GOING FOR 'BROKEBACK' WILL A WIN FOR ANG LEE'S FILM MEAN GAYS HAVE FINALLY GAINED HOLLYWOOD ACCEPTANCE?

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Since the start of movie awards season nearly three months ago, the gay Western ``Brokeback Mountain'' has been the leading contender for the best picture Academy Award. Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of the effeminate writer in the biopic ``Capote'' has been the presumptive best actor winner for almost as long. And if anyone is going to beat Reese Witherspoon for the best actress Oscar, it'll be Felicity Huffman, who plays a transsexual man one operation away from becoming a woman in ``Transamerica.''

All of which has led both gay-rights supporters and conservative cultural critics to declare tonight's 78th annual Academy Awards the queerest Oscars ever.

They're right.

But does the ascendance of gay-theme pictures and roles at the Hollywood establishment's biggest public ceremony indicate that - after taking decades to acknowledge that African-Americans, Jews and other minorities were as worthy of honest screen treatment as any other group of people - the mainstream film industry is ready to give the same kind of respect to gays?

``We are visible in a way that we've never been visible before,'' says Damon Romine, entertainment media director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. `` 'Brokeback Mountain's' success - both critically and with audiences - creates an atmosphere of acceptance for movies in which gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters are shown.

``In essence, these are all independently produced, low-budget films,'' continues Romine, who adds that other Oscar-nominated films such as ``Mrs. Henderson Presents'' and ``The Constant Gardener'' include positive portrayals of homosexual characters. ``And I think what these films in particular have shown to the Hollywood establishment is that films that are inclusive are marketable.''

True, but how marketable? With more than $75 million from North American box-office receipts and counting, ``Brokeback'' is far and away the biggest moneymaker of this year's gay Oscar nominees. Part of that was achieved, some gay-film observers feel, by making and marketing the film to straight audiences.

``It's not like it was written by somebody with any sense of what goes on in gay life, be it rural or urban,'' says David Ehrenstein, author of the book ``Open Secret: Gay Hollywood, 1928-2000,'' of the E. Annie Proulx-written short story that was the basis for ``Brokeback.'' ``I just didn't buy it. But the thing about it that's a surprise for some people is the idea of this being a serious relationship that the film takes seriously.''

Ehrenstein found such films as ``Mysterious Skin'' and ``The Dying Gaul'' more authentic last year, but acknowledges that their much stronger homosexual content limited their audience - and their appeal to Oscar voters.

On the other hand, what's so wrong with a gay love story designed to attract nervous heterosexual viewers, such as ``Brokeback Mountain''?

``For a straight audience that probably has never or very rarely thought about what it means to be gay in a straight society, the movie depicts that very well,'' says Harry Benshoff, a University of North Texas media professor and editor and writer of several gay film studies books. ``But the main reason why it's gotten a lot of acclaim is that it's a really great film! There have certainly been other gay films that may not have had as big stars or been directed or written as well as this, but that's partly what's been promoting or pushing this.''

Past winners

While over the past 20 years, the idea of homosexuality has become more acceptable to academy voters, no major Oscar nominees or winners during that period have actually depicted gay men having sex, as ``Brokeback'' does. It's implied in the 1985 movie ``Kiss of the Spider Woman,'' for which William Hurt won the first best actor award for a gay role. When Tom Hanks won for portraying ``Philadelphia's'' AIDS victim eight years later, the character's longtime companion, played by Antonio Banderas, wasn't permitted to so much as kiss him. Providing some kind of proof that the more things change, Hollywood remains a bastion of double standards, same-sex scenes have not prevented actresses such as ``Monster's'' Charlize Theron and ``Boys Don't Cry's'' Hilary Swank from going home with a little naked golden man holding a sword.

That description of Oscar, by the way, was coined by Dustin Hoffman, who appeared in the only best-picture-winning movie that's depicted gay male sex up until now, 1969's X-rated ``Midnight Cowboy,'' (although that film's central relationship between Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo and Jon Voight's Joe Buck was platonic). Two years later, ``Cowboy's'' gay director, John Schlesinger, made ``Sunday Bloody Sunday,'' earning himself another directing nomination and his lead actor, Peter Finch, one for playing an openly bisexual character.

``You don't really get the gauntlet thrown down until 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' which is still ahead of its time,'' Ehrenstein notes. ``You do not see serious movies about mature adults like this who loved and lost and would love and lose again. Boy, did it get to places.''

Since the early '70s, such movies with gay elements as ``Cabaret,'' ``The Color Purple,'' ``Silkwood,'' ``The Dresser,'' ``Longtime Companion,'' `The Crying Game'' and ``Mulholland Drive'' have figured in high-profile Oscar races.

Before that, though - and except for the indie film sector, often after that as far as mainstream Hollywood was concerned - gays were depicted in films as either swishy comic relief or psychos. Character actor Franklin Pangborn made a career out of using effeminate mannerisms during the studios' golden age, and Mel Brooks was still getting cheap laughs from the stereotype in the original ``The Producers'' in 1968. As for sickos, Alfred Hitchcock had ``Psycho,'' and made ``Rope'' with a predominantly queer cast and above-the-line crew in a movie that was based on real-life gay thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb. Then there were any number of Lillian Hellman and Tennessee Williams plays made into films.

To this day, Gore Vidal, who was forced to take explicit gay references out of his screenplay for Williams' ``Suddenly, Last Summer,'' insists that he sneaked romantic references into the Judah-Messala relationship in 1959 in all-time Oscar champ ``Ben-Hur.'' For his part, Charlton Heston argued for as long as he could that, no, he definitely was not the first best actor winner who played a homosexual.

During this period, of course, a number of actors rumored in Hollywood circles to be gay or bisexual were nominated for playing straight roles. Some, such as Charles Laughton and Laurence Olivier, even won. Still, much as the movies of their era denied the very existence of homosexuality (Olivier's come-on to Tony Curtis in the 1960 ``Spartacus'' wasn't seen until the film's 1991 re-release), generations of gay actors, ranging in status and ability from Montgomery Clift to Rock Hudson to Troy Donahue, went to various lengths to keep their orientation from the public.

For actors, at least, ``Brokeback Mountain'' is probably not going to change that.

Gay Hollywood

``It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality,'' Ian McKellen, one of the few out gays who's been nominated for playing a gay character (``Frankenstein'' director James Whale, in 1999's ``Gods and Monsters''), recently said at the Berlin Film Festival. Though the ``X-Men'' and ``Lord of the Rings'' franchises have made McKellen a bigger star than before he publicly acknowledged his sexuality in 1988, he concedes that his age, 66, makes it much less of an issue.

``My own career in mainstream films really took off once I'd come out and said I was gay,'' McKellen notes. ``And that's the way it should be, because Heath Ledger isn't gay nor am I straight and yet I can play straight parts and he can successfully play gay men. It'll fade away eventually.''

It certainly has behind the cameras, where any number of gay craftspeople such as Whale (and his Oscar-winning directing contemporary, George Cukor) have prospered while leading relatively open lifestyles. In recent times, we've seen gay filmmakers such as Todd Haynes (``Far From Heaven'') and Gus Van Sant (``Good Will Hunting'') successfully move from the indie ranks into Oscar's spotlight, and gay theater director Rob Marshall nab the best picture award for ``Chicago.''

Even if ``Brokeback Mountain'' somehow fails to win tonight's big prize, expect acceptance and inclusion to continue advancing in Hollywood - although not at the rapid pace some would hope - and others fear - that this year's Oscar nominations might indicate.

``We're not to that point - I don't think it's going to be in our lifetime - where Hollywood films will feature gay love stories as part of their everyday thing,'' academic Benshoff says. ``They still have big trouble with interracial relationships. 'Brokeback' is a step in the right direction. But no one film is gonna be, 'Ta-da. Now we've got equality.' ''

``All of our progress is incremental,'' GLAAD's Romine concludes. ``The visibility that we are experiencing now around these films will help across the board, whether it be actors feeling comfortable in coming out or your co-worker in Middle America feeling comfortable about coming out.

``There is growing acceptance that is mirrored by the reception of these films. It feels like it's getting better, but I know that we still have a long way to go.''

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- cover -- color) OSCAR'S COMING-OUT PARTY

Gay themes have new visibility with record number of nominations

A.M.P.A.S.

(3) Tom Hanks

``Philadelphia''

(4) Philip Seymour Hoffman 

``Capote''

(5) Felicity Huffman

``Transamerica''

(6) William Hurt

``Kiss of the Spider Woman''

(7) Dustin Hoffman

Jon Voight

``Midnight Cowboy''

(8) Chritina Ricci

Charlize Theron

``Monster''

(9) no caption (Oscar statues)