Queerest movie of the summer?
Jul. 29th, 2003 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI was very surprised by all the genderbending in Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney's corporate politics tend to be rather liberal, but the entertainment under the official Disney label (as opposed to its affiliates like Miramax) is extremely conservative.
1. Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow, as hard as it may be to believe, is even queenier than John Travolta's Terl in Battlefield Earth. Forget Orlando and Keira; Johnny Depp's the real reason to see the movie.
2. Aside from the underlying homoeroticism of the relationship between the comic relief pirates, the one with the glass eye is clearly transgendered. He's absolutely delighted to find that one of the chests is full of women's clothing, and he comments on how much fun it is to be dressed as a woman when the two of them play the decoy.
3. Keira Knightley's Elizabeth is not the demure young lady a British governor's daughter is supposed to be. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a movie if she were. But she goes farther than fighting back and choosing the blacksmith she loves over the Navy Commodore she doesn't. (And how disappointed was I that she didn't push him off the wall instead of falling herself?) When her father and the Navy decide not to go back to save the blacksmith (Orlando Bloom, of course), she dresses herself in a Navy uniform (a redcoat uniform, no less) and goes after him.
4. There's a black woman pirate. It smacks a bit of tokenism, but the image is there and I really liked her.
1. Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow, as hard as it may be to believe, is even queenier than John Travolta's Terl in Battlefield Earth. Forget Orlando and Keira; Johnny Depp's the real reason to see the movie.
2. Aside from the underlying homoeroticism of the relationship between the comic relief pirates, the one with the glass eye is clearly transgendered. He's absolutely delighted to find that one of the chests is full of women's clothing, and he comments on how much fun it is to be dressed as a woman when the two of them play the decoy.
3. Keira Knightley's Elizabeth is not the demure young lady a British governor's daughter is supposed to be. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a movie if she were. But she goes farther than fighting back and choosing the blacksmith she loves over the Navy Commodore she doesn't. (And how disappointed was I that she didn't push him off the wall instead of falling herself?) When her father and the Navy decide not to go back to save the blacksmith (Orlando Bloom, of course), she dresses herself in a Navy uniform (a redcoat uniform, no less) and goes after him.
4. There's a black woman pirate. It smacks a bit of tokenism, but the image is there and I really liked her.