LCC
PN1995.H55
Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York : Harper & Row, ©1987.
Description
Praised by the Chicago Tribune as "an impressive study" and written with incisive wit and searing perception--the definitive, highly acclaimed landmark work on the portrayal of homosexuality in film.
User reviews
LibraryThing member richardderus
A groundbreaking revelation when it came out almost 30 years ago, this book, as revised by its author in 1987, is very dated; and it's never been my idea of a prose paradigm.
I admit I was going down the primrose path of nostalgia when I decided to read this revised edition. I'd read the first
*snort*
But I did learn a lot, and it's always useful to do so. I wasn't aware that queer subtexts in Hollywood movies were the prime motivating factor for the introduction of the Production Code. I wasn't aware that the hoi polloi didn't know some of its major heartthrobs only throbbed for their own kind (Rock, of course, but Farley Granger, Randolph Scott, Burt Lancaster, ye gods what fun it would have been to be there then!!)...but I've known all that for a long time now, and I found it dreary to go back and read the uninspired prose of the late Mr. Russo without the sense of discovery and amazement I brought to it the first time.
You can't go home again. I suppose one shouldn't want to, either, but the urge hits once in a way, less and less often as the years pile up. I expect I'll stub my toe on this rock again. I'd say, if you're an average straight person, this book could be informative and possibly even interesting if you like the movies a lot. But it sure won't be entertaining.
I admit I was going down the primrose path of nostalgia when I decided to read this revised edition. I'd read the first
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edition as an eager young slut-about-town, yearning to impress the Older Men (25! 30! Oh, those old roues!) I was seducing in job lots with my encyclopedic knowledge of their old-fashioned world.*snort*
But I did learn a lot, and it's always useful to do so. I wasn't aware that queer subtexts in Hollywood movies were the prime motivating factor for the introduction of the Production Code. I wasn't aware that the hoi polloi didn't know some of its major heartthrobs only throbbed for their own kind (Rock, of course, but Farley Granger, Randolph Scott, Burt Lancaster, ye gods what fun it would have been to be there then!!)...but I've known all that for a long time now, and I found it dreary to go back and read the uninspired prose of the late Mr. Russo without the sense of discovery and amazement I brought to it the first time.
You can't go home again. I suppose one shouldn't want to, either, but the urge hits once in a way, less and less often as the years pile up. I expect I'll stub my toe on this rock again. I'd say, if you're an average straight person, this book could be informative and possibly even interesting if you like the movies a lot. But it sure won't be entertaining.
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LibraryThing member whirled
A comprehensive and thoroughly absorbing history of (primarily American) queer folks on film. The feature-length documentary of the same name was quite faithful to Vito Russo's work, but returning to the source is worthwhile for film history buffs of all persuasions. As a woman, I also appreciated
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that lesbians on film were well integrated into Russo's narrative, and that he included quite a bit of valid analysis about the connection between homophobia and misogyny onscreen. A master work. Show Less
LibraryThing member thedefinitefraggle
Excellent book about the depiction of GLBT characters in movies from the silents to around the '80s. The book and the film complement each other well, the book with a little more depth and the film with a little more breadth.
LibraryThing member MiaCulpa
A rather dated review on LGBTQI in the cinema but Russo's critique of how the film business had, at the time of publication, not portrayed a non-cis person favourably. The situation has changed somewhat in the decades hence but no doubt there remains room for improvement.
Sadly, Mr Russo's death
Sadly, Mr Russo's death
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means the update won't be by him. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Stonewall Book Award (Winner — 1982)
Language
Original publication date
1981
Physical description
xii, 368 p.; 24 inches
ISBN
0060961325 / 9780060961329