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.
3. Taxi zum Klo (1980)
Reminiscent of the much less sexually explicit British film Nighthawks that was released two years earlier, this feature with documentary overtones was directed by, stars and is based on the life of Germany's Frank Ripploh.
To say that sex is an important theme in Taxi is an understatement; Taxi is the story of a German schoolteacher's sexual odyssey in pre-AIDS gay West Berlin. It opens with Ripploh settling into the local public restroom to grade papers and take advantage of a few strategically placed glory holes, and moves on to him meeting and moving in with his lover. His character is so sexually compulsive that, while in the hospital, he tucks his hospital gown into his jeans and takes a taxi to a well-known cruising area.
Hotness: 9
Romance: 3
Significance: 8
2. Making Love (1982)
Given the name, there surprisingly little love-making, but this was the first major Hollywood film about gay men, and probably Brokeback Mountain's most direct precursor as far as audiences outside of the cities are concerned.
While the sex was of the "fade to black" variety, the two lovers (played by Michael Onktean and Harry Hamlin) were shown undressing each other and in bed together, and it was established that Ontkean's character tricked with a man his wife (Kate Jackson) meets while trying to understand his secret life.
This film was greeted with boos, hisses and laughter at many theaters — so much so that the filmmaker reportedly walked out of one showing. Both Onktean and Hamlin later said that playing the roles harmed their careers, and the film did poorly at the box office. Still, at the time it was made there had never been anything like it, and it was years before there was again.
Hotness: 2
Romance: 6
Significance: 10
1. Querelle (1982)
It's hard to believe this strange and graphic film came out the same year as Making Love, but nothing more clearly underscores the difference between American and European attitudes toward gay male sexuality in film than that fact.
The last film of late gay filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and based on the novel by gay French author Jean Genet, Querelle starred Brad Davis as a French sailor drawn into a life of homosexuality and crime.
The film is highly stylized, completely unrealistic in its execution, and definitely not for everyone. It does contain graphic sex, and is, if nothing else, a tribute to the power of male beauty and eroticism.
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| Brad Davis in Querelle |
Romance: 1
Significance: 7
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