Originally Posted by
aeneastwin
Check out the scenes between Messala (Stephen Boyd) and Ben Hur (Charlton Heston).
Gore Vidal gave a funny account of how as a screenwriter he and Stephen Boyd mischievously decided to enliven the movie by having Stephen's character play out an unrequited love affair toward Ben Hur (unbeknownst to Heston).
If you look at Charlton Heston's reactions to Stephen Boyd in the earlier part of the movie, Heston looks like a deer caught in the headlights.
PS This story reminds me of another where Truman Capote would always sign Gore Vidal's name when he would check into bathhouses/sex clubs that were likely to be raided by the police.
This account is from another film which should be mentioned (if it hasn't already): The Celluloid Closet. A documentary from the mid-nineties (based on a book of the same name) about the history of gays and lesbians in movies. Very entertaining, although now a bit dated (it's over ten years old).
I think it would be great if they made a sequel; not just to update but to cover what was left out.
For instance what I consider one of the greatest movies ever made has an
obvious underlying gay theme:
Lawrence of Arabia. Uh, anybody ever notice it's an all male cast?! Except for a few extras... there's not a woman in sight! Lawrence picked some mighty cute teenage boys to follow him around the desert (I guess they'd be "personal assistants" by today's definition), and btw a very cute romance develops between the two boys. Or how about when when Omar Sharif declares his
love for Peter O'Toole? Helloooo!