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I seldom flog a given story or film in this space; but, I'm shamelessly going to in this particular instance.
Continued controversy surrounds the American DvD release of this film by SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT and their CBS Films unit, and their sanitizing the Keep-case Wrapper cover-art removing all references to the DvD's gay content and underlying homosexual sub-text.
For this reason, I took another look at the film that I purposefully had purchased and screened just after Christmas when the media hand-wringing first surfaced.
Damnation all to hell, give me a break!
It's a gay-themed film replete with all the gayness any dizzy old queen like myself could hope for; but, what's likely significant here is that it tells an apparently true story based upon historical fact, subject to the usual theatrical/film license to move things around just a tad to suit their story-board. It's a fun movie, and we need all the fun movies we can get; but, more importantly if BUENA VISTA HOME ENTERTAINMENT (a film unit of the Disney Company) could release 2001's gay-themed film Blow Dry, if MGM/UA Home Entertainment could release 1996's The Birdcage (a shameless remake of the original co-French/Italian La Cage Aux Folles, and an unquestionably gay, not just gay-themed, film if there ever was one), if MGM could have before that have released 1984's Consenting Adult based upon Laura Hobson's seminal youth Coming Out tale (even with all it's warts and failures, still a compelling view 30-years later), and earlier still released 1976's Norman... Is That You?, a film that still has the capacity to make me roll all over the floor laughing, and worth every screen moment of the nubile sweet young thing that plays the title-character's love interest for his father Redd Foxx's sake, and lastly a couple from WARNER HOME VIDÉO, 1980's Cruising, a film difficult to watch if you're not inclined to the film's particular gay-themed premise and 1976's The Ritz, a unabashedly glorious romp throughout New York's famed Continental Baths, lavishly and lovingly adorned by a quivering Rita Moreno, Kaye Ballard never looking so radiant, Jack Weston befuddled as never before, Jerry Stiller likely swearing-off that he'd ever reprise this role and a simply luscious and lascivious Treat Williams in his first significant screen presence.
So SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT, what's the Problem here? The half-dozen titles I mention are only a drop in the bucket of the many hundreds of gay-themed, radically gay-driven, or otherwise gay-idealized films that have been released by one or the other major American film studio in the last half-century. Get with the programme.
Folks, you simply MUST BUY, or rent, this import DvD [EAN: 5060002837672], if you buy or rent no other this year, this is definitely the one. In addition, if you haven't already done so, you need to screen the other six titles that I mention; they, too, are well worth your time and trouble should you care to.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Fri, 23 January 2015 14:15] |
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