Great Moments in Gay - Defiant Humanity in "Bent"
Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 12:40PM 
For Pride month, we're celebrating our favorite queer moments in cinema. Here's guest contributor Steven Fenton...
Bent is the story of two men who fall in love while imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp during WWII. When the original play premiered in 1979 it made waves for its powerful depiction of Nazi persecution of homosexuals. By the time the film was released eighteen years later, the AIDS epidemic had ravaged the global gay community, giving further significance to the story’s exploration of survival and freedom.
In the camp, Max (Clive Owen) and Horst (Lothaire Bluteau) are assigned the sisyphean task of hauling stones from one rubble pile to another. On a miserably hot day, Horst attempts to distract Max from the maddening heat and labor. [More...]
He reveals he’s been sneaking glances at Max tells him how sexy he is - Max confesses the same. The tone shifts when Horst asks Max whether he misses sex.
Max: Yes
Horst: Me too. We don’t have to. We’re here together. We don’t have to miss it.
Max: We can’t look at each other. We can’t touch.
Horst has something else in mind. He whispers all the things he’d like to do to Max. He asks if Max can feel his touch, his kiss, his tongue. They grow more aroused as the guards look on unsuspectingly; the tension mounting. They sink into a haze of lust and desire; sharing their deepest sexual impulses, breathing heavily, until they simultaneously climax.
Horst: We did it. How about that - fucking guards, fucking camp, we did it.
Max: Don’t shout.
Horst: O.K. But I’m shouting inside. We did it. They’re not going to kill us. We made love. We were real. We were human. We made love. They’re not going to kill us.
This scene stays with you. It’s sexy without being obscene, and it’s the only time they smile throughout the film. The joy they find in their rebellious act is infectious. Horst’s final line is especially poignant; asserting his absolute determination to stay true to himself, even in the most impossible circumstances.
Nineteen years after the film’s release, this scene is as relevant to the queer experience today as it was in 1997. It’s a beautiful and optimistic moment that argues the path to survival is taking charge of your destiny and true freedom is finding the courage to be yourself. It’s a potent message that still resonates with a community that faces a daily fight for dignity, respect, and freedom.
Reader Comments (6)
I love bottom Clive Owen.
This is such a great play that it really deserved to be made into a great movie- ( yes I'm suggesting a remake)
Finally saw this year. An amazing movie for every kind of audience.
@Jaragon I totally agree. I watched the movie again in preparation to write this post having not seen it in many years. This time around it struck me how staged the adaptation feels. Yes, they took the actors out of the theater, but the locations and the production work (though fascinating) don't read 1930s German prison camps. It's so obviously a UK shoot. That said, if they did pursue a remake, I'd have a hard time adjusting to new performers; Bluteau and Owen are just dazzling together.
I would see a remake for the same reasons you guys state but Clive & Lothaire would be tough to beat. There's also Nikolaj Coster-Waldau pre GoT and Ian McKellen & Jude Law & Rupert Graves (basically a whole lot of man candy who also have absurd acting talent and so on and so on so tough cast to beat overall.
Great choice of scene to focus on for this series Steven
Nathaniel, you've just forgotten Mick Jagger
in a surprising casting choice
(surprising in any case for me).