I once had a friend that never talked about girls. We all thought he was gay but it just turned out he really didn't talk about sex at all. He got married years later to some girl he met and, to this day, they are still married.
That line makes no sense. If you were a cocker spaniel you would talk about cocker spaniels. If you don't talk about cocker spaniels then you are not a cocker spaniel. It's not a mistake to use the word cock er. But since you don't talk about cocker spaniels, no, you are not a cocker spaniel.
*"He will not only lessen his sentence in Leavenworth Prison, but will save this company, what I promise you, will be pain, anguish and humiliation beyond the endurance of man."* Walken's delivery is somehow measured and practical, yet utterly terrifying.
When my nephew was young up until a teen we thought he might be gay and my sister ( his mother ) was dying from cancer she asked me if I would still love and take care of my nephew when she was gone, it brought me to tears and I told her she obviously underestimated me because I would love him and stand up for him even if he decided he liked flying monkey pigs and I just didn't care as it's his life and choice but he's a adult and straight and he once brought up to me years after my sister passed that he knew his mother was curious if he was gay and said what did we expect when he was raised by a single mom would loved fashion and a older sister 14 years older we shouldn't be surprised he liked feminine things. He's still kinda like that and too me he just has a original personality.
It was the little things that showed Toomey cared for his men. Like the friendly way he said 'Come on, Son.' put his hand on Hennessy's shoulder and stayed with him all the way to the jeep. And when they stripped him of his equipment, Toomey looked down. He hated what he was watching.
My Sister loved this movie back in the day. As for Homosexuality, it was synonymous in The Navy. I found these fantastic books by a Writer named Frank Butterfield which is like a Pre Gay Mad Men. Nick Williams joins the Navy at 17, afterwards works as an orderly at a Hospital and meets his Soulmate Carter Jones in 1947 who is a Fireman. They live in San Francisco but travel to other parts of the world.
After a final public speech given that May, Leonard Matlovich died of complications from HIV/AIDS on June 22, 1988. He is buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. His marker reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”
You left out the best line where Matthew Broderick's character says something about realizing that Hennessy had been the only guy who never really judged anyone.
Saw the original play on Broadway in Manhattan in 1985. It was awesome. Neil Simon had incredible plays back in the day like Brighton Beach Memoirs and The Odd Couple.
from the 30's up until Stonewall (and actually, for a few decades more) it was a rough ride being gay. I really hate admitting this, but I wasn't very nice either. Poor Hennessy was looking at banishment from every corner, including his family. The law would not be his friend, he had a target on his back and no protection, and he was looking at terrifying prospects ahead. It was really hateful and cruel.
@@defblinders9585 He wasn't biracial. He was black Irish, which is just a term for Irish people with darker eyes and hair color. He just pretended to have a black mother to call out Wykowski's racism.
@@DavidLS1 Very interesting. I'm glad I didn't see that as a kid. It would've confused the 💩 out of me. 😂 A similar scene I saw as an adult was in Boogie Nights, when Dirk Diggler is selling himself to a closeted, self-hating gae man who then beats him up.
@@davidjamessheets I'd rather be a felon than a corpse. But I didn't say anything about being dishonorably discharged, I said to come out to your draft board and not get drafted in the first place. My personal plan was to move to Canada when I turned eighteen in 1973. Fortunately, that was the year when they ended the draft. (I remember having a very low number in the lottery.)
I'm here because I saw a poster in passing in another video for this movie and I immediately thought, "Who's that hot dyke? How did I miss an 80s movie with a buzz cut butch existing?" and it turns out that hot lesbian was just a very young Matthew Broderick. I wish I could say this is the first time this has happened to me.
You've got a great eye. His performance is beautifully understated. It gets its power from being played with such seeming casualness, almost glibness. I hope he at least got an Oscar nomination.
@Boogyman4050 Apparently, that did sometimes happen. However, as the need for soldiers grew, the threshhold got higher and higher. Same for conscientious objectors. The question changed from "is he gay?" to "how much will his gay-ness matter if we put him in the line of fire?"
The gay guys knew the army's laws on gays but they still came in.i don't know whether they enlisted or were drafted but i think if they had let the army know they would have been discharged.having sex in the bathroom isn't a good start for either of them.writing this in March 2022 as i look at the state of the world.wars and rumors of wars earthquakes in diverse places killings homosexualality on the rise and trouble on every place that man is.stay safe people and God bless America.
It was always highly prosecuted. However, up through the 1990s in both Iraq wars and the Bush years in Afghanistan, the Pentagon would have a soldier complete his or her tour of duty to exploit them for their service and THEN criminally charge and dishonorably discharge them, meaning no pension and no health benefits.
Heartbreaking. I remember watching this as a teenager. It helped me getting rid of my intolerance. Walken is such a different kind of actor. Bringing each role to a higher dimension of strangeness. Like Terrence Stamp in England.
000 000, why do you bother with something so liberal as a play turned into a movie written by a liberal Jew and celebrating the very principles of liberalism you despise. The whole work is beyond you. Also, , quite a statement from someone of the ilk which consume cable “news” channels and Web sites that make a point of withholding a significant portion of the news from them.
@@WorldWideMarket Sometimes it's best to just not comment. That way less of the world is aware of your astronomical ignorance. Looks like a few years of passed since your idocy slipped from your keyboad. Since then, conservatives like yourself have seemed determined to find the lowest forms of decorum and decency. Please don't breed.
The iron is Hennesey, James J. and Lindstrom (giggling) know that Arnold is NOT gay and Jerome points out Arnold as gay. Jerome can't tell gay from straight and the wrong sexual orientations are assigned to different people. When Jerome singles Arnold as homosexual the true homosexuals walk away.
@@markvasquez9023 The military at that time cared. It meant going to jail and going before a board. Look at the part of the movie where the Sergeant singles out the gay man from the group and tells him to give the sergeant his gear. He is very upset. Imagine you are all set to retire but now you will lose all your retirement money and benefits AND you are going to jail.
@@markvasquez9023 The sergeant said, "Why didn't you say something? You could have saved the military all this trouble. To this day depending which commander in chief Trump wants gays banned. Obama said don't ask don't tell(You can stay but at least be ashamed). It IS a PROBLEM when you have the people sleeping with each other. It IS a problem if some men feel uncomfortable with the other men.
@@markvasquez9023 One tactic of the military was since the men were presumably all straight. They were more aggressive because there were no women to sleep with.
@@markvasquez9023 All that aside, my main point was that everybody wants to know what Jerome thinks and Jerome is WRONNNGG! on two counts. He thinks the straight is gay and he thinks the gays are straight. It is also interesting that nobody knew the gays were gay until the sergeant caught them in the act.
It’s exactly the same as being smart. “Malcolm in the Middle” on the social consequences being smart: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FcdtOlWBLOc.html
In the scene when the soldiers go to town on pass, you can briefly see Hennessey nod to Lindstrom just as they get off the bus, implying that they had something going on.
Good thing times have change for men who may be gay. Was a sad point in history because there was a gay man who saved the lives of many millions by cracking the German coded messages (Enigma technique he created) , and yet- he was chemically castrated and then committed suicide .... that was the thanks they gave him ....
You’re thinking of Alan Turing. The Germans created the Enigma code machine and Turing broke the code by uncovering its inherent weaknesses and helping to program the decoding logic (called an algorithm) into the Bomba, a mechanical computer designed by the Poles. Turing was also the first person to create a conceptualisation of a “universal machine,” which is the modern computer. He was indeed prosecuted under the same law used to prosecute Oscar Wilde, chemically castrated and took his own life.
There is one big thing everyone misses with this scene. Toomey is gentle with Hennessee and seems to show compassion. So well-played by Christopher Walken, especially the way he says "come on son."
It is interesting that even the Sargent did not take Jerome's book away from him against his wishes or use leverage against him (we will never be truly honest with each other) like the others did. Arnold took Jerome's book from Jerome and put pressure on Jerome to let Arnold read Jerome's book AND the first soldier took Jerome's book. It is interesting where does the Sergent draw the line between writing about everything that happens being allowed versus it jeopardizing military and personal information being a threat and made publicly accessible?
As sad and unfair as it is, during this time it was the rule. So then joining or being drafted and withholding this information would being consequences.
The average age of a draftee was 20. (The average age of an RAF pilot was 19!) Many young men, especially in the 1940s, would not have conceived of themselves as “gay,” they would have had no other mechanism, model or strategy within society that they were aware of but to conceal any concerns or knowledge that they had or might be gay other than concealment, and they would have just been beginning to understand and come to terms with their sexuality at that point in their emotional development. It is only in the last 20 - 30 years that it has become more common for American teenagers to reveal they are gay. Until then coming out, even just to oneself, was something one didn’t do until one’s mid-20s - if ever.
@@inkyguy that may be true but the rule at the time, coming out or not, was the rule. Young men would have known and made the conscious choice to either conceal it or attempt o conceal it. I don’t agree with the Catholic Church that priest have to remain celibate but priests know the rule before their confirmation . They have a choice beforehand just as these men who are gay had. That being said , there were many openly gay men when i was in the air force and they simply , the higher ups i mean, just disregarded the rule
@@thumperpaul155 I’m saying don’t rub peoples noses in it. If a hetro couple are all over each other in public, I’m offended. I have no problem with people being proud of who they are.
@@miketalley5476they do it the same way of other parades “flaunt.” They don’t suppress your liberty like the pious people who are loving Christians but want to kill non-believers and jail people for natural rights.
I saw this movie in the theater when it came out. All I remember were two scenes--the one where he was complaining about how hot it was, like Africa hot, and the other where he slept with a prostitute who acted like she was his mama, and he didn't like that.
I remember this part and was confused when Hennesey was taken away was it because he was gay or half black? In the movie, when Wykowski was spouting out racial words, Hennesy stated that he was half Irish and half black. Great movie though.
Hennessy knew on multiple levels what it was to be the outsider. I was never certain he was mixed race but simply couldn't tolerate the bigotry around him he despised so much, so he said something to confront the ugliness he was witnessing.
Matthew Broderick thinks Arnold is gay but he doesn't think the two gay men are gay. What Matthew Broderick writes in his book is not correct so why does anybody care what he thinks?
When don't ask don't tell was initiated, we all thought it was a great thing. Today, we see it as the insult it is. Nobody should have to hide or deny who they are.
You wish you could blow some dude in the barracks? Just be sure to not tell the others in your little home town. I get the feeling it’s full of backwoods stupid hicks who obsess about schlong. Or maybe tell them. They are probably in the closet too. Where you are from I bet it’s hard to tell the difference between a man or a woman. Or livestock. I hope you red this.👊🏻( not a bump, a broken nose/ jaw)
As a Naval vet, the scene on the road, and the military stance at the time makes very easy to understand how the military has gone "woke". The actual punishment. Isn't just prison, but lifelong shame.
The NAZI’s had the exact same policy until America Woke up. If you desire to live in a society where Gay men are “sent away” to face an unknown future or never heard from again I would suggest a move to Moscow. Putin is waiting with open arms.
Definitely. It's no one's business what anyone's sexuality is. It shouldn't be applauded nor denigrated. Just do your job. You forgot "ho mo" lol Couldn't resist.
Today Hennessy would sue the army and probably win ! On Grindr I saw an open gay military guy, and just for fun, I wrote “Don’t ask - don’t tell” His answer? “Yeah, that was like 10 years ago!”
Some soldiers walk away from Arnold when he reads that Jerome thinks he's homosexual, maybe not because they think he is gay, but maybe they don't like that he was insulted, OR there were in fact other gay men in their group, as we learn later. Someone was smart enough to tell Jerome why do you write things down when it might piss people off and he did piss others off.
@@catholicdad, it could mean both in the 1940s. It always had a potentially implicit sexual connotation, though actually heterosexual in most people’s minds. It became a way for gay people to refer to and talk about themselves beneath the radar of quotidian heterosexual society to protect themselves and was ultimately embraced as a self-identifying term.
@@OutyMan This IS set in 1945. Gay meant happy. End of story. Don't know what others are having an issue. Gay generally meant happy & was used as such in the US daily lexicon into the early 70s. I remember the change myself.
They didn’t make many like that then either. You have to look for them to find them, just as you did then, and not just go to whatever is on view at your local multiplex or recommended by your streaming service.
Lol so what? I don’t care if your gay,straight or bi. As long as you can PT and shoot your weapon. Served with gays in Afghanistan. I never got botherd when they’d be macking down on their boo thing. They’re living their life.
@soundpro67 And homosexuals couldn't possibly do that right? It sounds to me like there are some people who couldn't do it if they knew that someone in their unit was gay. And that sounds like the homophobic persons problem to me.
@@justusphillips2480, he said person, not what type of person. If you ever hear the word “objectification” you can think back on this comment as an example of what it means.
@@jwil4905, because he is a man of thoughtful unswerving integrity and principal, something highly underrated and even derided in society, as the play and film demonstrate.
Too much! And, that visual of the sergeant riding on the side of the jeep down the line. One of the most agonizing, painful scenes to watch in that movie. To single out the guy and parade him before his peers while in formation was just a terrible way to treat another human being. I am a Christian but I would not have condoned that type of treatment and especially to a soldier in our armed forces. And, he should not have been discharged dishonorably; he should have been disciplined for inappropriate conduct while on military premises.
@Lou Danny Malacts that's what I say , So never be afraid to say a Politician that Supports it is simply a Molester and a true Corrupter of Human dignity and Values
@@DavidLS1 you seem rather pleased about that , like I say to a heterosexual Doint get married unless you really know what Love is , Homosexuals are simply in love with the idea of being in love but they can't because they are sexually confused.
Members of my family have enlisted during every war, since World War Two. I am somone who voted Blue, and have ideas that are contrary to those held by my Conservative... and even older Democrats I have met. I digress. I beleive that don't ask don't tell should have remained in place and that combat MOS should have, remined open only to males.
