in honor of the fact that oxygen played "bend it like beckham" twice consecutively the other night, and the fact that i watched it both times, i thought i'd finally write that post i've always wanted to write about why it is the gayest movie ever. well, i mean besides the fact that it was originally supposed to be a lesbian movie (check imdb). subtext is a powerful tool, and even without having the two main characters officially have any sort of romantic involvement, the movie gives you the full effect. i'm going to list the reasons why.
1- where to start? okay, keira knightley's haircut in that movie.
2- both girls are definitely introduced as being kinda "queer". jess, in her preference for playing sports, wearing track pants, and not owning shoes besides sneakers, is contrasted with her superfeminine engaged sister, who asks "don't you want all this?" as she plans her wedding. it's clear jess's answer is no. her mother asks her who will want to marry a girl who is great at soccer but can't make round chipoti, and it's clear that she's like who cares.
3- juliet, who will only buy sports bras, is constantly nagged by her mother to give up the sports and care about boys. when her mom says she saw "that kevin" walking with a girl, juliet says "kevin can shag whoever he wants," cuz she don't care. also, according to her mom, she has posters of butch women all over her room.
4- juliet's "discovering" jess and recruiting her for the girls' soccer team plays like a chick spotting a cool, hot chick and telling her she digs her. lots of footage of juliet watching jess playing soccer from across the park, very cute.
5- jess's relationship with her coach is a forbidden love because he is not indian, and jess's choice of an "other" as a sexual partner serves as a metaphor for a homosexual relationship.
6- along those lines, jess's best male friend comes out to her as gay, so the film contains someone coming out of the closet. his homosexuality is clearly compared with jess's situation, so as a viewer it is not difficult to make the leap and see him as a foil for jess and her as a queer heroine.
7- i would feel like i was pushing it with number four, except that jess's choice of a lover is jonathan rhys-meyers, who is probably the least not-gay actor in hollywood these days. that's what's so brilliant about having him in the middle of the love triangle. like these two smart, hot women are head over heels for that guy? did they see him doing the airplane at the end of the movie? also, if juliet actually is supposed to be gay, it would make sense that she only "likes" one guy, and it's her unavailable coach.
8- when juliet spots jess kissing the coach, her first response is "you bitch!" and it seems that she's more focused on jess's betrayal than on the coach's choice to try to make it with jess. maybe because she wanted to be the one jess was smooching.
9- then there's the subplot where juliet's mom mishears their fight and thinks that it was about jess breaking juliet's heart (which it was, but whatever). so we get to watch the mother come to terms with her daughter's homosexuality. this is especially interesting because we get to see certain scenes through the mother's eyes, like when juliet and jess kiss after discovering that the talent agent saw their game. while we know that it is platonic, we see how through her reading of the situation, something more is going on. this is the director giving us a clue of how we should be watching the movie, reading between the lines to see the lesbian subtext.
10- there's just so much sport playing. you know who likes watching girls play sports? lesbians.
11- at the end, who rides off into the sunset together (or flies off on an airplane to america)? not jess and her boyfriend, who is too busy running around the cricket field with his collar up. nope, it's jess and juliet, who are going to be playing on the same soccer team in california. ladies, why don't you just save time and move to san fran?
12- when juliet's mother finally confronts her about the gay thing, and juliet clears it up (until 3 months later when her mom will get a phone call from america, "um mom, actually yeah.") in response to her mom's jubilation, juliet is all "and so what if i was? there's nothing wrong with being a lesbian." aw, go gay pride.
1- where to start? okay, keira knightley's haircut in that movie.
2- both girls are definitely introduced as being kinda "queer". jess, in her preference for playing sports, wearing track pants, and not owning shoes besides sneakers, is contrasted with her superfeminine engaged sister, who asks "don't you want all this?" as she plans her wedding. it's clear jess's answer is no. her mother asks her who will want to marry a girl who is great at soccer but can't make round chipoti, and it's clear that she's like who cares.
3- juliet, who will only buy sports bras, is constantly nagged by her mother to give up the sports and care about boys. when her mom says she saw "that kevin" walking with a girl, juliet says "kevin can shag whoever he wants," cuz she don't care. also, according to her mom, she has posters of butch women all over her room.
4- juliet's "discovering" jess and recruiting her for the girls' soccer team plays like a chick spotting a cool, hot chick and telling her she digs her. lots of footage of juliet watching jess playing soccer from across the park, very cute.
5- jess's relationship with her coach is a forbidden love because he is not indian, and jess's choice of an "other" as a sexual partner serves as a metaphor for a homosexual relationship.
6- along those lines, jess's best male friend comes out to her as gay, so the film contains someone coming out of the closet. his homosexuality is clearly compared with jess's situation, so as a viewer it is not difficult to make the leap and see him as a foil for jess and her as a queer heroine.
7- i would feel like i was pushing it with number four, except that jess's choice of a lover is jonathan rhys-meyers, who is probably the least not-gay actor in hollywood these days. that's what's so brilliant about having him in the middle of the love triangle. like these two smart, hot women are head over heels for that guy? did they see him doing the airplane at the end of the movie? also, if juliet actually is supposed to be gay, it would make sense that she only "likes" one guy, and it's her unavailable coach.
8- when juliet spots jess kissing the coach, her first response is "you bitch!" and it seems that she's more focused on jess's betrayal than on the coach's choice to try to make it with jess. maybe because she wanted to be the one jess was smooching.
9- then there's the subplot where juliet's mom mishears their fight and thinks that it was about jess breaking juliet's heart (which it was, but whatever). so we get to watch the mother come to terms with her daughter's homosexuality. this is especially interesting because we get to see certain scenes through the mother's eyes, like when juliet and jess kiss after discovering that the talent agent saw their game. while we know that it is platonic, we see how through her reading of the situation, something more is going on. this is the director giving us a clue of how we should be watching the movie, reading between the lines to see the lesbian subtext.
10- there's just so much sport playing. you know who likes watching girls play sports? lesbians.
11- at the end, who rides off into the sunset together (or flies off on an airplane to america)? not jess and her boyfriend, who is too busy running around the cricket field with his collar up. nope, it's jess and juliet, who are going to be playing on the same soccer team in california. ladies, why don't you just save time and move to san fran?
12- when juliet's mother finally confronts her about the gay thing, and juliet clears it up (until 3 months later when her mom will get a phone call from america, "um mom, actually yeah.") in response to her mom's jubilation, juliet is all "and so what if i was? there's nothing wrong with being a lesbian." aw, go gay pride.
posted by Amanda at 8:15 PM
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