idoljack

For some inexplicable reason this movie pitched up on TCM. Thought Id seen everything this somewhat tired channel has to offer... I couldn't stop watching. The movie seethes with subliminal and explicit homo erotic content in a way that I think was a ahead of its time. The black and white photography is very moody and the performances command attention. The influence of Italian neo-realism is very present. It has that distinctive style of some 50s drama, where the scenes develop without much explanation moving the story forward. When the young gangster arrives on the island you know something is going on, without having been given all the usual clues you find in American movies.

There's rum, there's the lash - but where is the sodomy?! Master and Commander is a great rollicking movie - but there is an emptiness at its heart. A bunch of men cooped up in a tiny space for months or years at a time - and no sex of any kind? No relationships - whether `bad' or `good'? The result is that where the emotional centre of the movie should have been there is instead a parade of not very well acted sea shanties and drunken dinners. Weir sprinkles black faces amongst the cast - they do nothing. The way science and racism were intertwined is ignored. I don't believe that Weir could have been unaware of the relationship between enlightenment science, homophobia, racism and the frequency of homosexual relationships at sea. Weir has sailed around what should have been the heart of the movie. A great missed opportunity.