I've written to them about the fact that they misidentified the scene in which Daniel Day Lewis appears in "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Even more important -- no mention of "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train."

Where is "The Ritz" or "Love, Valor and Compassion" ? shame on the panel

Is it really that easy to pick top gay movies? Is it not like trying to pick a favorite child? As a gay man, it is difficult, especially since until recently, there have been very few truly “gay” movies. There have been gay characters slipped into mainstream films, but “gay” movies still have this cloud over them that you watch them a quarter at a time.

What is a “gay” movie? Is it the slapstick comedy rip-off of “American Pie” (Another Gay Movie)? Is it a genuine effort empathetic to gay life or is it a movie all gays rush to see? Are the movies grandstanding gay rights and throwing homosexuality into the audience’s face with little or no subtext and reason? Gay themes perpetuate the stereotypes from which we try to emerge. Gay movies often teeter on soft porn, further tunneling the vision of society as the norm to see us as over-sexed, often perverted deviants. If I am too bold in my assumption, that vision is far from being true as most of us probably know very few people who exhibit the typical gay boy or lesbian girl portrayed in “gay” films. Perhaps one should make a movie about people who happen to be gay rather than making a movie intent on making gay a subject. It is those movies that I feel are the best in “gay cinema” if such a label need be formulated.

Thankfully, there have been ballsy producers and directors willing to take a gamble and deliver extraordinary movies in which being gay was not the main topic but a trait that made the characters more developed and believable…more charismatic as real people. Of course there are enjoyable “gay” flicks, but the best transcend above such a theme.

My most favorite “gay movie"? "Torch Song Trilogy” by the inimitable Harvey Fierstein. Of course there is the stereotype gay, the flamboyant cross-dressing main character, the confused claiming-to-be-straight man, campy dialogue…but above that there is a chain linking the vignettes together, and that chain is true human emotion everyone of us have lived at some time in our lives. The stereotypes are character traits pure and simple…just like being Italian was to “Rocky”; neither are the main reasons to the stories they tell. In “Torch” (as I will refer) the story is love…the story is finding who we are as a person…and the story is how we as people can mix all the trouble and happiness of life in to a situation we can live with and within which find our own solidarity, how from the valleys we find out who we are and once on the peak we find out who we can be (to quote the great words from Mary J. Blige’s Grammy acceptance speech…go girl!). Show me a straight person who ain’t moved by the film and I’ll show you’s a person who ain’t gonna find good in anything! Harvey is amazing and a credit to all of humanity, and the work he does becomes indelible to all of society. I love you Fierstein!

Another movie termed “gay”? Hmmmm…might one agree that “Philadelphia” is a “gay” movie? It deals with a topic unfortunately shared by millions of people who are as far from being homosexual as one can get. But in this superb film, the fact of the main character being gay is hidden beneath the true grit of the story. It wasn’t a film damning gay people, in fact it came through as a story condemning mainstream society for their prejudicial views upon a person suffering from a disease few understand. When the “gay” stereotypes were depicted or discussed, (flash backs to the main character soliciting sex in a pornographic theatre or scenes where fleshy middle-aged men volley dull locker room “gay” jokes) those scenes did nothing to perpetuate “gay” intolerance. In fact. he truth is that such typical prejudicial practices emerged as society’s Achilles heel; the arrows they shot to bring down the main character in turn became their own demise. “Gay” was matter-of-fact for the character; the power being the plight he…a family-loving, highly intellectual and revered man and friend…was forced to endure as a “human”.

While not a well-known film and totally on the other end of the gamut to “Torch Song Trilogy” and “Philadelphia”, “Unconditional Love” is another movie in which supporting characters are “gay”. Rupert Everett (incredible) and Kathy Bates star in the film in which the strength of a gay love partnership helps a straight couple learn the true meaning of love …to love the person…to love without condition. Comical to a point, the plot involves a Tom-Jones-Engelbert-Humperdink-Elvis-Presley genre singer, adored by women the world over, is killed by a wayward serial killer. Bates (a typical devoted wife) is subjected to divorce when her husband, Dan Akroyd, feels the need to emerge from a conservative mold to find some element of danger to give his life meaning. Wanting desperately to attend an exclusive taping of the main character’s singing appearance, she misses out on winning a ticket to the event. Luck prevails and a customer service agent mails her one extra ticket, but when she gets to the studio she learns of the singer’s murder. Intent herself on facing danger to prove her worth to her husband, Bates travels to England to attend the singer’s funeral where she meets his “valet” (Everett) who reveals he had actually been the singer’s life partner for ten years. Together they embark on proving Everett’s rights to the estate as promised by the singer. Farcical, to an acceptable level, the overlying story deals with finding oneself amidst the turmoil of life and society. There are moments that deal with certain “gay” stereotypes: cross-dressing, philandering…”perversions of the worst kind” to quote a line from the movie. However, the end of the film triumphs at finding out that we are individuals…again “gay” being matter-of-fact.

Number four…(I’m finding there are so many now that I have time to sit and think: “Another Country” with Rupert Everett again as charming as ever comes to mind). Well…I guess I should go for it despite the subject having been beaten into the ground by media and critics alike. “Brokeback Mountain” is the “gay” movie du jour. As a gay man, I found this film to be as far from a “gay” movie as William Hung is to being a serious artist. Infamy brought them both falsely to the limelight, but with “Brokeback Mountain” there is an indisputable value that would have garnered it the same success had it been touted simply as an example of superb cinematography and direction…not to mention amazing storyline. Plain and simple, had the movie been made where a cowboy meets ranch owner’s daughter, the underlying story of love would have still been remarkably told and adapted to screen. Being that the characters were both men…cowboys at that…gave the film the initial notoriety it had to suffer. Exceptional storyline and unparalleled direction aside, the media’s bastardization of the fact that two men fell in love brought people to the theater, and to Ang Lee’s success, both gay and straight were touched by the human sentiments prevailing throughout the film. Those in areas where the film was black-listed suffered at having been excluded. I, myself, felt my rights were removed when only two theaters in the area showed the film. Well thanks to the theater guilds that acclaimed the film for its true worth, many more people were ale to see the movie and make their own assessment. Thankfully the theaters banning the product lost out on positive revenue.

So there’s four movies termed “gay” that I find to be remarkable if not simply fun films. As for a fifth, I can’t decide without going into six, seven, eight…twenty. As a minority ourselves, terming things “gay” or “lesbian” keeps us trapped in the backrooms and dark clubs hidden in the decaying parts of the big cities. We are people…black or white…gay or straight. Let films speak for themselves and keep “gay” or “lesbian” out of the picture. Let the characters be who they are and the messages in the films will become more powerful; hopefully, our own lives will continue to give more meaning to all of society. Don’t label a film “gay” or “lesbian” and hinder it being viewed for the work of art it is intended to be. Enjoy the films for what they are…works of art fashioned from painstaking hours of thought, each testaments to unique talents from directing, to editing, costuming and acting. If the story tells a tale of men loving men or women loving women, a gay man fighting for his own rights or a lesbian mother trying to raise a child on her own, look deeper to the plot and realize each character is a person. Who they love is not as important as the depth of the love they offer, and what they fight for is not as powerful as the heights of what they achieve in the end. If we stop labeling our efforts, not the least ourselves, maybe the rest of the world will stop labeling us.