What my film teacher said about HCL

My opinion of this movie is that it's about is kissing your dream goodbye with one last hurrah but not wanting to let go of it at the same time. It's about desperation and fear of the end. It's about getting old and having to accept that. And lastly, to burn out rather than fade away.

It's easy to say "Joe Dick was in love with Billy Tallent" when homoerotic jokes are made. How many movies are out there that have guys making gay comments? No one even goes so far as to suspect them of being in love. Everyone talks like that at one time or another. I thought that for a second when I first watched it. But after another watch, I found that the homosexual topic was nothing more than a joke that went nowhere.

You have to have played in a band to understand Joe's feelings about losing his friend to another band; a more commercially successful band. The simple fact that he lost Billy to Jenifur was bad enough for the longevity of Hard Core Logo to Joe, but losing Billy to a popular band was just twisting the knife. Punk Rock in the beginning was anti-pop and anti-establishment and in this movie Jenifur was everything Joe despised in music. That and it's just a horrible feeling losing a band member to another band/death/just flat out quitting. A band as close as Hard Core Logo were more like brothers. I tight family unit. Imagine having a family member turn their back on you. That's how it feels to lose a band member to another band. Joe and Billy were brothers.

And the whole sodomy bit was Ox just being Ox when he told Mary that. He's loopy.

You don't have to watch the movie closely to empathize with a successful underground band's inevitable undoing. You just have to have been in a band; or even just understand human emotions regarding "the end".

Joe would have said anything to get all the members back together (they're Hard Core Logo, one of the greatest punk bands in the movie), including lying.

Joe killed himself because Hard Core Logo was done. What else could he do with his life when the band was his life?

One of my favorite portrayals of an artist missing out on his opportunity to go out on top, so he fights to give himself one more chance to do it all over again and get it right this time.

Watch it yet again and listen to the part where Ox is talking about Joe being awake for 36 hours and how it's like Joe is carrying a cross. That part changed the whole movie for me. This guy's already made up his mind. He already knew what he was going to do from the beginning. And he already knew how his story was going to end.







In my day you’d have been dropped down a well at conception… no questions asked

I don't know if it's necessary to the story, or relevant, to make Joe's love for Billy sexual.

Not saying it can't be, of course, but does it matter to how the story is told, or how the story works?

Guys love each other too, as people; they just never talk about it. It's the way our culture is right now, for better or for worse.

The heterosexual man-crush? That happens too. It's a kind of hero-worship. It's not so much about gender -- it's about how much you think of a person.

Joe was pretty lost and unhappy in a lot of ways, and Billy was obviously his favorite person. When Billy looked to be moving on to a different life -- which didn't include hanging out with Joe -- Joe couldn't handle it.

I guess all I'm saying is that there are different kinds of love between people. Joe could've been homoerotically in love with Billy, but I don't think he _has_ to be for the story to work.

The film can be read either way, and still work. The human emotions matter more than the sexual orientation. I have to wonder if your prof was focusing on secondary details.