Even with The Code now a thing of the past it took the United Kingdom and a respected director from there to craft a film showing two men in a passionate kiss. When Peter Finch and Murray Head kissed like they meant it, it was untold generations of gay men felt like society was finally recognizing them. That Sunday Bloody Sunday came out two years after the Stonewall Riots was no accident. Probably before Stonewall, John Schlesinger might have had problems getting his film released on this side of the pond. And that's even after Midnight Cowboy.
Murray Head plays a shallow bisexual young artist who has a simultaneous relationship going with both Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. Jackson is a thirty something career woman who can't find any great satisfaction in relationships beyond sex. That Murray Head supplies well and in abundance apparently, so much so that he can also service Peter Finch as well.
Jackson should have listened to mom's advice. Peggy Ashcroft who plays Jackson's mother says quite right that you never get 100%, so you get the best you can and make it work. Apparently this is something that Glenda can't or won't grasp.
For Peter Finch as the very closeted gay male the pressures are far worse. He's Jewish and he's a doctor and apparently it's true in both British and American Jewish scenes that if you're a doctor you'll have Jewish women throwing themselves at you and Jewish mothers ready to sacrifice all for a doctor as a son-in-law. And the idea of a forty something unmarried doctor who might be gay is just beyond all realm of possibility. Such a thing would be a SHANDA.
Peter Finch strikes a universal note in all gay males in any culture. Before the closet doors were open, Dr. Daniel Hirsch's story was played out a gazillion times all over the world. Thank the Deity we have reached a point where Daniel Hirsch's life path is not the only one open to us.
Sunday Bloody Sunday has no real plot, it's a character study of two people and their intertwining relationships because of a third party. There's no real plot here, but the characterizations are as deep as they can get. Sunday Bloody Sunday earned Oscar nominations for Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson as Best Actor and Actress, John Schlesinger for Best Director and Penelope Gilliatt as well for Best Original Screenplay. All that and no nomination for Best Picture?
I do kind of wonder where Murray Head's character is right now. Since this came out in 1971 Head was playing someone 25 which was his age at the time. He partied through the seventies, did he settle down with someone of either gender, did indiscriminate sex bring him in contact with AIDS in the eighties and nineties? Is he looking now for some young Murray Heads in his sixties? Was he really transgender and if so has he had the reassignment surgery or not? You can read all of that into his portrayal of a vacuous party boy.
In a way Sunday Bloody Sunday is about the tragedy of bisexuals in this society. They can't settle down to a monogamous relationship because they have sexual needs on both sides of the fence. Maybe that will change one day too.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is a landmark classic, especially recommended for a young gay audience who wants to see what life in the uptight days of the universal closet was like.
Murray Head plays a shallow bisexual young artist who has a simultaneous relationship going with both Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. Jackson is a thirty something career woman who can't find any great satisfaction in relationships beyond sex. That Murray Head supplies well and in abundance apparently, so much so that he can also service Peter Finch as well.
Jackson should have listened to mom's advice. Peggy Ashcroft who plays Jackson's mother says quite right that you never get 100%, so you get the best you can and make it work. Apparently this is something that Glenda can't or won't grasp.
For Peter Finch as the very closeted gay male the pressures are far worse. He's Jewish and he's a doctor and apparently it's true in both British and American Jewish scenes that if you're a doctor you'll have Jewish women throwing themselves at you and Jewish mothers ready to sacrifice all for a doctor as a son-in-law. And the idea of a forty something unmarried doctor who might be gay is just beyond all realm of possibility. Such a thing would be a SHANDA.
Peter Finch strikes a universal note in all gay males in any culture. Before the closet doors were open, Dr. Daniel Hirsch's story was played out a gazillion times all over the world. Thank the Deity we have reached a point where Daniel Hirsch's life path is not the only one open to us.
Sunday Bloody Sunday has no real plot, it's a character study of two people and their intertwining relationships because of a third party. There's no real plot here, but the characterizations are as deep as they can get. Sunday Bloody Sunday earned Oscar nominations for Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson as Best Actor and Actress, John Schlesinger for Best Director and Penelope Gilliatt as well for Best Original Screenplay. All that and no nomination for Best Picture?
I do kind of wonder where Murray Head's character is right now. Since this came out in 1971 Head was playing someone 25 which was his age at the time. He partied through the seventies, did he settle down with someone of either gender, did indiscriminate sex bring him in contact with AIDS in the eighties and nineties? Is he looking now for some young Murray Heads in his sixties? Was he really transgender and if so has he had the reassignment surgery or not? You can read all of that into his portrayal of a vacuous party boy.
In a way Sunday Bloody Sunday is about the tragedy of bisexuals in this society. They can't settle down to a monogamous relationship because they have sexual needs on both sides of the fence. Maybe that will change one day too.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is a landmark classic, especially recommended for a young gay audience who wants to see what life in the uptight days of the universal closet was like.