The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies
by Vito Russo
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Book Summary Information
Author: Vito RussoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1987-04-29
ISBN: 0060961325
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Harper & Row
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060961329
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies
Book Review: The Grandaddy of Them All
Summary: 5 Stars
Russo, Vito. "The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies", Harper and Row, 1987.
The Granddaddy of Them All
Amos Lassen
Vito Russo's "The Celluloid Closet" is one of the first gay non-fiction books that I read. In fact, I reread it every once in a while. The first edition came out in 1981 and it broke ground and it still does so now 28 years later. It is informative and provocative as it looks at the images of homosexuality and gender variance on the silver screen from the 1920s to modern times. With the history of cinema is also the history of gay life in America.
The book is full of useful information about the gay and lesbian presence in film and it is a wonderful reference guide. Considering that the book was first published before queer independent cinema and before mainstream cinema allowed for a gay presence on the screen, this is quite an accomplishment. Russo uncovered hundreds of long forgotten films and gives us a survey of our presence on film. Before he died, Russo updated the book to include some of the new independently released movies such as "The Times of Harvey Milk" and "Buddies".
The book explains how gay images were created by Hollywood and how they shaped America's ideas about homosexuality as well as altering the gay community's self image. Keeping in mind that Russo was an amateur writer, this is still an excellent study. His own personality is felt beneath the prose and this is what, I believe, drives the book. There are errors in the text but it is necessary to overlook them and be thankful that we have this book.
Summary of The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies
Praised by the Chicago Tribune as "an impressive study" and written with incisive wit and searing perception--the definitive, highly acclaimed landmark work on the portrayal of homosexuality in film.When Vito Russo published the first edition of The Celluloid Closet in 1981, there was little question that it was a groundbreaking book. Today it is still one of the most informative and provocative books written about gay people and popular culture. By examining the images of homosexuality and gender variance in Hollywood films from the 1920s to the present, Russo traced a history not only of how gay men and lesbians had been erased or demonized in movies but in all of American culture as well. Chronicling the depictions of gay people such as the "sissy" roles of Edward Everett Horton and Franklin Pangborn in 1930s comedies or predatory lesbians in 1950s dramas (see Lauren Bacall in Young Man with a Horn and Barbara Stanwyck in Walk on the Wild Side), Russo details how homophobic stereotypes have both reflected and perpetrated the oppression of gay people. In the revised edition, published a year before his death in 1990, Russo added information on the new wave of independent and gay-produced films--The Times of Harvey Milk, Desert Hearts, Buddies--that emerged during the 1980s. --Michael Bronski
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