Author Topic: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"  (Read 20179 times)

Offline brianr

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Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« on: September 28, 2013, 11:47:21 pm »
I have just returned from watching this movie and have very confused feelings.
It was hardly discussed in the movie thread. Apparently it was only on TV in the USA because it was considered "too gay" As someone said on IMDB "This is after Brokeback??"
My 60 + movie group goes to a movie on the 2nd Sunday of the month. I am glad I did not see it with them. However the audience was similar - Elderly ladies and one or 2 older men like me (except they were accompanied by ladies and I was alone).

I never liked Liberace much, thankfully my music tastes are better and he made me squirm as he was so much a queen.
Towards the end of the movie I was loathing him completely and although I felt a bit sorry for him dying of AIDS (I did not know that before) I still think he was completely repugnant and not a person I would like my friends to see as typically gay.

My sister told me today that her best friend wanted to see the movie but it has apparently finished screening in Australia. Thank God. Her friend is 79. like my sister but, unlike my sister who has watched her young brother deal with being gay, is completely homophobic and I watch what I say in her presence.
This movie would hardly improve her views.

While my life has been no stranger to back room bars I was a little embarrassed at them being depicted in front of that audience. However in his late 50's Liberace picked up a (16 - 18 it seems to vary) boy, Scott, from a broken home, lavishes him with gifts and sex and even arranges for him to have a completely unnecessary facelift then throws him over when a younger trick meets his eye. And apparently there were several such victims, only Scott has written about it.

Much is made of the fact that Scott is now a drug addict and has been in jail. Can anyone be surprised? 

Both Matt Damon and Michael Douglas give good performances so that made seeing the movie worthwhile, although I could have wished the face surgery was not depicted in such detail.  However I felt sick that straight people my age should be viewing such a seedy side of gay life.

Offline Monika

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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2013, 04:07:31 pm »
I have just returned from watching this movie and have very confused feelings.
It was hardly discussed in the movie thread. Apparently it was only on TV in the USA because it was considered "too gay" As someone said on IMDB "This is after Brokeback??"
My 60 + movie group goes to a movie on the 2nd Sunday of the month. I am glad I did not see it with them. However the audience was similar - Elderly ladies and one or 2 older men like me (except they were accompanied by ladies and I was alone).

I never liked Liberace much, thankfully my music tastes are better and he made me squirm as he was so much a queen.
Towards the end of the movie I was loathing him completely and although I felt a bit sorry for him dying of AIDS (I did not know that before) I still think he was completely repugnant and not a person I would like my friends to see as typically gay.

My sister told me today that her best friend wanted to see the movie but it has apparently finished screening in Australia. Thank God. Her friend is 79. like my sister but, unlike my sister who has watched her young brother deal with being gay, is completely homophobic and I watch what I say in her presence.
This movie would hardly improve her views.

While my life has been no stranger to back room bars I was a little embarrassed at them being depicted in front of that audience. However in his late 50's Liberace picked up a (16 - 18 it seems to vary) boy, Scott, from a broken home, lavishes him with gifts and sex and even arranges for him to have a completely unnecessary facelift then throws him over when a younger trick meets his eye. And apparently there were several such victims, only Scott has written about it.

Much is made of the fact that Scott is now a drug addict and has been in jail. Can anyone be surprised? 

Both Matt Damon and Michael Douglas give good performances so that made seeing the movie worthwhile, although I could have wished the face surgery was not depicted in such detail.  However I felt sick that straight people my age should be viewing such a seedy side of gay life.

Well, at least you can take comfort in the fact that there are plenty of movies out there depicting the seedy life of heterosexuals as well.

Offline brianr

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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2013, 04:39:07 pm »
Well, at least you can take comfort in the fact that there are plenty of movies out there depicting the seedy life of heterosexuals as well.
Yes but unfortunately people do not always see that. My sister's girlfriend is so bitter about gay men because her other best friend was married to a gay man. The eventual happened and they divorced leaving her to bring up a daughter in poverty while he was a successful medical practitioner. Of course this all happened long ago as they are all now in their late 70's and was before the laws were changed which would now make him pay support.
Now we know that sort of thing happens all the time with heterosexuals but for my sister's friend it damns all gay men.

Offline Sophia

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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2013, 05:13:41 pm »
I have just returned from watching this movie and have very confused feelings.
It was hardly discussed in the movie thread. Apparently it was only on TV in the USA because it was considered "too gay" As someone said on IMDB "This is after Brokeback??"
My 60 + movie group goes to a movie on the 2nd Sunday of the month. I am glad I did not see it with them. However the audience was similar - Elderly ladies and one or 2 older men like me (except they were accompanied by ladies and I was alone).

I never liked Liberace much, thankfully my music tastes are better and he made me squirm as he was so much a queen.
Towards the end of the movie I was loathing him completely and although I felt a bit sorry for him dying of AIDS (I did not know that before) I still think he was completely repugnant and not a person I would like my friends to see as typically gay.

My sister told me today that her best friend wanted to see the movie but it has apparently finished screening in Australia. Thank God. Her friend is 79. like my sister but, unlike my sister who has watched her young brother deal with being gay, is completely homophobic and I watch what I say in her presence.
This movie would hardly improve her views.

While my life has been no stranger to back room bars I was a little embarrassed at them being depicted in front of that audience. However in his late 50's Liberace picked up a (16 - 18 it seems to vary) boy, Scott, from a broken home, lavishes him with gifts and sex and even arranges for him to have a completely unnecessary facelift then throws him over when a younger trick meets his eye. And apparently there were several such victims, only Scott has written about it.

Much is made of the fact that Scott is now a drug addict and has been in jail. Can anyone be surprised? 

Both Matt Damon and Michael Douglas give good performances so that made seeing the movie worthwhile, although I could have wished the face surgery was not depicted in such detail.  However I felt sick that straight people my age should be viewing such a seedy side of gay life.


I saw Liberace "behind the candelabra" a few weeks ago as well, and I must say it made me confused too...a lot of wondering questions were raist in my head..... I think I can answer one of your questions thou...why Scott is the only one, who have written about it, according to Scott, he is the only one alive. He says, he knows about 4 boys who died from AIDS after having relationship with Liberace. (one of the boys who died, is portraited in the movie, as Liberace new love interest.)

   

Offline brianr

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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2013, 05:28:49 pm »
I think I can answer one of your questions thou...why Scott is the only one, who have written about it, according to Scott, he is the only one alive. He says, he knows about 4 boys who died from AIDS after having relationship with Liberace. (one of the boys who died, is portraited in the movie, as Liberace new love interest.)
Thanks, that explains a lot. I tend to forget now, after over 20 years, that so many died at that time. It was such a horrible time that one tends to suppress the memories.

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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2014, 12:07:01 pm »
It was great to see this get so many awards at the SAG ceremony last week.  :laugh:
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Offline x-man

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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"--PUT OUT THE CANDLES!
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2014, 10:07:15 am »
I finally saw Behind the Candelabra a few nights ago.  I was not confused in the least--I was appalled.  As a gay man I was greatly offended that this cartoonish effort was made in the first place, and then was celebrated as being of any worth at all.

Any gay man seeing this film without warning would be repelled.  I suppose with some warning it could be watched as a kind of over-the-top parody that could be fun--but under the fun would be the suspicion that this production actually thought it was saying something serious about gay life.

At its heart it was the story of a crazy, stereotypically gay, older sugar daddy (virtually a drag queen in pants), and his  twinkie boyfriend who was out for everything he could get out of the old man.  Douglas and Dillon could not possibly have been a worse case of casting.  No, please.  It was ghastly and embarrassing to watch.  I can certainly understand why LGBTs did not want their families and friends to see it.  BTC is exactly the kind of anti-gay propaganda that comes from  time long ago, and still drives me berserk.

Scott Thompson was the only one alive to write the book--and profit from the movie royalties.  That he was shamelessly using Liberace all along, and was a totally self-seeking bastard seems to have gotten lost along the way.  Liberace sure had bad taste in men.  He is the one to pity, not the sleazy hangers-on who took advantage of him.

And why do some of you straight people insist on calling the younger partners in gay relationships "boys?"  Thompson was not a boy, he was a young man.  To characterize them as "young boys" is to suggest paedophilia, and is homophobic.  Stop it.  Do you describe 17 and 18 year old females as "young girls?"  No.  And feminists I know would be very angry if you did.

That this film would win any awards--at SAG or any place else--says nothing about the film, but lots about the organizations presenting the awards,
Happiness is the lasting pleasure of the mind grasping the intelligible order of reality.      --Leibniz

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2014, 10:38:19 am »
Do you remember Liberace?
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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2014, 11:14:38 am »
LOL @ Truman!

X-man, Liberace was very flamboyant and animated.  I didn't see the show, but I'm sure they portrayed him correctly.


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Re: Liberace "Behind the Candelabra"
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2014, 11:29:09 am »
My friend Offline Chuck loved the show and as an accomplished pianist, loved Liberace. Apparently he was really talented as a pianist. I barely remember him myself but enough to know that the costumes, candelabra and mannerisms were really there.
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