Has ANY high-profile movie had a gay protagonist?

[Jeivar]

I did a little thinking exercise, trying to list notable movies with a gay/lesbian protagonist, and I came up basically empty. There's Bound, by the Wachowski's, but I wouldn't call that a major picture.

Do I just not watch enough movies? What are the most well-known movies you can think of with a gay main character?

[Lethologica]

The Imitation Game, for one.

[Aedilred]

Brokeback Mountain is the obvious one. Milk, of course. Rocky Horror's profile is debatable but it's now firmly a cult classic and most of its characters are non-straight one way or another. Multiple characters in The History Boys, which received fairly wide press in the UK at least. Midnight Cowboy is ambiguous, but Joe is probably bisexual. That's off the top of my head, but there are almost certainly more.

So the answer to your question is yes, although it is probable that they're under-represented even with a cut-off to account for changes in social attitudes.

[BannedInSchool]

IIRC, Tom Hanks in Philadelphia was gay, although it was mostly about him having AIDS, and that was a notable movie in its day.

[Bulldog Psion]

You could probably argue somewhat for the Matrix films, even if they nominally aren't. It's doesn't take much imagination to interpret Trinity as a guy. In fact, I've always sort of thought that it was supposed to be a gay relationship, slightly camouflaged as a heterosexual one due to the era when the movie was made.

[Traab]

Birdcage might count, it was a film with a lot of fairly big names in it.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Shawshank Redemption?

[Cristo Meyers]

Shawshank Redemption?

That's a way of looking at the film that I've never heard

Not saying I disagree, but I've just never heard anyone put forward that angle.

--

I think a better question might be: has any high-profile movie had a gay protagonist where the movie wasn't somehow about them being gay. The good folks here have mentioned quite a few movies, but most of them seem to be actually about them being homosexual which seems kinda pigeon-holing.

[Traab]

That's a way of looking at the film that I've never heard

Not saying I disagree, but I've just never heard anyone put forward that angle.

--

I think a better question might be: has any high-profile movie had a gay protagonist where the movie wasn't somehow about them being gay. The good folks here have mentioned quite a few movies, but most of them seem to be actually about them being homosexual which seems kinda pigeon-holing.

Harry Potter. Dumbles counts as a protag right? :p

[BannedInSchool]

Harry Potter. Dumbles counts as a protag right? :p

I was going to reference that in saying I think it may be harder to recall characters in movies where their gayness was no part of the story. If you ask me to try to think of characters who were medical doctors but that wasn't important I'd have to really be a fan of the movie to remember that, I think. Doctor Richard Kimble, no problem. Someone who just mentions being on call or something? Ehh....

[LokeyITP]

I think a better question might be: has any high-profile movie had a gay protagonist where the movie wasn't somehow about them being gay. The good folks here have mentioned quite a few movies, but most of them seem to be actually about them being homosexual which seems kinda pigeon-holing.

It's this. If a US studio film, you have to establish that your hero that could be anything has to be hetero-exclusive white male because of ages old audience studies that didn't even matter when they were done.

Not all high profile films are US studio but sometimes they have to ADR or reshoot for that to get distribution.

[Rakaydos]

Is Poe Dameron considered a protagonist of Force Awakens? because the actor has said that he was playing Poe having a crush on Finn.

[Legato Endless]

I think a better question might be: has any high-profile movie had a gay protagonist where the movie wasn't somehow about them being gay. The good folks here have mentioned quite a few movies, but most of them seem to be actually about them being homosexual which seems kinda pigeon-holing.

Depends on what you mean by 'about.'

[I]J Edgar[I] is a biopic of the man's neurosis and the corruption he was a part of. The film heavily infers he's repressed, but it's hardly the only implication it makes.

I'm assuming films about people we know are gay now but are omitted by the film outright don't count?

[dps]

There was an action flick starring Roger Moore called Ffolkes in which I think his character was gay. It flopped, but it was a fairly heavily promoted studio release.

[Dorath]

Zorro: The Gay Blade, and The Rock in Get Smart.

[Kyberwulf]

Eh, why should it matter if a protagonist is gay or not gay?

[Talakeal]

You could probably argue somewhat for the Matrix films, even if they nominally aren't. It's doesn't take much imagination to interpret Trinity as a guy. In fact, I've always sort of thought that it was supposed to be a gay relationship, slightly camouflaged as a heterosexual one due to the era when the movie was made.

Interesting interpretation. Might I inquire as to how you came to this conclusion?

[Cazero]

Eh, why should it matter if a protagonist is gay or not gay?

Precisely. Since it doesn't matter, we might as well determine it randomly with a coin toss (or a slightly more elaborate method if you want the final proportions to be vaguely similar to population charts). Defaulting to straight white male looks a lot like bigotry. The gay/bi/ace/black/latino/etc communities being annoyed at the obvious lack of representation is perfectly legitimate and understandable.

[Siosilvar]

Eh, why should it matter if a protagonist is gay or not gay?

Because representation matters.

If there are no gay protagonists, that tells gay folks that they don't get to be the hero or the center of the story. If the black character is always the sidekick in the action movie or the first to die in a horror movie, that tells black people that they don't get to see their stories all the way through. When trans people exist only to be made into a joke, vomited at, or stereotyped - that tells an adult that they'll only ever be seen as a joke, and it tells a little kid that nobody is like them.

Destroy the idea that a middle-class straight white cisgender male is the default. That person isn't even statistically average. It's time for everybody to get their stories told.

[Zalabim]

that tells an adult that they'll only ever be seen as a joke, and it tells a little kid that nobody is like them.

I didn't learn this from media. I learned it from grade school. It's very isolating to be obviously different from everyone else. It's definitely a message that's worth some activity to avoid.

[McStabbington]

*dons fireproof suit*

Lord of the Rings.

*ducks withering fusillade*

Seriously, I know it wasn't how it's supposed to be read, and I read/watched it as straight but extremely sincere in its friendship, but by the same token it really, really went for it and if you were to read a big gay joyous hobbit road trip into the film, I wouldn't be able to say that it categorically deny that it was there.

[JCarter426]

Top Gun.

[Aedilred]

*dons fireproof suit*

Lord of the Rings.

*ducks withering fusillade*

Seriously, I know it wasn't how it's supposed to be read, and I read/watched it as straight but extremely sincere in its friendship, but by the same token it really, really went for it and if you were to read a big gay joyous hobbit road trip into the film, I wouldn't be able to say that it categorically deny that it was there.

This actually occurred to me around the time of my original response. But the reason I didn't mention it was because it's something the film doesn't really do anything to support itself. It doesn't allude to it directly at all and while it's a valid interpretation it's one you have to bring to it yourself.

I suppose what I'm saying is that that a film doesn't do anything to rule out a protagonist's being gay isn't the same thing as having a gay protagonist, certainly not for the purposes of the question. It just means the sexuality of those characters isn't sufficiently relevant to the story to get mentioned.* I hesitated about Midnight Cowboy for the same reason, although there it is at least suggested, if fairly briefly. Of course, that was a different era of film-making and I'm not sure it would even have been possible to make a film with a gay protagonist and get any sort of wide release.

By a similar token, I don't think the Matrix can be counted, because while it would certainly be possible to replace Trinity with a dude and the story would remain identical, it remains that, as written and filmed, she's not. In fact if anything as far as the question goes it could arguably be marked down rather than receiving credit, for writing in a relationship between protagonists that would have required no effort to make a gay one, but made it a straight one, because heteronormativity sells better. Although that's not a line I'd personally be comfortable taking, and more charitably one could give it credit for presenting non-traditional gender roles or the like.

* Incidentally, this is pretty much the reason I don't give JKR a whole lot of credit for gay Dumbledore. Dumbledore as presented in the books could be gay or just straight and celibate - or even straight and widowed, like McGonnagal - with equal ease, and there's nothing to suggest his friendship with Grindelwald, the only real overt nod in the direction of his apparently canonical sexuality, had romantic overtones. It's also something that didn't even make it across to the films. Her "outing" him later, whatever her original intentions, was just retrofitting a sexuality onto a character who until that point hadn't had one, and arguably at that point is just another interpretation of the character as written. For all that she was praised for being "courageous" in writing a gay character, it looked more disingenuous and/or opportunistic to me.

[Ebon_Drake]

I'm not sure how high-profile it is, but if we're meaning "a widely released movie aimed at a general audience" then ParaNorman had a main character that was incidentally revealed to be gay at the end of the movie. It isn't made into a big deal and isn't the defining aspect of the character, but it ties up a sub-plot and fits in nicely with the movie's general themes. It's a rare thing to see in what is essentially a kids' film.

[Rodin]

There was an action flick starring Roger Moore called Ffolkes in which I think his character was gay. It flopped, but it was a fairly heavily promoted studio release.

I read his character as being asexual, personally. He hated women but didn't seem attracted to men either. The only thing he actually seemed to care about were cats. Then again, I only saw it the once and that was years ago, so I may be misremembering.

Kind of a shame that movie flopped, I thought it was a pretty decent action flick.

[Traab]

* Incidentally, this is pretty much the reason I don't give JKR a whole lot of credit for gay Dumbledore. Dumbledore as presented in the books could be gay or just straight and celibate - or even straight and widowed, like McGonnagal - with equal ease, and there's nothing to suggest his friendship with Grindelwald, the only real overt nod in the direction of his apparently canonical sexuality, had romantic overtones. It's also something that didn't even make it across to the films. Her "outing" him later, whatever her original intentions, was just retrofitting a sexuality onto a character who until that point hadn't had one, and arguably at that point is just another interpretation of the character as written. For all that she was praised for being "courageous" in writing a gay character, it looked more disingenuous and/or opportunistic to me.

This was also what bothered me about the latest hermione flap, (her being played by a black woman in the latest broadway style release). She basically said, "Well I never came out and specified her race, you just assumed she was white." Well, yeah. Because most of the cover art that shows her shows a white girl, she was played by a white girl in the films, and normally you have absolutely no issue with mentioning when a character was a different race such as the patil twins, lee jordan, and I think a couple others. (Wasnt one of the gryffindor chasers a black girl? I cant recall) So basically, we have good reason to make that assumption. I personally dont much care, hell, michael clark duncan did a great kingpin in the daredevil movie, so honestly I dont see why every character absolutely has to be played by the same race each time, but the way she did this smacks of retcon, much like gay dumbledoore.

On a slightly less ranty subject, I have to admit its probably a very delicate balancing act to make a character gay without making it some important part of the story and also not just tossing in a random
"Oh, and he is gay" sort of shoe horned discovery that serves no purpose. Remember that bruce lee flick where he fought chuck norris? There was a gay henchman in that one. And while his proclivities were brought up in at least a scene or two, it was never treated by anyone as a big deal, which I thought was kinda cool. Yeah it was also played a bit for laughs through mannerisms, but I dont think it was driven into the ground either. Especially considering the times it was made in. Here we have a pretty obviously gay dude, who is also the number 1 underling of this criminal group, and noone gives a damn about his preferences either way. It felt like the gay equivalent of finding a female merc who isnt there to be mostly eye candy. (Hi Michelle Rodriguez)

[BannedInSchool]

Ooh, ooh! South Park: The Movie.

[dps]

I didn't learn this from media. I learned it from grade school. It's very isolating to be obviously different from everyone else. It's definitely a message that's worth some activity to avoid.

Little kids will be cruel to each other. I don't think representation in the media will do anything to change that. When I was in grade school, everybody got picked on at some point for something. Little kids can also be industrious--if there's not something obviously different about you, they'll dig to find something not obvious. And they can also be imaginative, so they might just make something up.

[Aedilred]

This was also what bothered me about the latest hermione flap, (her being played by a black woman in the latest broadway style release). She basically said, "Well I never came out and specified her race, you just assumed she was white." Well, yeah. Because most of the cover art that shows her shows a white girl, she was played by a white girl in the films, and normally you have absolutely no issue with mentioning when a character was a different race such as the patil twins, lee jordan, and I think a couple others. (Wasnt one of the gryffindor chasers a black girl? I cant recall) So basically, we have good reason to make that assumption. I personally dont much care, hell, michael clark duncan did a great kingpin in the daredevil movie, so honestly I dont see why every character absolutely has to be played by the same race each time, but the way she did this smacks of retcon, much like gay dumbledoore.

There were a few non-white characters mentioned, yeah. I can't remember if Angelina was specifically called out as being non-white but her dreadlocks were mentioned reasonably frequently. Blaise Zabini was black, and in the films at least Dean Thomas was - I can't remember if that was mentioned before he was cast.

I think someone later identified a quote from the novels which indicated Hermione was white, too (from Prisoner of Azkaban, iirc), so it wasn't just a rubbish response to the furore, it wasn't even an accurate one.

As you say, the casting itself isn't a problem, and the uproar about it was ridiculous. But the "defence" wasn't any good either.

[comicshorse]

I read his character as being asexual, personally. He hated women but didn't seem attracted to men either. The only thing he actually seemed to care about were cats. Then again, I only saw it the once and that was years ago, so I may be misremembering.

Yeah that was my impression as well (Incidentally for fellow Brits you may remember the movie as 'North Sea Hijack')

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_Hijack