Post by Toasted Cheese on Nov 24, 2020 15:22:12 GMT
I don't really politicize or idealize MC, than just accept it for when it was made, which I think was also very daring for its time. The look of the film is quite modern as well, even today, that it could be considered a period piece. There is so much more going on in this film than just nitpicking for homophobic attitudes which still exist today and only shows how dense the heterosexist can be.
Toasty, watch that video clip of the Cowboy and the Kid one more time. There is a furtive attempt for two men to make love. It's tawdry and shallow and unfulfilled. Yet all the time the Cowboy dreams of his perfect female lover. The Kid blows him and ends up puking in the toilet. This is why I said the film is homophobic.
This is the message queer kids have received over and over for generations: Homosexuality bad and it makes you puke. Heterosexuality good and it makes you happy.
Yes, I get your point, but like already mentioned, I don't see the film as misrepresenting homosexuality, just that for its time, homosexuality within' itself was misaligned. We know it still is today. It is now something just to be tolerated. That is the breeder issue to contend with. The kid probably wouldn't have been used to getting a gobful of goo either and Joe was dirty as well by then too. That is what I think of, even the first time I saw the film in the mid 80's, how dirty Joe was at that time. It took something away from any eroticness, even though I still found it arousing in a grimy sort of way. If that was the intention, then that was a great directorial touch.
I am more impressed with the visual metaphors contained in this sequence as well with the rocket ship. His tramp gf was trying to convince him she wasn't a slut, as in.."You're the only one Joe, you're the only one". It doesn't really paint her in a good light either. The other dudes were after a piece of her pie too, they took Joe's as well in another flashback sequence. I thought this was a brave depiction.
Just before that sequence you linked, there is a scene of Joe outside the cinema and showcasing all the other midnight cowboys. There is one of the cutest guys ever, that I like to pause on when watching.