The Barb. (Atlanta, Ga.) 197?-197?, December 01, 1974, Image 6

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THE BARB - 6 GAT-INe TC THE HCVIES With Steve Warren December’s the month when all the big movies come marked “Do not open until Christmas.” They in clude “The Towering In ferno,” The Man with the Golden Gun,” “The Little Prince,” Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein,” “Freebie and the Bean,” “The Front Page” and “The Godfather, Part II.” We’ll tell you about them next month. Meanwhile, the talk of every town it’s played in is “A Very Natural Thing,” a serious film about gay lifestyles and problems. Gay audiences have praised it too highly for its honesty "' and sensitivity, simply because no other films have taken this ap proach on a nonporno-; graphic level. Most critics --straight and gay--have panned it too harshly for the usual weaknesses of a low-budget first feature: didactic script that tries to say too much; preten tiously arty photography; and acting that’s passable at best. Robert Joel plays David, who comes out in a monastery, and leaves with the feeling that God is “either sadistic or incom petent.” Seeking a lasting re lationship, he latches onto Mark (Curt Gareth), who is clearly not the marrying kind. The relationship is doomed from the start, but hey make it last for a year or so. When David meets Jason (Bo White), a divorced man with a young daughter, the roles are reversed: this ime David’s the one who’s afraid to make a commit ment. The ending lets you draw your own conclusions as to whether or not they’ll work it out. The publicists have done their job well, because the 1 ohrase, “the first positive gay film,” is traveling the grapevine in “Manchurian Candidate” fashion. But “A Very Natural Thing” is too r ealistic to be positive. The most successful relation ship it shows is one that has lasted five years; and there’s no love left between the “lovers”--they just won’t admit defeat. I saw “A Very Natural Thing” at a theatre in San Robert Joel As David And Bo White As Jason In "A Very Natural Thing” Francisco, where it was paired with “The Boys in the Band.” Seeing them to gether gives a startling portrait of where we’re coming from, and how much we’ve progressed in the last four years. One wishes that “AVery Natural Thing” could have been produced, directed, written and acted as well as “The Boys in the Band”; but a milestone is a mile stone. *** While we’re on the sub ject of gay movies, it’s time we mentioned porno graphy. Atlantans who are into that, and who read ads and reviews in national pub lications, may wonder why the features they read about never play locally. I wonder, too. We’ve yet to see a film by PatRocco, Wakefield Poole, Jack De- veau, Arch Brown and others who have established reputations in gay hard core. Perhaps it’s because the Gay Paree has a local monopoly in this field, and can charge as much for the low-rental pictures they show as they would for better films. And perhaps they’re right in thinking that no one goes to see the movie anyway. (I don’t know what the features they’re running are like; but I’ve seen a couple of the “biggies” out of town, and you’re not missing much.) But don’t you wish they’d give you credit for a little intelligence? They’ve been running the same ad in the daily papers for over a year, changing only the title of the picture. The format includes an alleged quote from the Advocate which says, “One of the wildest yet . . . on the lavender film circuit. A film that gives its audience their money’s worth.”, Obviously, the Advocate hasn’t said this about every film they show, and the Gay Paree is guilty of fraud ulent advertising. For gays who are only interested in getting screwed, there are plenty Bob Fosse In "The Little Prince” of unscrupulous business men around to do the job. When you demand more, you’ll get it! Our gay brothers and sisters in the animal world are slandered by implica tion in the new nature documentary, “Birds Do It, Bees Do It.” The film is primarily concerned with the mating habits of every thing from one-celled creatures to elephants, hippos and rhinos. Although it’s common knowledge that homosexual encounters are frequent among most species, this aspect is virtually ignored (expect when bulls are shown arousing each other so their sperm can be captured for artificial in semination). ‘ ‘Nothing that promotes life can be termed abnor mal,” intones the narrator - - which says as much for our side as Ann Landers, and with as much validity, in context. A lot of the footage in “Birds Do It, Bees Do It” is old-hat, the kind of stuff we saw in “educational Continued On Page 8 Ik ^LUB 1139 WEST PEACHTREE ST. NE ■ HREE Discotheque THE SOUND OF LOVE ( a cabaret A rcstnarawf ) ATLANTA Super Show All I Ytl cH Iflillcll V I iiftTliiinmenf I \perienre Have you listened lately?