The Celluloid Closet

A witty, touching study of Hollywood's (mostly on screen) treatment of homosexuality. Epstein and Friedman approach the question chronologically and by type, with astringent comments from an array of unusual suspects, including Gore Vidal (hilarious on how Stephen Boyd played up the gay subtext in Ben-Hur, while Heston obliviously rendered his Francis X Bushman impersonation), Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine, Armistead Maupin, Richard Dyer and Harvey Fierstein ('I'd rather have visibility than nothing'). There's no great radical agenda here, just an honest assessment of lives relegated to the shadows of the screen. The montage of homophobic slurs from mainstream contemporary movies is especially telling.