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Pious Perverts See other Pious Perverts Articles Title: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Heartbreak Ridge’: The Most HOMOPHOBIC/HOMOEROTIC Film of All Time? Clint Eastwood’s ‘Heartbreak Ridge’: The Most HOMOPHOBIC/HOMOEROTIC Film of All Time? September 13, 2017 by Fred Shahadi Some movies age poorly and not necessarily because they’re bad. History and hindsight can turn the deepest drama into a comedy and vice/versa. It’s hard to believe today, but Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice was originally considered a comedy. As time goes on there are moral shifts that make their way into art and literature. And then there are some things that weren’t very funny the first time that are even more cringe worthy now. 1986 was the year Hollywood went to war, sort of. Three very different war films came out that year. Platoon showed us a gritty look at the Vietnam War that was a bona fide critical and commercial success winning many Oscars including Best Picture. Top Gun, went on to be one of the highest grossing films of all time, easily winning the year, while solidifying Tom Cruise as arguably the biggest movie star of his generation. The third film that year was Clint Eastwood’s Heartbreak Ridge. A film that gave us a homophobic look into scantily clad Marines saving the world during the dark days of Grenada. Heartbreak Ridge is about a screw up platoon of Marines led by crusty old rampant homophobe Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway played by Eastwood who also directs the movie. Highway is a throwback to a generation of soldier, that time, and the military, wants to forget. It is mentioned several times throughout the film that Highway’s way of doing things is over. But beneath the gruff exterior lies a man who cares deeply for his men and still holds a torch for his ex-wife played by Marsha Mason. We realize that despite his tactics he only desires to keep his men alive, and at the ready, should the call ever come, which it does. As far as movie plots go it’s a simple one: the guy every one thinks is a dinosaur proves them wrong and wins the day. It’s curious that Eastwood was already playing a guy “who was too old for this shit” 30 years ago. He would do it over and over in subsequent decades to great effect in movies like, Unforgiven, and Million Dollar Baby, both of which won the Oscar for Best Picture. Eastwood would go on to coin the quintessential old guy, often hash-tagged, mantra “Get off my lawn” in his film Gran Torino. Eastwood knows his wheelhouse well. So when Eastwood’s Highway storms onto the scene it’s safe to say his throwback attitude is that of a man with zero political correctness. Obviously one could easily say that’s the point of the film, however Eastwood’s Highway seems to go the extra mile when it comes to homophobia. As anyone from a military family will tell you, the word “faggot” was more than a casual term thrown around to during basic training. For Heartbreak Ridge “faggot” is merely foreplay. Heartbreak Ridge opens up with a “joke” about male anal rape, one of three direct references to the violent act as a means to power. The first scene in question begins inside a jail cell at the movies open where Eastwood’s Highway has been arrested for public drunkenness. He is literally telling a “war story” to a more than wide-eyed cellmate when large inmate informs him if he wants to rape the kid, he doesn’t need to “grease him so much.” Hilarious right? The large inmate is played very convincingly by late actor Nicholas Worth, who most Sci-fi fans will remember from Swamp Thing and Darkman. Worth, a power-lifting hulk of a man, had previously starred in a TV movie about male rape a year earlier (as one of the rapists) in the aptly titled, The Rape of Richard Beck. The obvious point of the scene is to show Highway can handle himself in a fight so why did we need the rape joke? Ok, so a prison inmate talks about rape in a prison, no big deal right? Perhaps, except the running theme of gay sex, especially forced, seems to permeate the entire film. Highway uses homophobic slurs at about the same rate Sam Jackson uses motherfu**ers. Highway’s homophobia isn’t just when he’s angry. Poster Comment: I don't know anything about this film being homophobic, but Eastwood played a great part. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
For some reason I never saw this movie. But the reviewer is full of BS.I just watched a couple of clips. Women don't like war movies. But women like to look at male hunks on film.
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