MovieChat Forums > Cowboy (1958) Discussion > Doc?

Doc?

posted 11 years ago by gtbarker
6 replies | jump to latest

My question is was Doc gay?

*** Spoilers ***

In his last scene Reese accused him of getting old when he told him he was leaving the trail and he replied to the effect that it wasn't that, but that sometimes you just need something else in your life and that he was going to see his friend. The next we hear Doc has hung himself after killing his friend after his friend had turned on him for no apparent reason. But what if that reason was Doc had told him he had feelings for him. Now this might seem a leap of faith, but this film was made when the last thing you could do was talk about homesexuality openly in a Hollywood movie let alone a Western. I think the writer and director were codedly trying to tell us that indeed Doc was gay.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] footsperry 10 years ago

That's a far stretch.
It's a lot simpler to understand that he was distraught after having killed his old friend - even if it was in self-defense. The friend's turning on him was evidently because they had had an old grudge, and Doc wanted to resolve it, but apparently the attempt to resolve the quarrel didn't work out. That is the storyline, and it makes more sense than your suggestion.

[–] Captain_Augustus_McCrae 10 years ago

SSDD*

(same sh*t, different day)

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

[–] rex-sheldon 10 years ago

I've seen a lot of westerns, but more importantly, I've read a lot about the old west. The REAL old west, not the movie west. One thing you have to realize is that cowboys spent a lot of time in the company of other men, without any women around. Cattle drives could sometimes last weeks. In those times, men often formed strong friendships. In those days, it was a lot safer to travel around with a pal than to be a loner. I know many of those friendships could be perceived as gay relationships, but in reality, things were just very different then, as opposed to now.

[–] nedeljkodjukic88 9 years ago

Exactly. Nowadays people have thousands of friends on social webs but non of those friendships isn't real. In life you only make a couple of TRUE friends, and that's if you're lucky. Friends with whom you get through difficult moments in life, yours or theirs.

More and more people are educated to believe almost every important man in history was homosexual - Alexander the Great, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Roman emperors, Christian saints... (with no real proofs), up to present days - just so kids would become less homophobic and more homosexual themselves. Today it's all about being egocentric - not compassionate and family person.

[–] au561 8 years ago

eww