"Edward II" is a biography based on Christopher Marlowe's play about Britain's only acknowledged gay monarch (1307-1327), whose preference for his male lover over his queen created conflict with his barons and eventually led to civil war. This is one of gay director Derek Jarman's last films. He keeps the language but takes the story out of its 14th-century timeframe, fills it with anachronisms, presents it with minimal sets against a black background, and turns it into a angry rant against the homophobia of the Thatcher-era England of the 1980s and early ‘90s. Though Marlowe wrote a gay subtext into his play, Jarman moves it up front: Edward is gay, he gives too much power to his gay lover, and they both have to be destroyed. The love between Edward (Steven Waddington) and Piers Gaveston (Andrew Tiernan) is passionate. The two engage in sex surrounded by other gay guys getting it on. When Gaveston is banished, Jarman brings in Annie Lennox to sing "Every Time We Say Goodbye" as Edward and Gaveston dance one last time. Edward has an ugly death that involves a red hot poker up his... Written by Ken Butler and Derek Jarman, who also directed.
