"The Celluloid Closet" is a funny and informative look at the depiction of homosexuality in Hollywood movies, based on Vito Russo's 1981 book of the same name. Russo researched the history of how motion pictures, especially Hollywood films, had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters. Lily Tomlin narrates this documentary of the history of gays in film, from negative to positive reflections of gay characters. It's a chronological assortment of over 100 movie clips from the turn of the century to the silents, to the effeminate caricatures of the 1930s, to the flamboyant homosexual portrayals of the 1950s and '60s, to the violently deviant homosexual of the '70s and '80s, and concluding with the clean image of recent times. "Sissies" appeared early in Hollywood as stock characters for comic relief. Harvey Fierstein says "I like the sissies", as homosexuals needed "exposure at any cost". Lily Tomlin says, "The sissy made everyone feel more manly or more womanly by filling the space in between." However, showing gays as comic figures, perverts, villains, or AIDS victims, cinema has historically destroyed gay self-esteem and promoted homophobia. Arthur Laurents says, "You must pay. You must suffer. If you're a woman who has another woman you better go hang yourself. It's a question of degree and certainly if you're gay, you have to do real penance--die!" Among the films featured are "Spartacus", "The Boys in the Band", "The Children's Hour", "Philadelphia", "Tea and Sympathy" and many others. Harvey Fierstein, Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Shirley MacLaine, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Gore Vidal and others comment on the films.
The script was written by Rob Epstein, based on Vito Russo's book. Russo wanted his book made into a documentary film and helped out on the project until he died in 1990. Some critics of the documentary noted that it was less political than the book and ended on a more positive note. But Russo wanted the documentary to be entertaining and reflect the positive changes in films. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman directed.
