Once upon a time, there were no gay and lesbian sections in the video stores, no queer film festivals, no debates over whether or not showing gay men having sex was good for the gay community's image. There were definitely no major theatrical releases of big-budget films in which gay men had sex, and certainly no one ever dreamed a film like that could ever be nominated for an Oscar.
Here, AfterElton.com takes a look back at the most important and groundbreaking gay male sex scenes in films. These are films that for the most part had a major American theatrical release, even if it was of limited scope, with a few groundbreaking foreign, art house and GLBT film festival movies included as well. These criteria are admittedly somewhat subjective, so if you feel we've missed a film that broke new ground with its use of sex between men, let us know.
30. Another Country (1984)
The two lovers at the center of this lyrical and ultimately unsettling film are not shown in an explicit sex scene. Instead, their own delicately constructed romance is interwoven with the discovery of a sexual encounter between two other boys at the same British boarding school in the 1930s, and its aftermath.
Rupert Everett (left) and Cary Elwes
Hotness: 3
Romance: 10
Significance: 10
29. Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
This Brazilian/American co-production, directed by Hector Babenco, is based on the Manuel Puig novel. It tells the story of Valentin Arregui, a political prisoner played by Raul Julia, and his cellmate, Luis Molina, a gay man played by William Hurt. Hurt won the Academy Award for best actor that year, and the film itself was nominated for best film, best director, and more.
Raul Julia (left) and William Hurt
Hotness: 2
Romance: 5
Significance: 9
28. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Laundrette was released in New York City the same weekend that Merchant-Ivory's A Room With a View premiered. Both films were British and starred Daniel Day-Lewis, playing roles so opposite each other that it was almost impossible to believe one actor played them both.
In Laundrette, Day-Lewis plays a working class British punk named Johnny who pairs up with Omar, his lover from their teenage years, in opening a laundrette with stolen money. The film, directed by Stephen Frears, opens with a fairly straightforward story about Omar, the Pakistani-born son of an alcoholic journalist. He's struggling to make his way and find his identity inside his extended family and his adopted country.
Hotness: 8
Romance: 9
Significance: 8
27. Buddies (1985)
This film somewhat defies the criterion used for this overview, because it had only the most limited gay film festival release. But its significance is enormous: This is the first feature film about AIDS. It includes a scene in which a hospitalized, dying man and his volunteer "AIDS buddy" have a very simple sexual encounter. It was amazing in what it said about the power of touch at a time when the idea of touching someone with AIDS, especially sexually, was very controversial.
Although other films, such as Parting Glances, Longtime Companion and even the sexually sterile Philadelphia, have endured the test of time much better than Buddies, it was undeniably groundbreaking. It was written and directed by Arthur Bressan Jr., who died of AIDS two years later.
Hotness: 2 Romance: 2 Significance: 10
26. Parting Glances (1986)
Parting Glances came out the year after Buddies, and also took on the theme of AIDS in the gay community. It was directed by Bill Sherwood, who died of AIDS in 1990, and starred Steve Buscemi in his first film role.
The story centers around Michael (Richard Ganoung), whose current lover, Robert (John Bolger), is about to leave the country to work in Africa for a year, and whose former lover and best friend, Nick (Buscemi), has AIDS. It's set in a Manhattan of witty banter and unconventional relationships, and while the sex in this film is minimal, it is used effectively to showcase the disconnection between Michael and Robert, and contrast it with the emotional intensity of the connection between Michael and Nick.
Steve Buscemi (left) and Richard Ganoung
Unlike Buddies, Parting Glances has aged beautifully, and is particularly successful in its underlying assumption that gay people and our experiences — including our sexual experiences — are a fully integrated part of the world and of life, love, and loss.
Hotness: 3 Romance: 10 Significance: 10
25. Maurice (1987)
Based on the novel by gay author E.M. Forster, the nature of sex between men is at the very heart of the story.
Maurice's first love is schoolmate Clive Durham, played by Hugh Grant. Clive confesses his love to Maurice, who rejects him, only to admit his love later on. The two kiss passionately, but during an idyllic country picnic, Clive convinces Maurice that their relationship would reach its highest levels of honor only if it remained platonic.
James Wilby (left) & Rupert Graves in Maurice
While visiting Clive and his wife in the country one weekend, Maurice meets and has sex with the new groundskeeper, Alec Scudder (Rupert Graves), after Alec climbs in his bedroom window in the middle of the night. It is apparently Maurice's first sexual experience, and it changes his life. The lovers have two more sexual encounters in the film, one in a boathouse and the other in a London hotel, before parting, supposedly for life. There is a probably unrealistic happy ending, however, and the two spend one last night at the boathouse before embarking on a life together.
Maurice is notable both as a novel and as a film for being about not just homosexuality as an identity but specifically about sex between men as an act of personal expression and even liberation.
Hotness: 7
Romance: 10
Significance: 7
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