of BULLFIGHTER & THE LADY due to the gay overtones is mentioned, but dismissed as balderdash by the commentators, who buy into Budd's contention that men can love each other.

Oh, really?

There's something about these hyper-macho men, like Hemingway, that smacks of homo-eroticism (that is not to say, homosexuality, though the boxer & beer salesman Roger Donoghue told Norman Mailer, another hyper-macho man that Gore Vidal said should have been better named Norman "Malest", when Mailer was trying to pick a fight with him, "Yeah, we'll hit each other and fall into each other's arms. It's all so homosexual, isn't it?

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"Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
--Truman Capote

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Captain_Augustus_McCrae 14 years ago

OP,
Maybe after hanging around with nitwits Chin k and Billy-Jack so long, Boone's character was just starved for intelligent conversation. After reading your nonsense post, I felt the same way.
(P.S.- the space in Chin k's name is so the auto-censor in IMDB's system won't bleep out the name; probably because it's the same word as racial epithet)

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living!!!"
Augustus McCrae

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] shiloh_3 13 years ago

Yup, some movies have "homo-eroticism" and some posts have homophobia. Such is life.

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[–] Captain_Augustus_McCrae 12 years ago

More often, fools and special-pleaders look for non-existent homo-eroticism in films, and non-existent homophobia in posts about those films. It gets a little tiresome, after a while.

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae

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[–] lexyladyjax 12 years ago

More like Stockholm Syndrome. That's what I always attributed it to, but if you insist on seeing something that isn't there, is it due to your own issues?

OTOH Pat Brennan seemed to see a kindred spirit in Usher, a man he could have become had he gone wrong himself. Or someone whom he could have helped, had he known him when he was younger. A man he would have called a friend. Usher seemed to have a streak that was understandable by Brennan, they had some common ground between them absent the violent streak.

Richard Boone was a genius at demonstrating this in his characters. There was no other actor as skilled in playing flawed men with a spark of good in them. You couldn't help liking them. You couldn't help wishing things were different for them, even when you knew the point of no return had been passed. And so it was with Usher.

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[–] sockscats 12 years ago

There is nothing in this film to suggest a homosexual attraction at all. I guess it is an explanation as to why Boone's character doesn't just kill Brennan when Brennan is obviously the only threat to him and his men.

It would have made more sense to kill Brennan than Mr Mims who was a coward.

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[–] bcamphome 9 years ago

Good assessment, lexyladyjax. I just read the story by Elmore Leonard and Usher's respect for Brennan is hinted at but it's such a lean and tight story, it couldn't be expanded on. But in the movie, more time is allowed and Boone had the space to play it in the way that you describe, which shows why Budd Boetticher is so highly regarded among western fans and why his films stand out so strongly above the more run-of-the-mill westerns Scott did at Warner Bros. and Columbia earlier in the '50s, many of which I like a great deal anyway, especially TEN WANTED MEN (1955), in which Boone appears as Scott's antagonist and is driven by jealousy when Scott's handsome young sidekick takes in Boone's pretty young Mexican ward who'd fled Boone's advances. Leo Gordon plays a henchman of Boone's who picks up on this and taunts Boone. Lee Van Cleef is along for the ride, too. Great stuff.

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[–] sockscats 11 years ago

I agree.

I doubt if it is intentioned from Elmore's story and perhaps not intentional from Burt Kennedy's script. But it is there when you add it up.

Boone was not sexually interested in women and very irked about the tom catting of his younger partners. That is certainly a start.

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[–] Ms_Q 8 years ago

There is nothing to suggest that Usher is not sexually interested in women. Men who are not interested in consorting with prostitutes or in raping women are not uninterested in women.

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[–] guy_in_west_houston 11 years ago

Some see homosexuality like Al Sharpton sees racism - everywhere.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Satantangoandcash 8 years ago

When I watched this for the first time recently and saw Usher fix his attention on Brennan after he came down from the stagecoach, I knew that somebody at IMDB would make a comment about homoeroticism, and here it is. I see how it can be interpreted it that way, but I think that Usher was smitten with Brennan and kept him alive not from sexual attraction, but because he could tell that Brennan was a strong, independent, self-reliant, and principled man who would be someone worth spending time with, unlike the coward Willard and unlike the type of unsavory company Usher was used to keeping - the two young fools in his gang.

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[–] spookyrat1 8 years ago

... he could tell that Brennan was a strong, independent, self-reliant, and principled man who would be someone worth spending time with ...

Yes, they saw elements of each other in their own characters. Frank, whilst prepared to murder to achieve his aims, didn't see himself as a greedy thief when choosing a ransom for Doretta. He kept a cool head whilst leading his hot heads. Pat could see reasons for the way Frank behaved, knowing that given the circumstances, he may have ended up in a similar situation. He therefore gives him a chance to ride away at the end.

Ths sort of dual comparison of characters does not amount to homoerotic themes IMO.🐭

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[–] lexyladyjax 8 years ago

Certainly not in the Fifties when the slightest hint of homoeroticism would have been sliced and cut from the script by the Censor Board. Evidently the OP is unaware the board existed at that time to search out and destroy such references at all costs. Social mores have changed drastically since this film was created and some people are completely blind to its changes. Those of us who lived through those changes have quite different perspectives.

There is no homoeroticism in this film. Pat and Usher were more alike than Usher and his minions, *beep* and Billy Jack. Usher was a charming psychopath and the audience liked him, that was shocking to them.

By the simplistic moral rules of the Film Censor Board, Usher had to die, and he did. But Pat and Usher had a liking and respect for one another in spite of the outcome we all knew had to come at the end. Richard Boone was able to charm us into liking a dangerous killer in spite of ourselves. It was one of his great talents. That's the secret.

Bored now.

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