Fortune and Men's Eyes

I saw this in the Cosmo (pre GFT) in Glasgow one afternoon. The original and still the best movie on prison sex. Kept me to the straight and narrow! Powerful, unpleasant, occasionally verging on crudeness. Definitely best viewed after some libation. Not a date movie. Recommended - once.

'Fortune and Men's Eyes' is a film which I recommend as interesting viewing for anyone who wishes to watch an early story of important gay cinema.

It's author, the late playwright Jonhn Herbert, is an icon of gay writing.

This is a story based on John Herbert's own unfortunate true experience as an inmate as a teenager in a penal institution in Canada, wrongly imprisoned after being the victim of gay bashing. It is a play that later became a film.

I recommend that you watch this film despite the fact that it is old, to say the least.

I saw this film shortly after its release, when I was around 18 years old, and many of the scenes went right over my head. Watching it again now, I am amazed at how many scenes have stuck in my mind (especially the harrowing ending). Although (not surprisingly) dated, and clearly made on a very low budget, this film has a remarkable way of pacing the action and building tension: for instance, the almost-hallucinatory prison Xmas party seems to be going on forever until it suddenly erupts in violence.

In 1971, people were excited (or outraged) about the homosexual scenes, but I think it would be wrong to think that the film is "about" homosexuality. For me, it is about power structures in what Goffmann has called a "total institution". Sexuality, or rather rape, is just another tool to maintain power, along with violence and trade in tobacco and drugs.

It's a raw, brutal and uncomfortable film, and well worth watching.

Theme of homosexuality and rape in prison was very daring for its time (1971). You could feel the pain of the lead character as he succumbs to the brutal advances of his cellmate, while longing for his girlfriend.

I saw the movie when it first came out, and I still remember the line uttered by a prisoner as he observes a gang rape- "Nobody's going to stop a man from getting his oats." It's one of my all-time favorite quotes from films.

Fortune And Men's Eyes is another one of those works that could never have been filmed until after the Stonewall Rebellion and certainly not while the Code was in place in Hollywood. Now the fact of homosexuality in prison is simply a given, but when you think of all the great prison films in the classic Hollywood studio age like The Big House, Each Dawn I Die, or Brute Force, you'd think these men had simply turned off the sexual energy once incarcerated. If there is homosexuality it is very subtly implied.

This is more than implied it's the result of incarcerated people having no other outlet. Seems perfectly reasonable now, but back in the day, a most taboo subject.

The original play was done within the confines of a single cell that housed four different prisoners and it's their story being told. Zooey Hall rules the cell and he's got his eyes on new inmate Wendell Burton just arrived. Also in the cell are Danny Freedman who is a weak kid without anyone to protect him. As a result he's victimized by everyone and that includes the guards. Presiding over it all is Queenie, a most flamboyant gay man who's discovered that prison could be an interesting place to be if sex is used properly and withheld occasionally. Michael Greer is Queenie and Greer originated the role off Broadway.

Incarcerated people don't cease being sexual beings even when they're incarcerated is the simple message of Fortune In Men's Eyes. Of course it took gays and lesbians coming out of the closet to get that message out to the general public. It's the reasons why some states and prisons have adopted a policy of conjugal visits. If not to cease the practice of rape in prison, at least to lessen it.

This is not limited to men. Although there is certainly implied lesbianism in the MGM classic Caged about a woman's prison, can you imagine how explicit a modern remake would be? In fact I'm surprised that film hasn't been remade.

Fortune And Men's Eyes is still a film with quite a revealing message that will sear your soul. Watch it, but not if you're squeamish.