Gay Sex: It's So '70s

A great movie is making the rounds in limited release. 'Gay Sex in the 70s' is on my list of recommended films you should go see, or add to your DVD roster (it will be out on DVD in June).



I wrote a little about this film last fall (The Gayest Movie Season Ever), pointing out the fact that I thought it was sort of amazing that a film with that title was listed in Entertainment Weekly's fall film preview. I still think so. As we saw from the 'Brokeback Mountain' Oscar snub, the jury (or at least the Academy) is still out on the issue of gay sex on the big screen.

Gay sex doesn't getting any bigger on screen than in 'Gay Sex in the 70s.' The film is a documentary that takes us back to a time long ago and far away when gay men celebrated their sexual freedom unlike anytime before or anytime since. 

It's a walk down memory lane if you're old enough to have lived through it. I kept thinking I saw people I knew, but the mustaches and plaid shirts of the day made us all look so alike. So too does memory lane deliver a sad reminder of friends who would later die too soon of a disease no one could have even imagined. (The film inevitably touches on what was to come.)

If you're too young to have been there, weren't out, didn't live in a major urban center or aren't a gay man, the film is a history lesson about a very special time in gay liberation.

Director Joseph Lovett has given us a gift in making his film. It's a few pages from a big gay scrapbook which chronicles who we are and where we came from.

See this movie.

· Review: 'Gay Sex in the 70s' (Cinematical)
· Official Site
· See if It's Playing Near You (Moviefone)