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NickMat25
Reviews
Ode to Billy Joe (1976)
Some incorrect conclusions by other viewer commentators
After watching this film on CMT recently, having not seen the film since I was a young man in the '70s, I was impressed by the fact that the filmmaker had definitely captured a time and an attitude prevalent in the South. Unfortnetely, we are still struggling against anti-gay sentiment in the USA (read ex-gay ministries and conversion therapy). We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go when it pertains to normal human sexuality. And the commentators that indignantly insist that Billy Joe was raped-- I suggest that they watch the whole film in it's entirety (thanks CMT for not cutting out the scene where Robby Benson--the Billy Joe character --admits to Bobby Lee that he willingly had sex with the man). A very sad and evocative film dealing with very real issues of homophobia, denial, hypocrisy and intolerance!
Troy (2004)
A Heterosexualized, Trivialized Adaptation of a great Epic, Very Disappointing
Many scenes are dripping with heterosexist imagery (dost we protest too much!); I take it the film-maker was very afraid of the homophobia that ultimately would do-in Stone's "Alexander". It is so sad that American film-makers are so afraid of dealing with historical homosexual characters that they are completely obliterated from Homer's story.
The first scene in the film of the great civilization of Sparta is filled with women doing sexy dances and men making toasts to women in their beds!! This is completely laughable considering Sparta was an almost exclusively homosocial society!
Much of the beauty of Homer's poem comes from not only the beauty of Helen and her lover, but also the beauty of male love and comradeship amongst the warriors, which was a very large component of Greek society.
Achilles was, in fact bisexual, and his so-called "cousin" Patroclus, was really his male lover! Their relationship is not even hinted in this movie! I only have to add that Brad Pitt is very talented and deserves better material, and of course, he is beautiful to watch! The costumes were sexy too!