Queer Review: Die Hard (1988)

Die Hard
Director: John McTiernan
Writers: Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. Based upon the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp.
Cast: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, Alan Rickman, James Shigeta, Hart Bochner

Overview
As surprising as it may seem, Die Hard could be considered a sequel to one of the earliest films to deal explicitly with the topic of queer sexuality. However, Die Hard diverges considerably from the novel Nothing Lasts Forever which was a sequel to The Detective, thereby obscuring the connection. That does not stop Die Hard the film from being entertaining, but it is a much different animal from it's source.

Synopsis
On Christmas Eve, NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is visiting his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), with whom he is estranged from, out in LA. Six months ago she had accepted an executive position with the Nakatomi Corporation, while John had stayed behind in New York City. Their reunion is brief and soon interrupted by a group of disguised terrorists (who are actually thieves after $640 million bearer bonds currently being protected in the building vaults) led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). While the thieves hold the members of the Nakatomi Corporation hostage as they try to break into the vaults, John McClane escapes in a desperate attempt to wreck havoc on their plans.

The Queering
The novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorpe, was a sequel to The Detective which was made into a a 1968 film starring Frank Sinatra. Die Hard the film though, should not be considered a direct sequel, as the film differs from the book in many significant ways. Furthermore, while Die Hard 2: Die Harder went so far as to credit Roderick Thorp with creating the characters, only the barest echo of Frank Sinatra's Joe Leland can be seen in Bruce Willis's John McClane. Furthermore, Bonnie Bedelia's Holly is a completely different character bearing no resemblance to Lee Remick's Karen Leland. For example, Karen would certainly have taken Harry Ellis (Hart Bochner) up on the offer he made to Bonnie at the beginning of the film.

The Detective the film, was problematic in many ways, but it attempted to include (for the time period) portrayels of sympathetic gay characters. Unfortunately, it failed in that endeavor. What The Detective the film did succeed at was a rather adult perspective on the subject matter, as well as including some rather interesting thematic content related to issues of intersectionality. Roderick's novels, from what research I have done, appear to have also attempted to look at deeper themes and ideas.

Die Hard the film though, attempts to be nothing more than a popcorn action flick, although admittedly it is a very well done popcorn action flick. There is almost no queer content whatsoever, unless you count little things, like a drunken male party goer kissing John McClane at the beginning. McClane reacts to that incident pretty much the way I would have expected LeLand to have. Re-watching Die Hard this time arround, I was actually surprised to notice how unfeminine Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber is. He is intelligent and sophisticated to be sure, but not the least bit fey.

There is of the course the matter in which the LAPD is portrayed, which leads me to the conclusion that no one involved with the film roots for the Dodgers. While McClane (an NYPD detective) is shown to be smart and highly resourceful, pretty much every member of the LAPD who shows up on screen is either an idiot or comic relief. When John McClane first attempts to send out a distress signal on the radio about the hostage situation, he is lectured by a dispatcher for using an emergency broadband channel. When the LAPD finally do show up, Deputy Police Chief Robinson (Paul Gleason) ignores information that the thieves are armed with heavy artillery and attempts to send in a team to retake the building, with predictable results. During this offensive, LAPD officers are shown trying to use an acetylene torch to remove the lock on a glass door. Even at the end, Robinson refuses to give McClane credit for his efforts to save the hostages. The LA media doesn't fare much better. During the hostage crises, one upstart reporter forces his way into the house where the McClane kids are being babysat and the resulting interview provides Hans Gruber with a vital piece of information. I guess people in Hollywood don't have a whole lot of hometown pride...

Otherwise, there is not a lot I can say about this, other than what has shown up in pretty much every other review by now. Die Hard set the template for so many other later films (such as Speed). The action is riviting! And well directed! And won't you check out the cinematography! Which is admittedly rather well done. After watching Die Hard I am kind of tempted to have a law passed that mandates a minimum amount of time a shot can last. Seriously, there has been an unfortunate trend with recent films to over-edit, and not just their action sequences. Two more recent films that come to mind are Snow White and the Huntsman and The Hungar Games where even the non-action sequences refused to allow the camera to linger. Watching Die Hard, which features impressive cinematography and classical editing, was a nice reminder that sometimes less can be more, particularly when it comes time to cut a film.

Recommendation
Perhaps not worth dying for, either the hard way or softly, but I would say Die Hard is worth seeking out.

The Rating
*** out of ****

Trailer


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Queer Review: Making Love (1982)

Making Love
Director: Arthur Hiller
Writers: Barry Sandler and A. Scott Berg.
Cast: Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin, Wendy Hiller, Arthur Hill, Nancy Olson

Overview
Although, one of the earliest mainstream films to attempt a positive portrayel of gay male sexuality, Making Love actually succeeds at being one of the worst. The lone upside of the film is that this mind bendingly awful tripe was able to be made in the first place, could be considered a sign that queer content was losing the stigma it once held.

Synopsis
Married doctor and all around nice guy, Dr. Zach (Michael Ontkean) is vaguely troubled by his ill defined sexual orientation and attraction to other men. He meets and has an affair with writer and gay Lothario Bart (Harry Hamlin), who is uninterested in a committed relationship. Caught in the middle is Zachs' wife, Claire (Kate Jackson) who only wishes to start a family with Zach.

The Queering
In my lifetime, I have been to my share of gay bars, as well as to what some people might refer to as "redneck" bars. And yes, I know the term "redneck" is overlaid with problems but bear with me for a moment. Oddly enough, none of the supposedly gay bars presented in Making Love really reminded me of any gay bar I have gone to. However, the bars do somewhat resemble redneck bars where the male patrons just so happen to like to gently hold each other or tenderly caress their partners shoulders.

There is no kissing though, as apparently someone declared law against the non-main characters kissing in this film. We do occasional see a bit of what might almost be considered necking, but really, the better term would be neck pecking.

And this is where the problems begin with Making Love. The strong sense of artifice that infuses every scene. There is not a single moment that does not betray the fact that it was dribbled from a writers pen. From moment to moment, I had a hard time deciding what was worse, the horrible acting or the gag inducing writing. The lone exception is Harry Hamlin, who gives the best performance by managing to display a moderate degree of charisma.

There are those who claim that Making Love was a groundbreaking film regarding positive portrayals of LGBTQ characters. That may be, but the film goes overboard in this regard, causing the characters to become 1 dimensional caricatures. In a romance, it is essential that there be somebody who can feel real. Here, the audience is given nothing more than hollow wisps blowing on empty breezes.

There are other problems as well, one that I previously pointed out inAnother Gay Movie. That is the film does not ever really feel like a queer film at all. Sure, some of the characters occasionally kiss members of the same sex and roll around a few sheets with them as well. But the film also goes to extraordinary lengths to point out the heterosexual nature and backgrounds of both Zach and Bart. There is far more straight kissing in this film than gay kissing.

For a film that portends to be one of the earliest major gay films, there was an awful lot of focus on the heterosexual relationships. The film even ends with Claire staring wistfully staring as Zach makes his final farewell to her. In real life she would have burned his cheating ass in effigy and moved on with her life.

Throw in the lack of any genuine examination of queer concerns -- at least outside of an occasional reference such as when Bart talks about his fathers' attempts to get him to engage in the manly pursuit of Baseball -- and I have a difficult time considering this an example of gay or queer cinema.

I can cite plenty examples of extremely problematic cinema from the late 60's such as The Detective, The Sergeant or The Boys in the Band but each of those films at least dealt openly with legitimate queer characters and issues. Which of course made them revolutionary for the time period that they came out of. That is not a statement that can be applied to Making Love which amounts to nothing more than the blandest pile of fluff one is as likely to find in the 80's. In a decade not known for its' substance, that is saying something.

Recommendation
I would rather make love to a rabid pack of feces flinging howler monkeys than watch this film again.

The Rating
* out of ****

Trailer


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Queer Review: The Detective (1968)

The Detective
Director: Gordon Douglas
Writer: Abby Mann. Based on the novel by Roderick Thorp
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Jacqueline Bisset, Tony Musante, Lloyd Bochner

Overview
When considering how potentially offensive any movie can be, one must take into account the historical context in which the movie was made. The Detective is notable for being the first movie to deal openly with the issue of "homosexuality" and to attempt a sympathetic portrayal of "homosexuals". However, even though it was considered progressive for the time, The Detective struck me as being a little condescending and potentially offensive for modern audiences.

Synopsis
When the gay son of a prominent New York businessman is brutally murdered, Detective Joe Leland (Frank Sinatra) is assigned to investigate. It does not take him long to track down the victims live in lover Felix Tesla (Tony Musante) and extract a confession. However, Joe is troubled because Tesla is clearly insane. When Tesla is executed, Jos finds himself ridden with guilt even though breaking the case helped earn his promotion to Lieutenant as Tesla clearly had psychatric problems making his confession suspect. Soon afterwards, Detective Leland is approached by the recently widowed Norma MacIver who asks him to look into her husbands suicide. While the two cases appear unrelated, they both turn out to be connected to corruption at the highest levels of the city.

The Queering
Like I said earlier, The Detective was considered progressive for the time period it was released in. However, it's attempts at sympathetically portrayals of it's gay characters falls far short of that lofty goal. The main problem is that the gay characters are either self loathing murderers, have serious psychiatric problems, or end up dead. Also, I later decided to watch the trailer and noticed that it appears to be using the term "perverts" to refer to gay men.

However, these complaints aside, one can forgive the filmmakers considering the time period. Remember, The Detective came out in 1968, a whole year before the Stonewall Riots that "started" the gay liberation movement and the now defunct Hays Code had only recently been officially abolished.

Furthermore, ignoring the negative stereotypes used to portray the gay characters, The Detective is a damn fine movie. The characterization of the non-gay characters is fairly subtle and complex, while the plot, while somewhat derivative, managed to hold my attention throughout. There are also some nice performances showcased within and after watching this, I can see why Frank Sinatra was considered the coolest actor of his generation.

On the flip side, The Detective was also trying to be progressive in areas beyond sexuality. To that end, Leland and his wife are suffering marital problems, the problems of drugs are not ignored, and the dialog tries to represent the way people and particularly police officers talk in real life. The film is somewhat succesful at this, the relationship Leland has with his wife is explored not only in depth but with a sensitivity rarely seen on film. Like with the presentation of the gay characters though, the film does resort to instances of facile melodrama that cause it to feel somewhat immature. These can be considered the growing pains of the Hollywood system following the aforementioned ending of the Hays Code.

Trivia: Roderick Thorp who wrote the novel The Detective the film was based upon, also wrote a sequel Nothing Lasts Forever featuring Detective Leland that was later used as the basis for the movie Die Hard. Other than that, it's difficult to find a connection between the two movies. The Detective tries to be gritty and "mature" film noir, whilst Die Hard of course was a typical 80's action flick geared towards adolescent males.

Recommendation
Once one gets past negative stereotypes, The Detective makes for an interesting diversion while showcasing a lot of old school Holywood talent. Considering the time period, I'm therefore willing to recommend it for anyone who may be interested in classic movies with queer themes. Personally, I enjoyed The Detective more for what it was attempting than what it succeeded at.

The Rating




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