Announcing AfterElton's Greatest Gay Movies Poll

i really love this movie even though nathan lane didn't play buz... Brokeback Mountain (ofcourse), Shelter, Priest and It's My Party rounded up my top 5...

i guess Angels in America would not qualify since it's a tv mini-series... i was wondering why a lot of gay movie countdowns include it ( i think i read it in some mag)... it is probably the best gay work of art in any medium though...

tough choice - only five... special mention would go to: Broken Hearts Club (i know a lot of gay men hated this but it's endearing for me nonetheless), Rent, Bent, Jeffrey, CAMP, and Mambo Italiano.

Can we have a ruling on Angels in America?  It was a made for TV movie/miniseries, but it was an absolutely seminal gay work (no pun intended).

Without AiA, my top picks are:
Parting Glances -- an all-time favorite.

Brokeback Mountain--gay cowboys without the pudding

And The Band Played On--so many good performances in this one

And just to be different, two documentaries:

The Celluloid Closet-- Vito Russo's homage to the coded presence of homos in Hollywood with Lily Tomlin as the narrator.  As an added bonus, Gore Vidal's story about the making of Ben Hur drove Charlton Heston nuts.

The Times of Harvey Milk -- way back in the mid-80s (a time that could be remembered as the gay Age of Terror) this movie won every damned award imaginable, including the Oscar.  It was the first Oscar acceptance speech EVER to recognize a same-sex partner.  This is the work of art that truly made Harvey Milk into an icon of gay liberation.

Finally, a couple of honorable mentions:

Big Eden - because it makes me feel like a romantic again, instead of the jaded old queen I am)

The Boys in the Band - the first modern movie depicting real gay characters;

Longtime Companion - the first wide-release AID-related film by Craig Lucas, one of our great gay playwrights.  This was his first screenplay.

It's hard to choose, and I'm sure when I see what other people come up with, I'll want to change my own choices!  But I've gone with Maurice, Brokeback Mountain, Get Real, Latter Days, and In and Out.

I had to go with

Were the World Mine (every gay teen in the country will adore this film)

Trick

No Regret

Formula 17 

Birdcage

Mine were: Brokeback Mountain, Maurice, Beautiful Thing, Victim, and Mysterious Skin.

 Anyone who wants to watch Victim can see the whole thing here:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=marauderthesn

My top five will probably end up just being MY top five. lol... Sorry gang, but I really didn't care that much for Brokeback.

Mine were in this order...

Just A Question Of Love, All Over The Guy, Shelter, The Trip, and The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green.

For classiness, acting, believability, and all-around excellent story, there are no gay themed films to compare to Just A Question Of Love. That's my vote and I'm stickin' to it!

Top five I thought of first:

1. Yossi and Jagger
2. Trembling Before G-d
3. Boys in the Band
4. Pink Flamingoes
5. My Own Private Idaho

But I forgot "My Beautiful Laundrette"--loved Daniel Day Lewis in that!  And what about "I Confess!"--nothing overtly gay in the story, but isn't Montgomery Clift enough?!

Agree with "Parting Glances", "Beautiful Thing", "Maurice", "Priest" and "Trick" (both Tories were fabulous).  And did anyone mention "The Sum of Us"?  Gay Russell Crowe, oh yes.

Oh, and the recent "The Bubble" from the director who did "Yossi and Jagger"--great film.

There are so many!

1. Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train

2. The Witnesses

3. Before I Forget

4. My Own Private Idaho 

5. Parting Glances 

But after 45 minutes of deliberations, here goes:

Camp  (wish I had access to a performing arts summer camp in high school)

C.R.A.Z.Y. (I could have been Zach)

Whole New Thing

Cote d'Azur

Shelter

I hated not including "Latter Days", "Mysterious Skin", "L.I.E." "Una Noche con Sabrina Love", or "Just a Question of Love".  Or "Bad Education" or "As Luck Would Have It" or "Gods and Monsters"...or  (the list goes on and on)

1. Brokeback Mountain

2. The Eyes of Tammy Faye

3. Sommersturm

4. Suddenly, Last Summer

5. Latter Days

the first 5 that come to mind:

Outrageous! (1977) with Craig Russell
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Lilies / Les feluettes (1996)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Shortbus (2006)
.

...and deciding to bypass Beautiful Thing and Brokeback Mountain, both of which will do well without my support, I selected:

Mysterious Skin (2004)

Johnny Eager (1942)

Adventures of Felix (2000)

Fox and His Friends (1975)

A Love to Hide (2005)

But let me give a shout-out to: Time toLeave, Victor/Victoria, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Wild Reeds, Guys and Balls, Trick, Outrageous!, Ben-Hur, Wilde, Another Gay Movie, etc., etc. 

1. Maurice-they were bothw illing to give up everything because they loved each other.

2. Big Eden- a real love story that comes to fruition at the end

3. Brokeback Mountain- love sustained over the decades

4. Long-Term Relationship- love rules out in the end

5.Oh Happy Day- British import that also shows that love wins out in the end.

Notice all of my flicks deal with love between two men.

SPOILER ALERT:

Four of the five films end up with a happy ending, but all five deal with love.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033774/

Cause Van Helflin has the hots for Robert Taylor? What about Thomas Mitchell and Cary Grant in Only Angels Have Wings ?

This was harder than I thought it would be.  Then reading down other people's lists I was reminded of many really good movies I had forgotten.  There are more good gay movies than it seems sometimes

1. Parting Glances

2. Love! Valour! Compassion!

3. Urbania

4. Boys in the Band

5. Rocky Horror Picture Show

Future epitaph: "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Literally the first five I thought of were: "Brokeback Mountain" "Parting Glances" "My Beautiful Laundrette" "Cabaret" and "Big Eden."  Winners, all.

However, I could've also chosen "Mysterious Skin" "Latter Days" "Priest" "Angels In America" and "The Times Of Harvey Milk."  And another five: "Maurice" "Beautiful Thing" "Billy Elliot" "trick" and "The Lost Language of Cranes." 

And a shout out to the sisters: "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" "Bound" "Desert Hearts" "The Hours" and "Better Than Chocolate."

C.R.A.Z.Y.

Just A Question of Love

Mysterious Skin

Yossi and Jagger

Before Night Falls

Shortbus and Mysterious Skin,

but the rest was really hard to decide.

Maurice, My own private Idaho, My beautiful laundrette, Cowboys and angels, Latter days, Love and other disasters, Shelter, Sommersturm, Sordid lives, Eating out, Broken hearts club, Love! Valour! Compassion!, of course Brokeback mountain and so many more. How should one chose???

Why are there only english speaking movies on that list.There are alot of very good movies with gaytheme that are not english speaking ones and i can already see that these will probable not be included on this list.i admit that there are some realy good one like brokeback or the adventures of priscilla,Queen of the desert or Billy Elliot(why is this beautiful movie not included) but there are also some very good ones like beautiful boxer(no not talking about Christian) or sommersturm or fucking amal (more of a lesbian storie this one but a very good movie).

I don't wonna say what people should shoose for there favorite movie but mysterious skin did not deal with gayissues at all it was about shild abuse(2 issues i realy don't like to see connected) and Angels in America actually advocated to stop the advancement of gayrights.

Okay, so here's my spread:

1)  Shelter (2007, USA):  I really loved this story.  It was simple, uncomplicated and yet very beautiful.  The angst in it had less to do with being gay than with other family issues and it closed on a happy ending.  The characters had great chemistry.

2)  Latter Days (2003, USA):  This was a really great romance.  It was a coming out story, as so many gay movies are, but it was really nicely done.  This was almost a gay "chick flick" I know, but in a lot of ways we deserve it.

3)  Beautiful Thing (1995, UK):  Who doesn't love this one?  Coming-of-age/coming out may seem tired but when this came out it was absolutely groundbreaking.

4)  My Beautiful Laundrette (1985, UK):  Some of the plot elements were silly.  But this film virtually laid the groundwork for what was to be "new queer cinema" (i.e. movies with gay characters that weren't about dying of AIDS).  Omar and Johnny are classic characters.

5)  Queens (2006, Spain):  It took a long time, but it was such a refreshing change to see gays fit neatly into a conventional slap-stick comedies.  The movie is really about the mothers of gay men who are about to get married in a mass-wedding under Spain's legalization of same-sex marriage. Mayhem ensues and is a lot of fun.

Obviously, even a quick look at my list will indicate that I don't go for gay-and-misery movies, which I think made up far too much of gay cinema for too long (and still makes up too much of gay literature).  I'm a happy ending kind of guy and my choices reflect that.

Wendell Corey plays a gangland thug madly in love with fellow thug, John Hodiak. And he gets REALLY upset when Hodiak expresses an interest in Lizabeth Scott. (I wrote a lengthy analysis of it for "Film Quarterly" some years back.)

And then there's  The Big Combo (1955) in which Earl Hoilliman and Lee Van Cleef play hitmen lovers.

Longtime Companion

The Trip

Shelter

Brokeback Mountain

Beautiful Thing

was one of the most truly sophisticated straight men I've known.

As for Earl, I suspect he's a bottom in real life as well.

Boy that was tough. In order:

1. Juste une Question Damour -- Just a Question of Love

2. Maurice

3. Presque Rien -- Come Undone

4. Parting Glances

5. Shelter

Just barelly made it: Gone, But Not Forgotten, Le Fatte Ignoranti, Its My Party, Beautifull Thing, Reinas and Km. 0.

Wish I could have voted for 10 instead of 5, or drama only, or American films only. Too many choices–and I never thought I would live long enough to say that! I chose movies that I have wanted to watch more than once. I won't tell you my top five, but can I just remind guys of the following films (in alphabetical order):

• 9 Dead Gay Guys

• The Adventures of Felix 

• Apt Pupil

• Bedrooms and Hallways

• Burnt Money 

• But I'm a Cheerleader 

• Chuck and Buck 

• Get Real

• Gods and Monsters 

• Jeanne and the Perfect Guy 

• L.I.E.

• Peter's Friends

• Priest 

• Shortbus 

• Stonewall 

I can't imagine everyone will be too happy with my list, but anyhoo...

1. But I'm A Cheerleader - By far the least mainstream film on my list. I think it's cute, heatfelt and funny. Granted a lesbian is the main character, but gay men play a strong role in the film.

2: Transamerica - While this film is predominately the story of a trans-woman, Kevin Zegers delivers a knockout performance as her gay son.

3: My Own Private Idaho - It pains me to put a Keanu Reeves movie on any "Best" list, but Van Sant is absolutely brilliant. Well, at least he used to be.

4: The Rules of Attraction - I assume here is where I lose most of you. Maybe Ian Somerhalder's ridiculous good looks are affecting my judgement here, but I have to think this might qualify. As a younger gay man, growing up in a relatively tolerant social world, I seem to find that the films older gay men find powerful (Boys in the Band, Big Eden, etc) leave me totally unaffected. A film such as this, though, which examines Paul Denton's narcissistic intelligence, complicated family situation and painfully lustful friendship with a straight man that ends in disaster, is incredibly powerful. For bonus points, the book upon which it was based was written by Bret Easton Ellis (An out bisexual man),

5: The Talented Mr. Ripley - Again, I would imagine this is a controversial pick. And again, I think the underlying issue might be social and generational. In my adult life, I've never met anyone who genuinely "feared" homosexuals or homosexuality. As a student of historic gay culture, I recognise that in the past, gay men and lesbian women, have been presented as crazed and dangerous ala "Cruising" or "Rope". But that perception, somewhat diminshed by the APA's 1973 exclusion of homosexuality as a mental disease in the DSM III, seems to have completely disappeared in the last 30 years. These days, the depiction of gay men as helpless victims is much more predominate and cliche, than the depiction of a gay villan or sociopath. Highsmith's novel, and even to a greater degree, Minghella's film paints Tom Ripley as a complicated protagonist. Motivated by dreams of a different life, and crippled by self-loathing, Ripley is willing to do whatever it takes to become someone he isn't. This film poignantly explores the relationship dynamic between Dickie and Tom, making it even more painful to watch Tom murder Dickie over his ill-placed love and admiration. An incredibly complicated picture of a painfully broken gay man. I think the LGBT community, and the audience as a whole, is mature enough to appreciate this films complex character, without reading into it as a negative message about all gay men.

 Honorable Mentions: If the list was about plays or TV movies counted, certainly The Laramie Project and Angels in America would top the list.