Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Happiness Is A Warm Gun : -)
Over the weekend I saw "Red River," Howard Hawks' 1948 classic Western about a 'father-son' type struggle and a plan to lead 20,000 head of cattle over 1,000 from Texas, where they're worth almost nothing, to the beef-hungry Midwest. This is an interesting film to view for a gay man. While not exactly homo-erotic, the film's core is the love and sometimes hate bewteen a tough, autocratic loner (John Wayne) and his ward and quasi-on, a taciturn but softhearted young man who was orphaned as a boy in a horrific Indian raid on a wagon train (which thankfully happens offscreen - the raid, not the adoption). The young man is played by the brilliant Montgomery Clift, who was privately gay and led a tortured life, in his screen debut. Gay men will appreciate the notorious scene in which Clift and fellow sharpshooter John Ireland check out each other's guns with much wonder and admiration : - ).
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