Oliphant and Speke and Speke and Burton
Was there just a hint of homosexuality among these guys or was I imagining things?
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MovieChat Forums > Mountains of the Moon (1990) Discussion > Oliphant and Speke and Speke and Burton
In the film yes, but I don't think Speke was supposed to be homosexual in real life AFAIK
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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!
Correct. Tim Jeal's Explorers of the Nile shows Speke romancing an African woman during his exploration. This went beyond what's shown in the film but writing effusive letters about her etc.
In the movie though Speke is definitely supposed to be gay.
"Haven't they replaced you with a coin-operated machine yet?"
In the movie though Speke is definitely supposed to be gay.
Really? I didn't get it that Speke is DEFINITELY supposed to be gay. Sure, the movie includes some homosexual-looking scenes, especially Speke kissing Burton while the latter was sick. But I thought it could also be some sort of comradeship thing. Or perhaps my gay-radar is not very well tuned. share
I just looked up Jeal's book and--yeesh--he's the same guy who wrote that fawning book about Stanley (who was by many other accounts, including his own, a downright brutal man). Jeal's thing seems to be rehabilitating fallen idols of 19th century imperialism. Several reviews of Explorers of the Nile note that his book is extremely biased in favor of Speke and against Burton.
While it's worth reading for completeness sake, I'd take Jeal's work with a huge grain of salt.
Innsmouth Free Press http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com
While the film romanticizes the story a good bit (and the real Speke looked nothing like Iain Glenn and probably didn't act like him, either), there has been speculation for a while that Speke might have been gay, long before the film came out.
Innsmouth Free Press http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com
According to the book behind the film, written by the screenwriter William Harrison, Speke was definitively gay. In the book, Speke was nothing of a closet case, as depicted in the movie, but actually had an fairly open (for 19th century Britain) relationship with Oliphant.
And there are certain scenes, besides Oliphant's rather passionate rubbing of Speke's legs, and Speke's kissing of Burton while he was delirious, such as when Burton is bathing with the nude women in the lake, Speke's reaction speaks volumes.