Previous: Gemstones Episode 4.6, Continued: Cobb smashes, Corey lies, and Kelvin is traumatized for life. With Mongolian men and Jace's junk
Title: "For jealousy is the rage of a man," Proverbs 6:34, KJV.
Gay men of the era didn't mind that the hustlers have 100% female clients, while in real life 97% of their clients are closeted gay/bi men. They were used to being erased.
They didn't consider homophobic slurs a problem. You weren't allowed to mention gay people, even in slurs, before the 1960s, so in the 1970s and 1980s, most movie characters threw in a few "fags" and "fruits" to demonstrate that they were cool.
Nor did they get upset when the villain turned out to be gay: Julian's pimp (Bill Duke), whom he pushes out a window to his death. Straight people hated us; it was a given, a simple fact of life. You couldn't escape it, unless you managed to live and work in a gay neighborhood and avoid mainstream media altogether. The rest of us would hear homophobic jibes, slurs, scandals and jokes from family and friends, from coworkers, from random strangers on the bus, so what difference did a movie make? You got to see a dick on screen!
In an interview in Entertainment Weekly. Gere reveals that he took the part because Julian was so different from himself, into fashion and languages (which Gere was not), and with "a gay thing flirting through it," and he knew nothing about "that community." Good enough explanation, I guess.
WTF? This plot synopsis on wikipedia sounds like a completely different movie! There are like a dozen nasty surprises, any one of which would have me "noping" out of there.
Zachary Quinto stars as "family man" Gary. I've seen Zachary Quinto in Star Trek, American Horror Story, and The Boys in the Band. Something about his smug, weasly expression grates on my nerves. Nope #1
He's not on the downlow at all. He is dying of a brain tumor. Nope #2: no movies about people who are dying of incurable diseases. Why would anyone ever want to see a movie like that? How could anyone stand to act in it? Or write the script?
When he discovers that he is dying, Gary decides to come out, whereupon his wife dumps him. Not a nope, but really homophobic of the lady to dump him just because he's gay.
Due to plot complications, the Necrophiliac can't do his job until the next day, so they spend the night mopping up the blood and smoking crack. Nope #5: amoral major characters aren't a major "nope," but if I'm already annoyed from watching Zachary Quinto...
By that time, the Corpse has come back to life and is trying to get away. The necrophiliac kills him again, and then Gary and the Hustler kill the Necrophiliac. Nopes #6-7: too many people killing each other too eagerly. This is definitely not a comedy.
Then they have sex with each other. You could have just done that at the start, and avoided the multiple murders.
Later, after Gary dies, the Hustler shows up at his funeral, yells at the ex-wife and the church that abandoned him when he came out, and steals the body. He dumps it in the lake, which he thinks is a better memorial. Nope #8: portraying gay people as perpetual outsiders, rejected by church and family. Not really a nope, but way homophobic.
Moral: Always read more than one plot synopsis or watch more than one trailer. They often make completely contradictory claims. Remember when Road to Terabinthia was advertised as a fantasy like Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia? It's about a girl who is dying.
Down Low is not about a guy in the downlow. It's about a guy who is dying.
Bonus bulge and dick pics after the break. Warning: explicit.