Is Jon gay?


There’ve been a lot of postings speculating about whether or not Jon is gay.

Speaking as a gay man let me assure everyone that Jon has a very real attraction to Vince (God knows why). From the minute he walked in the room he was throwing out signals left and right.

Now whether or not Jon is “homosexual” is another question altogether, and even if he is he may not be aware of it.

On some level, conscious or unconscious, Vince is aware of Jon’s attraction to him, using it against him, amused by it, playing off it, even teasing him about it with his body language. This is very deliberate on the part of the filmmaker and actors, and the unresolved sexual tension between the two men has, in this case, a lot to do with their mutual mistreatment of Amy. Jon may have accosted Amy as revenge against Vince (her first boyfriend) for not being gay. If I can’t have you I’ll have your girlfriend--to put it in the crudest possible terms. The genius of the actors’ performances is that they relay the homosexual dimension to the audience without seeming “gay” about it, and without the characters themselves seeming aware.

Check out the movie “Dark Water.” Very mediocre horror movie, but John C. Reilly is awesome as the building manager/realtor, plays it very subtly as a gay man—so well in fact that I had to point this out to my straight friends. Watch “Dark Water” and see for yourself.

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This is absurd... I'm sorry. There are no signs that point to a possibility that either Jon or Vince is gay. To think that was the director's intent to subtly show Jon's homosexuality is completely ridiculous. Jon shows interest in helping Vince with getting his life together, and while this was somewhat self-righteous and maybe unsincere, it was not meant to show any homosexual tendencies between them. Any tension that Vince caused in Jon was all part of his scheme to get Jon to discuss his time with Amy. The only reason he stayed was to try to win the argument the two were having. Once he found that the argument was futile, he would have left except for the tape that had recorded him.

Any homosexual tendencies seen in this film would be quite a stretch, to say the least. I don't care if this is coming from a gay person. I would like to know what these "signals that are throwed out left and right" are.

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Watch it again. I've seen the movie twice and stand by everything I said. Ronald Regean argued that Walt Whitman wasn't gay.

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Do you have anything other than claims? What makes you think there is any attraction between the two? I am interested... I have owned the film for 2 years and have watched it at least ten times, as it is one my favorites.

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[deleted]

When Jon first got to the hotel room:

Jon - You're not dressed
Vince - Lay off.
Jon - It's not that I don't like it.
Vince - What?
Jon - Nothin'.

I don't know about between the two, but Jon definitely shows signs of attraction toward Vince.

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I thought that was meant that he admired Vince's carefree lifestyle. That he didn't even need to get dressed because he had no appointments or responsiblities as opposed to Jon, who had meetings and had to look the part for his success. I didn't take it to mean he liked the way Vince looked in his boxers, just that he admired Vince's lifestyle.

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The playwright who wrote the play said they weren't gay.

So there you go.

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[deleted]

I kind of agree about Jon being attracted to Vince. This is established from the outset when Jon first enters the motel room and finds Vince in his boxer shorts. Jon says something to the effect of, "What's with you, you're walking around without your clothes nowadays. Don't get me wrong, I like it."

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Haha, that was a funny line... but that was what is supposed to be. Funny. It was an obvious sarcastic remark.

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I'm kind of surprised, too, that the writer said neither character was gay. I agreed with palefire's comments. And that line about "don't get me wrong, I like it." My first thought was that he was gay and he said that kind of under his breath as it was apparent that Vince didn't hear that part and asked him what he said. Is the writer just messing with us?

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I know plenty of straight guys that make "gay" comments just to mess with their friends heads or as a joke.

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[deleted]

this is interesting, I may have to watch the movie again with this subtext in mind. I hadn't considered it before but now that it is mentioned i can see it. i'm a gay dude, and the way Vince teases Jon in retrospect actually reminds me quite a bit of the way one of my straight friends likes to tease me. Vince just kinda reminds of that guy in general now that i think of it haha.

The filmmakers mentioned that they felt similarities between this film and to Hitchcock's one-room film based on a play called Rope (the one-word, one-syllable weapon a character uses against another). In Rope, the leads were quite obviously homosexuals and the screenwriter confirmed it. Though in that film, the original playwright too confirmed it (and in the play supposedly it was outspoken unlike in the film, where it was just subtext.) Does anyone have a citation for where the playwright of Tape said that Jon wasn't gay?

Anyone who hasn't seen Rope, I recommend it.

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The moment Jon entered the room and they start playing I had the feeling of a homosexual tension between the two but never got that back later in the film when it actually turned into a male vs male competition. Don't know. I think the ambiguous tension ads to the character of the film.

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Richard Linklater and Stephen Belber have both acknowledged that the character Jon Salter was not gay.

Plus—there is nothing even slightly sexual or ambiguous about Jon and Vince's friendship. It's a very typical dichotomy,infact.

And if you think you are noticing any "tension" or "attraction" between the two characters, it is clearly rooted in their jealousy, insecurity and immaturity towards eachother.

Point blank: it's essentially a film about two friends who are growing up while being in constant competition with eachother.

Other than that, the only sexual element is Vince being jealous Amy didn't want to have sex with him in High School and that she chose Jon instead(with whom she admitted she had a crush on).

Jealousy.
Insecurity.
Competitiveness.

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