It was awful
Really bad movie.. take out the fact that the main chracter is Gay and its just so ordinary.. BAD
shareI have to say I liked this movie, the only thing which I thought was questionable was the cameo appearance by Matthew Rush. It seemed a cheap shot to get some D**k in the movie.
Dazzlerbear
What's wrong with having d!ck in the movie? And why is including it cheap? The character is a porn star. Would a Hollywood movie shrink from using tits as visual shorthand? This is a detective story told from a gay point of view, so the visual is a hunk with a big d!ck. Nothing wrong with that.
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
The reason it's stupid is because it simply plays into the public's perception that gay men are pathologically addicted to sex.
Making a movie with gay people that is intelligent and devoid of prurient sexual content is what would help change the public image. Don't pretend that isn't important, because it is. Just take a look at Prop 8 in California.
"...nothing is left of me, each time I see her..." - Catullus
I tend to agree with Bladerunner. The Dik Steele scene undercut what was otherwise a very satisfying film. This series' greatest virtue is the fact that its principal characters are a loving, monogamous gay couple who are in it for the long haul. Their love scene is tasteful, tender, and touching, and their physical intimacy underscores rather than overshadows their emotional bond. Refreshing to see an onscreen m/m relationship where the primary bond is based in the heart rather than the hard-on.
shareI am a heterosexual male who loves cinema, I don't care what it is, I love movies, but I tend to shy away from homosexual films because — to me — it is unsavory to watch homosexual love scenes. Now, I know that people are going to call me a "homophobe", which is just not right. This habit, of calling everyone a homophobe is counter-productive particularly when it is hurled at a person who *isn't* a homophobe (such as myself).
My dislike of explicit homosexual content has nothing to do with a hatred or a phobia of all things gay. I am quite secure in my sexuality and have no fears about homosexuality, hatred for homosexuals or worries about latent homosexuality. My contention is spiritual, my faith states that the *practice* of homosexuality is a sin, however *being* homosexual is not a sin.
I have great empathy for men who are homosexual because even now they are ostracized in society, which is a painful and senseless situation. I am patently against any prejudice, oppression or (particularly) acts of hatred toward gay people. There are many stereotypical ideals about gay people by heterosexuals that foment and foster prejudicial attitudes. Many straight folks believe that gay people are sexually obsessed, driven only by the most base desires, acting out constantly the most vile sexual deviancy imaginable. Now, of course, not all people feel this way, but it is still a *very* prevalent attitude among many people. Films that focus on homosexual relationships that dwell gratuitously on the sexual simply augment this view. In other words, they make it easy to continue on with the same ignorant notions about gay people.
I understand the attitude of some gay people who get sick and tired of being labeled and reviled and develop an attitude of apathy or bitterness. They think, "who cares what straights think?" and respond with hostility. But responding to prejudice with apathy and hostility only compounds the problem.
If heterosexual people (who are in the great majority) can see gay people as *people* and not "gay people" that is when strides can be made toward a greater understanding and compassion. It is for this reason I dislike the addition of gratuitous sex scenes in mainstream gay cinema.
"...nothing is left of me, each time I see her..." - Catullus
Bladerunner,
Despite what I believe is a sincere attempt at compassion for gay people, your ignorance of what gay people are like shows through. I suggest you try to believe that gay people are just like straight people, except that their attraction is to the same rather than the opposite sex. If you could do that, you'd be in a better position to understand the problems that confront gay people and maybe even help solve them.
Just like straight people, some gay people are obsessed with sex. Just like straight people, some gay people are not. You can carry the same principle through just about any aspect of the human experience.
Try filling in the blanks below with straight, then go back through and use gay instead:
Some ______ people are lazy; some are not.
Some ______ people like dogs; some do not.
Some ______ people are good Christians; some are not.
Some ______ people love their mothers; some do not.
Some ______ people like sexy movies; some do not.
Get it? We're not different from you. We really, really aren't.
If the only way for us to become acceptable to the straight majority (which, I believe, is not going to happen until Jesus returns to reign on the earth and set everything right), if the only way to become acceptable is to make sure nothing in any of our entertainment offends any straight person, then I, for one, had rather remain an outcast.
Pretending I'm not interested in sex (as if no straight man is... Ha!), or in anything else I happen to enjoy, may be too high a price to pay for something of questionable value. Who says we even want to be accepted by the straight majority? Again: some do; some don't. In my opinion, the straight majority is missing out on a lot more by rejecting us than we are by their rejection.
_
Now that I've vented, I should say that I too think the Matthew Rush scene is unnecessary and distasteful, but for purely aesthetic rather than sociological reasons. He seems like a nice enough person, and without the steroids he might be okay looking, but with them he's disgusting to look at and about as sexy as a tree stump. No—much worse than that. Tree stumps aren't disgusting.
I'm one gay man who can't stand shaved gym bodies, which is one reason I much prefer European and older American gay movies to recent American ones. Even American pornography has been completely taken over by those sterile and grotesque zombies who are so pumped they can hardly move, and it's been years since a man with untrimmed pubic and chest hair was allowed in front of a camera.
Men who are just men naturally, as God made them, are infinitely more attractive than the all-over tanned, toned and cropped freaks who litter the gay entertainment world now. And it's not just the overtly gay media. There are no normal-bodied men with normal-colored teeth and tan lines in Hollywood at all any more, gay or straight. Thank God, old and foreign movies are still available.
As much as I admire and respect Chad Allen, he's taking his workout perilously close to the grotesque. I'd just as soon he hadn't taken his shirt off in this movie. I hope he'll take some time off from the gym. Romain Duris is my favorite actor right now, in part because he's rampantly hairy, has tooth-colored teeth, and a perfectly natural body. Being French doesn't hurt either.
"Now, I know that people are going to call me a "homophobe", which is just not right."
Actually its dead on. Don't watch the movie if you don't like it.
Calling someone who says or does bigoted things "a bigot" isn’t censorious, it's descriptively accurate, like calling a bad movie "a bad movie", even if the bigot didn't intend to come off as bigoted and the movie didn't intend to come off as bad.
Also, stop saying "homosexual" constantly. Just say gay.
>>Making a movie with gay people that is intelligent and devoid of prurient sexual content is what would help change the public image.<<
What was prurient about including Matthew Rush? The mere fact that he was nude? Again, I'll say if it had been a female model with her tits out nobody would have any problem with this. Matthew's d!ck is very large, but it isn't hard and he does nothing overtly sexual in the scene. There's more implied sex in the "tasteful" scenes between Strachey and Timmy than in the whole Dik Steele scene. Get over it!
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde