There was much talk in the years that followed Brokeback Mountain, including one or two posts on this blog, about the dearth of mainstream movies featuring predominantly gay storylines or with gay lead characters emerging from Hollywood since the success of Ang Lee’s groundbreaking cowboy movie back in 2005.
There was an interesting article in Entertainment Weekly looking at the reasons for the failure of Hollywood to be inspired by the success of Brokeback to feature more gay roles in mainstream movies.
Some of these fears appear to have been unfounded. First came news of Milk, a biopic of the life and death of gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk starring Sean Penn and Josh Brolin in lead roles and directed by Gus Van Sant.
Now gay visibility in mainstream movies looks to be getting another boost with Ang Lee again breaking ground with a biopic Taking Woodstock about the life of Elliot Tiber, who was responsible for taking the Woodstock festival to Upstate New York, based on a book he wrote about the Stonewall riot, the festival, and his life.
This looks like it will be a fascinating insight into the life and experiences of a gay man and an opportunity to bring the real lives of cultural figures in history (who are gay) to the big screen and to mainstream audiences.
I am hoping (I have not read the book) this will be a well-rounded story that includes gay activism and moments in gay history, but also how gay people have contributed to events in America’s cultural past and present.
It is a sign that Hollywood with the help of visionaries like Ang Lee is beginning to accept gay themes into the mainstream in recognition that audiences are not only ready but interested to see more of this type of movie that deals with sexuality in a wider context and does not put this neatly into a specific genre of “gay and lesbian cinema” that you might see on the shelves of a rental store or the Blockbuster Web site.
Hollywood may be still hiding in the closet as it has been since the 50s but more and more moviemakers are growing up and recognizing that society has changed in those decades.
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