Post by gameboy on Nov 18, 2020 3:41:57 GMT
It's been a long time since I saw the movie but the kid probably thought it was consensual sex. Movie theaters used to be popular cruising spots back in the day.
It just depicts the whole gay world as rather sordid. Also odds are that the cowboy was downlow and gay anyway. Any male prostitute who has sex with men is at least bisexual. I believe they hinted that he was gay. There is a dream sequence as well where Ratso imagines himself running shirtless on the beach with the cowboy. The homoerotic allusions run throughout the film.
Gay men's passions always lead them to death. It's homophobic but it was a much more homophobic world back then.
Yeah, that kid may have been a bit naive as to what those dudes were hanging around for, really waiting for a cash paying john. It just seemed like nothing was going right for Joe.
I agree about Joe Buck being bisexual. He could have gone back to work in a diner as a busboy/dishwasher, but he opted to whore himself out with the other fruits. He wanted to do it. A flashback sequence also alludes that he was raped along with his gf and this wasn't that subtle either.
The director was gay, so I'm not sure if what he wanted to depict was meant to come across as homophobic, or perhaps for the sake of a then easily shocked audience, he may have had to compromise a little. I think overall, considering the era the film was made, Schlesinger made a good balance of things in alignment with the attitudes. The film doesn't really project judgement either. It just unfolds matter of fact. I do find it a bit difficult to empathize with Joe towards the end after what he did to that self-loathing old man.
Of course it was a product of its time. Now you know I rail against Will & Grace. But it makes me long for one silly episode of that show without out all the undercurrents of systemic hate in this movie.
And though the director was gay, he was as much a victim of this internalized homophobia as are we the cringing 21st century queer viewers.
But as I said before, the murder of his john is just more moralistic indictment that our love can only end in death.
Here's the scene with the kid where we are assaulted with the flashback of his glorious heterosexual romance as compared to his sleazy sex in a movie theater. It just makes us queer folks remember how much we've been assaulted with this heterosexist brainwashing all our lives.