It’s your movie for a mid-winter’s afternoon: A Very Natural Thing. From the YouTube description:
An important film in the history of American gay filmmaking, “A Very Natural Thing” is considered the first feature film on the gay experience made by an out gay man to receive commercial distribution. The insightful story follows a 26-year-old man, Jason, as he leaves the priesthood and moves to New York City in the hopes of finding a meaningful gay relationship.
Of course, preceding it were the icky Boys in the Band (1970), Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971) (which was co-produced by MGM, and dealt with the issue of homosexuality in prison), as well as Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), and Cabaret (1972) – but A Very Natural Thing was something altogether different. A Cinequeer points out, it was “one of the first positive American films about homosexuality. Aside from offering a groundbreaking story about two men struggling to maintain a relationship, it also documents, for posterity, a period of pre-AIDS gay liberation that is but a hazy recollection now for an entire generation.” Captured in all their gritty glory are ’70s gay discos, historic bathhouses, Fire Island orgies, and even one of the first Gay Pride parades. Pretty cool stuff.
From Cinequeer:
Even though the film screams 1970s, A Very Natural Thing (originally titled For As Long As Possible) is surprisingly unapologetic for its day. Both men, though closeted in their jobs, are not having self loathing coming out issues like most of the cast of 1970’s The Boys In The Band. … Though tame by today’s standards, A Very Natural Thing was quite a gutsy film. There is full frontal nudity, kissing, and a few sex scenes. I loved a throwaway moment where they buy a tube of KY Jelly and the pharmacist gives them a dirty look. The orgy and the trip to the baths are explicit for 1974 but not quite porn. (Gay porn already existed at this point, Wakefield Poole’s 1971 The Boys In The Sand is the most famous example.) Audiences were not used to seeing men being romantic together on the screen and these guys enjoy many intimate moments…
A Very Natural Thing, was savaged by the few mainstream critics who bothered to review it. The film was dismissed as a gay version of 1970’s Love Story and mocked for recycling the same standard Hollywood romance cliches….
The film was similarly dismissed by much of its target audience. We were in the throes of a sexual revolution in the early 70s and hip gay men who wanted sexual liberation found David’s quest for romantic love and monogamy to be outdated and square….
Gay films were a rarity in 1974 and director Larkin, knowing that his film was a milestone of sorts, threw everything but the kitchen sink into his opus. Some of his elements are disruptive to the narrative but remain important as documentary…
For all its good intentions, A Very Natural Thing will be remembered more as a political act than as a polished work of classic cinema. The cinematography is, at best, adequate. It is often too dark (especially the scene at the baths, though some of this may be attributed to the film’s age and the lack of restoration). Some of the dialogue is a tad stiff too. Modern audiences will need to forgive a few shortcomings but there is also much to savor. As noted earlier, the film documents a bygone age..
In closing, the execution might not always live up to the director’s ambitions but A Very Natural Thing remains a very important title in the queer cinema canon; a trailblazer that set the stage for many films to come.
Watch it in its entirety below. Or at least just watch the kick-ass ’70s gay disco scene in the beginning where they meet.
(via SissyDude)
The post Flashback 1974: Watch the First Big Gay Movie “A Very Natural Thing” appeared first on World of Wonder.