Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story (1996)

This film is about is about the tough times Greg Louganis (Mario López) had on his way to becoming one of the world's top Olympic divers. Gregory ("Greg") Efthimios Louganis is an American diver, who is best known for winning back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3 m. and 10 m. diving events. He received the James E. Sullivan Award in 1984 as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Louganis is of Samoan/Swedish descent and was raised in California by his adoptive parents, a Greek-American couple. At age 16, he took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower event. Two years later, he won his first world title in the same event. He was a favorite for two golds in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but an American boycott of the games prevented him from participating. Louganis won two world titles in 1982, and in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, with record scores and leads over his opponents, he won gold medals in both the springboard and tower diving events. After winning two more world championship titles in 1986, he repeated his 1984 feat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, although not without difficulties. In what is considered one of the greatest feats in sporting history, Louganis suffered an injury, hitting his head on the diving board during the preliminary rounds while performing a reverse 2 1/2 pike. He completed the preliminaries, despite a concussion, then went on to repeat the dive during the finals, with nearly perfect scores, earning him the gold medal. His incredible comeback earned him the title of ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year for 1988.

Louganis posed nude for Playgirl magazine in 1987. In 1994 Louganis announced he was gay and took part in the 1994 Gay Games as diving announcer. He also performed an exhibition of several dives to a standing-room only crowd of nearly 3,000 spectators. Following the announcement of his HIV status, Louganis was dropped by most of his corporate sponsors, with the exception of the aquatics gear manufacturer Speedo, which continues to sponsor him as of 2007. Based on the superior book by Greg Louganis and Eric Marcus, this made for TV movie is a very good profile of an impressive star athlete. Steven Hilliard Stern directed.

Staircase (1969)

Charles Dyer (Rex Harrison) and Harry Leeds (Richard Burton) are a middle-aged gay couple that have been living together for nearly 20 years. Both earn a living as barbers in the West End of London and both care deeply for their mothers, but not each other as time apart takes its toll on their relationship when Harry has to care for his invalid mother who constantly snaps at him. Harry is round, fearful, fussy, and possesses a terrible secret. His head underneath the fake surgical bandages is bald. Charlie, in his fifties and still handsome, is a waspish queen who favors tight pants and a little make-up around the eyes."It's permitted now, you know, Harry. It's permitted," says Charlie, who says everything twice. That is just one of the things that drives Harry nearly crazy. Harry and Charlie are exploited as gay freaks, because Burton and Harrison are interesting actors whose styles command attention even when the material does not. "Staircase" is essentially a stunt movie, full of substitutes: false teeth, false hair, and feminine pronouns for masculine.

What story line there is concerns the increasing tension between Harry and Charlie as the latter prepares to answer a summons for having appeared at the Adam's Apple nightclub in drag, or, as the summons put it: "in a manner calculated to bring depravity." Harry reassures Charlie that everything will be all right, and Charlie, in turn, can't resist heaping insults on Harry, whom he describes as flabby, wrinkled, paunchy, freckled, sagging, bloated and veined, among other things. But so is everyone in the film, from the male hustler Charlie brings home one night to Harry's arthritic old mum (Cathleen Nesbitt), who lives with Harry and Charlie. The movie, like Charlie, says everything at least twice, and Charlie's mum is no better, a 90-year-old lady whose mind is turning to pudding in an old people's home, but who comes to her senses long enough to scream "Sodomite!" when Charlie comes to visit. The two stars seem uncomfortable, perhaps to call attention to the real distance that exists between the actors and their roles.

The film is adapted from Charles Dyer's 1966 two-character play with the action taking place over the course of one night as they discuss their loving but often volatile past together and possible future without each other. Dyer adapted his play for the movie and opened up the script to show the couple's neighborhood, expanded the action to cover a period of ten days, and added characters. The music score was composed by Dudley Moore. Stanley Donen directed.