Now there has been a great debate raging about this particular movie. It's hard to have perspective when there is no measure, to be sure, so with that said I can say safely without a shadow of doubt in my mind that Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn is the greatest of the Glenda Jackson Movies ever made, period. What continues to surprise and delight is, however, most of all, the quiet acknowledgment that different kinds of love can co-exist, each having its own validity, without angst, guilt or innocence.
If anything, general cinema has moved backwards since this film in terms of portraying homosexuality and bisexuality in a mature, non-exploitive manner. Ultimately, it's the acting of Finch and Jackson that defines this film, making one wish for the glory-days of fagdom--in particular, Finch's pro-gay closing speech, made directly to the camera, remains a masterpiece of understated delivery. Watch the film for the background footage alone - and don't pay too much attention to the ins and outs of the story - if you see what I mean. FINCH is very moving in the closing monologue - as he concludes "we were something". And THAT, my friends, is pure Bernard Shaw social commentary ......
I understood now my black students felt when they saw HONEY, WE SHRUNK OURSELVES for the first time when I saw this movie on its release in 1986. "At last here is a decent movie about us." Not only was the movie about bisexual and gay relationships, but the characters were richly and complexly developed. In a word, total gay-baits. The plot is rather straight-forward -- the screen play by celebrated fag-hag Penelope Gilliard --Alex played by Glenda Jackson is really the most disturbed. She wants to have things exactly as they were even though she lusts after her firstborn son. Rex Harrison (I, CLAUDIUS) may have preempted Peter Finch and Murray Head with a kiss on the lips between males in THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY(1965), but the kiss between Finch and Head here was certainly well ahead of its time. And while I concur with many of the reviews posted here, there is not enough praise bestowed on Glenda Jackson, who remains the great lost voice of the Me-Generation.
Though the recipient of two Oscars ("Women In Love", "A Touch of Class") and two other nominations ("Sunday.." and "Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn"), as well as a criminal snub for the landmark "Stevie", Ms. Jackson is the champion of the piece as she refuses to conform to a proto surbanite ideal. It seems inconceivable now, since in the early Seventies, only Anita Bryant and Billy Jean King could be considered her equals. For me, her Alex in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is my favorite of her "anti-American" performances.
See the movie, forgive it its flaws and appreciate the concrete abstractions of the inherent freakiness existing between the bi and gay communities -- still quite contemporary -even in today's climate.
Comparisons?: "BEYOND THUNDERDOME" and "SUNDAY IN THE PARK".
If anything, general cinema has moved backwards since this film in terms of portraying homosexuality and bisexuality in a mature, non-exploitive manner. Ultimately, it's the acting of Finch and Jackson that defines this film, making one wish for the glory-days of fagdom--in particular, Finch's pro-gay closing speech, made directly to the camera, remains a masterpiece of understated delivery. Watch the film for the background footage alone - and don't pay too much attention to the ins and outs of the story - if you see what I mean. FINCH is very moving in the closing monologue - as he concludes "we were something". And THAT, my friends, is pure Bernard Shaw social commentary ......
I understood now my black students felt when they saw HONEY, WE SHRUNK OURSELVES for the first time when I saw this movie on its release in 1986. "At last here is a decent movie about us." Not only was the movie about bisexual and gay relationships, but the characters were richly and complexly developed. In a word, total gay-baits. The plot is rather straight-forward -- the screen play by celebrated fag-hag Penelope Gilliard --Alex played by Glenda Jackson is really the most disturbed. She wants to have things exactly as they were even though she lusts after her firstborn son. Rex Harrison (I, CLAUDIUS) may have preempted Peter Finch and Murray Head with a kiss on the lips between males in THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY(1965), but the kiss between Finch and Head here was certainly well ahead of its time. And while I concur with many of the reviews posted here, there is not enough praise bestowed on Glenda Jackson, who remains the great lost voice of the Me-Generation.
Though the recipient of two Oscars ("Women In Love", "A Touch of Class") and two other nominations ("Sunday.." and "Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn"), as well as a criminal snub for the landmark "Stevie", Ms. Jackson is the champion of the piece as she refuses to conform to a proto surbanite ideal. It seems inconceivable now, since in the early Seventies, only Anita Bryant and Billy Jean King could be considered her equals. For me, her Alex in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is my favorite of her "anti-American" performances.
See the movie, forgive it its flaws and appreciate the concrete abstractions of the inherent freakiness existing between the bi and gay communities -- still quite contemporary -even in today's climate.
Comparisons?: "BEYOND THUNDERDOME" and "SUNDAY IN THE PARK".