In 1980 “Cruising” was released that featured a murderous psychopath among an S&M New York subculture where there was a direct link between homosexual insinuations and crime.Ĭonsidering these facts, where is the balance between depicting a queer antagonist and LGBTQ visibility? Can evil characters be queer without the filmmakers being perceived as homophobic? This list takes a look at the films that have shaped the mainstream conception about LGBTQ issues through a variety of topics revolving around queerness in the 20th Century. Homosexuals were perceived to exhibit feminine features such as being soft-spoken, moving about in a “dainty” fashion, or being physically weaker than the male protagonist. But, if we look at the history of LGBTQ+ cinema back in the 20th Century, we would see how this representation came into being.ĭuring the classical Hollywood era from the early 1920s to the late ‘50s, homosexuality was only understood through propagating stereotypes and reinforcing them through innuendos.
20 Important Queer Movies Of The 20th Century: Cinema based on LGBTQ+ issues has become mainstream in the 21st Century, with films like Moonlight, A Fantastic Woman, and 120 BPM heading a much-required discourse on queer identity politics and representation.
