Description
"Screened Out" is a book by Richard Barrios that explores the representation of gay and lesbian individuals in American cinema from the early 1900s to present day. The author delves into the ways in which Hollywood has portrayed and shaped the perception of the LGBTQ+ community through iconic and often controversial characters. Using a variety of sources such as studio records, scripts, and reviews, Barrios presents a comprehensive analysis of the messages and themes conveyed through these depictions. The book challenges the notion of progress in both the film industry and society as a whole, and highlights the impact that these portrayals have had on viewers. Overall, "Screened Out" offers a thought-provoking and entertaining examination of the role of gays and lesbians in the history of American cinema.
Rapacious dykes, self-loathing closet cases, hustlers, ambiguous sophisticates, and sadomasochistic rich kids: most of what America thought it knew about gay people it learned at the movies. A fresh and revelatory look at sexuality in the Great Age of movie making,
Screened Out shows how much gay and lesbian lives have shaped the Big Screen. Spanning popular American cinema from the 1900s until today, distinguished film historian Richard Barrios presents a rich, compulsively readable analysis of how Hollywood has used and depicted gays and the mixed signals it has given us: Marlene in a top hat, Cary Grant in a negligee, a pansy cowboy in
The Dude Wrangler. Such iconoclastic images, Barrios argues, send powerful messages about tragedy and obsession, but also about freedom and compassion, even empowerment. Mining studio records, scripts, drafts (including cut scenes), censor notes, reviews, and recollections of viewers, Barrios paints our fullest picture yet of how gays and lesbians were portrayed by the dream factory, warning that we shouldn't congratulate ourselves quite so much on the progress movies - and the real world -- have made since Stonewall. Captivating, myth-breaking, and funny,
Screened Out is for all film aficionados and for anyone who has sat in a dark movie theater and drawn strength and a sense of identity from what they saw on screen, no matter how fleeting or coded.
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