Gay Themes

There was some discussion about gay themes in Adios Sabata on the SWWB a while ago. Personally I’m not sure what to think about this film except that Yul Brunner and some other guys wear costumes out of Village People’s wardrobe. ;D

But I came to think other spaghetti westerns with obvious gay characters. The most obvious is of course the gay cowboy gang in Django Kill! Also Nino Castelnuovo in Massacre Time and my favorite gay couple in sw’s: George Hilton and Klaus Kinski who have very twisted relationship in Ruthless Four. Some have even suggested that there’s something sexual between Nino and El Chuncho in Bullet for the General.

There must be others too but can’t remember more right now. What do you think of the subject? Why did they include so many gay themes in spaghetti westerns?

I don’t think they were being deliberately gay (apart from Django kill of course). I think the costumes only appear gay retrospectively 30-40 years later. I mean, look at what ordinary people were wearing in the 60’s and 70’s! William Bergers hideous green crushed velvet suit in Sartana would not have raised many eyebrows on the streets of London in the 60’s, but now it looks camp. As for there being sexual sparks flying between various characters, Sw’s were mainly Italian creations and in that part of the world men tend to have very close, non-sexual, non-gay relationships with their male friends. I think trying to “out” gays in Sw’s is a bit like looking for gays in 18th cetury literature, just because the men at the time wore rouge and wigs!

Another example ‘Shoot … Gringo … shoot !’ !

The two main characters seem to have some kind of close relationship (maybe even homosexual) similar to Kinski and Hilton in ‘The ruthless four’ !!! We’ll never really know though !!!

Cian is right about Italian male relationships. They tend to be really close without any homosexuality !!!

I don’t think there’s anything going on between El Chuncho and Nino. This could be a classic example for Cian’s male relationships !!!

Most of the time it is innocent (obviously not Django kill though)
These Gay rumours are normally started by some flamboyant promiscuous queer film critics who just want everything to be gay.
If you want to watch mincing cowboys leave our spaghetti westerns alone and watch “Brokeback Mountain”, or should that be “Fudgepack mountain”!

Just because there is such a thing as male bonding it does not imply “gayness”, two men can be very close friends without being queer.

As for myself, i like my women too much!

I wish people would stop calling Buggerback Mountain a western! The 2 guys in it were 1960’s sheep herders, not cowboys (apparently - I haven’t seen it).

I agree with Yodlaf about gay critics trying to make everything gay. It’s not just SW’s that suffer from this. Anything with a few close male buddies get’s the gay treatment. So why don’t film’s like Thelma and Louise get labelled lesbian films?

[quote=“Cian, post:5, topic:283”]I wish people would stop calling Buggerback Mountain a western! The 2 guys in it were 1960’s sheep herders, not cowboys (apparently - I haven’t seen it).

I agree with Yodlaf about gay critics trying to make everything gay. It’s not just SW’s that suffer from this. Anything with a few close male buddies get’s the gay treatment. So why don’t film’s like Thelma and Louise get labelled lesbian films?[/quote]
i too haven’t seen Brokeback mountain and have no intentions of doing so!

Also ‘Get Mean’ and ‘They Called Him Amen’ has a really stereotypical gay character.

‘Brokeback Mountain’ sure ain’t no western.

The villain in El Puro kisses his sidekick in passionate rage after he has beaten a woman to death.
-another example where homo-sexuality is used to show the degradation of the villains.

How about THE MERCENARY?

Curly (Jack Palance) is clearly gay in that film. His henchman Sebastian is his lover.

As Curly and the Pollack (Nero) are in many ways mirrors of one another is the Pollack gay also? This seems hinted at by the mirror theme and by his lack of sexual interest in the female revolutionary. Or perhaps the Pollack is not gay, but rather asexual (or non-sexual) as his only interest in life is money (prior to gaining respect for Paco and the female revolutionary).

Or perhaps Curly is gay simply to make him more villanous than the Pollack?

I think the Pollack is asexual. Purely to strengthen the fact that he is motivated by greed and nothing else distacts him from the aquisition of money.

How dare you, no way is The Polack gay!
Franco Nero is all man (apart from where he played Versace). :slight_smile:

haha your carrecter is gay :smiley:

oops have to go, otherwise my girlfriend is going to beat me up because I didnt wash the windows and irioned her shirts while she was watching tv…

:wink:

[quote=“tom, post:12, topic:283”]haha your carrecter is gay :smiley:

oops have to go, otherwise my girlfriend is going to beat me up because I didnt wash the windows and irioned her shirts while she was watching tv…

;)[/quote]

He’d better not f##king be! :stuck_out_tongue:

lucky it’s The Swede and not the Polack if he is! :slight_smile:

I’m not sure whether the Adam Saxon character in Il Grande Duello is just a dandy or a plain fag, but it seems the latter since he has no interest in women. The way he dresses is pretty questionable to say the least. Nevertheless he’s a pretty vile dude gunning off innocent civilians just for fun. ;D

Quite possible he was supposed to be gay, but also maybe just a mysogenist, a trait that seems quite common in Italian cinema.

In Massacre Time Nino Castelnuovo is realy ambiguous character also

The son of Templer, in Django Kill…, did he commit suicide because he was raped or sexually assaulted? (this is just one of the numerous questions this film raised) What do you think?

django kill has a really obvious gay theme

Christ. I just watched A Man Called Invincible for the first time. The whole film is overloaded with gay innuendo. It’s completely over the top. I don’t speak Italian, so I can’t compare the English and Italian dubs, but I strongly suspect that whoever translated into English butchered the original script and turned it into a sort of horrible camp western. There is absolutely no way any self respecting macho Italian male would have sat through this one as it is in English. It would have bombed at the box office in Italy. It has certainly bombed in my DVD collection. It’s so overtly gay I kept expecting Mr Humphries to pop up saying “I’m free”!

When in the film did you get to know that?