Current mood:	thoughtful
Entry tags:	gay, movies

"Who are you to tell people who to love?"
The basic queer essence of Calamity Jane, in pictures. 

Since watching Casablanca, I've had a yearning for old films, especially sexist old films.  I think it's quaint how mindless women were portrayed and handled and passed about in old movies.  I don't support that paradigm, mind you, and I'm not going to go into a Women's Studies analysis of it.  

No, the pleasure I derive from it is "haha, you wouldn't be able to get away with that today!" Anything like that, dated things in films delight me.  And I'd long been meaning to watch films from The Celluloid Closet.  And what do you know, Calamity Jane manages to both be rather sexist AND queer all in one! I loved it!

A cute butch-femme domestic montage ("A Woman's Touch") and the infamous "Secret Love" (wherein Jane returns to wearing pants and sings about a love she hid and now is free), and the dressing room scene where Jane pins Katie to a wall, eagerly offering to help her undress.  And astounded by her prettiness. 

It's a cute little musical aside from all of the camp, anyway.  I didn't find the Lieutenant character redeeming or interesting at all, which shocked me because I have a natural bias for pretty men types in tidy uniforms.  In fact, I would have been happy if he'd been written out of the story entirely.  Which would kill the story, admittedly, you'd have no one for Katie to marry except for Jane and Bill, and the west unfortunately wasn't so wild back then.  

I want to watch a lot of old movies.  I want to watch a Doris Day and Rock Hudson flick, but Pillow Talk doesn't look very interesting.  A very darling friend of mine has recommended I watch Double Indemnity.  

Deep down, I suppose I'm just a little wistful and sad.  And if I look back into an older, more innocent imaginary world, then maybe I'll find my own innocence looking forward.