Was it a Boxer or Brief Encounter?
Senator Larry Craig came to life last week; his imitation of life seemed over. He had unwillingly announced to the world that in June the wind blew through his soul, and he had given into his truth. With his "I am not gay" proclamation, Craig confirmed that he's really a frightened, closeted, homosexual man stuck in a restroom stall.
Craig is an adjective; an extension to last year's narrative of a sexually-sad man. "He's in a Brokeback marriage. If he doesn't get out of it soon, he'll be Larry Craiging it." You could substitute Ted Haggard, Mark Foley or any number of who have been caught with their pants down and their hearts racing in anticipation of that which they say they most abhor. These are unfulfilled men, living life in the closet driven into restroom stalls, reaching for imaginary paper on the floor in hope of finding a brief encounter of honest relief. The law of our land calls it lewd; that's the illegal part, but for Sen. Craig, the crime is the hypocrisy. Millions of gay and boldly out Americans and out American families have been denied rights because of the votes he has cast throughout his career. Craig's denial of who he is and his denunciation of what he wants will plague him for the rest of his sad, convoluted life.
Just like the jets zigzagging across Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport last June, trains crossed through Milford station in director David Lean's 1945's film noir masterpiece Brief Encounter. Like the tearoom Craig found himself creating, a famous indiscretion was ignited in that station's tearoom too. Celia Johnson, as Laura, was tired of her dull, boorish husband Fred and her predictable married life. While connecting through the suburban London station, Laura finds herself in need of relief from a piece an irritating "grit" lodged in her eye. In the station's coffee shop Trevor Howard, playing Dr. Alec Harvey, lovingly lifts her lid, offering her a release from her frustration. From there it's a meeting every Thursday with excitement, guilt, and lust bouncing their love -- and their hormones -- across the outskirts of scheduled city living.
More than just a film about an affair, this film offers us a look at married life; the foibles and pitfalls of a commitment entered into in the heat of youth that is meant to last a lifetime. These unlawful lovers barely kiss, but from the moment they first engage in conversation, their aching itch burns hotter then the tip of a Tiparillo.
Brief Encounter is told as a flash-back. Laura is sitting in her living room as her mind is silently recounting her illegal affair. She is dumbfounded and tossed against the walls of life while Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto plays on a spinning, rolling, racing record. This single piece of music plays throughout the film like a third character. The concerto's frenetic, foreboding pulse is this film's addicting, haunting heartbeat. Like the forbidden love of Brokeback Mountain, Brief Encounter is filled with the tragic tension of a love that should thrive but doesn't stand a chance. Film-noir moral marital ambiguity, sexual motivation, and low-key lighting add to the atmosphere of doom as commuter trains tick-tock in and out of the dirty, dark station. Laura's love cannot be celebrated because she is already married. For millions of American men and women their love can never be sanctioned; they can never marry or be treated fairly under federal law.
Larry Craig's own legislative record helped hone the world that scared him into a commuter bathroom. His right-wing world takes its toll on thousands of gay and lesbian children as they are beginning another school year. Badgering bullies, religious parents and ignorant teachers reflect the hate supported by the Bush administration's consistent anti-gay stand. LGBT teens are lured further and further into confusion. They become suicide statistics faster than any other group in America. Annually, thousands of children wind up homeless on the streets -- thrown out by parents or forced to run away from families and peers. Gay and lesbian charities hope to resuscitate the scarred, ostracized lives, but federal funds are almost non-existent in America's faith-based-Larry Craig-rationing of tax dollars.
Sen. Craig will never be found guiltless even if he is acquitted in a court of law. His hands are dirty -- coated with the misery of millions. His legacy is written. Sen. Craig falls into the group of white adult men most likely to commit suicide, those that have unexpectedly lost their job. Whether he was reaching down to pick up an invisible piece of filthy toilet paper, or reaching under the stall for a moment of right-wing bliss, his life will be made miserable by his own hypocritical actions.
The damage that Craig has done has nothing to do with the men's room at MSP but everything to do with the Senate chambers. Twenty-five years ago Billie Jean King was sued for palimony. She held a press conference denying the relationship; the next day, at another press conference she began "I did have an affair with Marilyn Barnett. It has been over for quite some time..." She said her previous comment had been made on her lawyer's advice. Her truth, not a court acquittal had finally set her free. Maybe Craig's truth could, too.
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By the way, thank you for posting the video clip of "Brief Encounter," Mr. Gregory. What a poignant and haunting film it is.
It is. It's a wonderful film.
I highly recommend "Sorry, Wrong Number" as a wonderful example of Film Noir. A must-see.
That said, Billie Jean King did everything that one could possibly do to convince the world she was straight. It was only the palimony suit that literally dragged her out of the closet. King remains, today, a staunch opponent of outing, in case you didn't know.
For all of you more caught up in whether "Brief Encounter" is or is not film noir as opposed to the point that Mr. Gregory was trying to get across: would Hitchcock's "Stangers on a Train" have been more to your liking as the more correct example?
Do you think the public toilet thing was something he was born with as opposed to being a preference?
You are wrong. What Craig did has everything to do with what he did in the public toilet. Nobody really cares to have a senator or a representative like that in a position of power. I am afraid that the homosexual toilet shit is just a little too much. Also he did what he did because he wanted power as a legislator and hid his preference for gain and power, not because the poor boy was shoved into it by society or the Republicans. He had the opportunity to do whatever he wanted in life. He made his choice to pick up men in public toilets because he got off on that crap while pulling one over on everybody and grabbed the power too. He is one congressman I would not to shake hands with because you don't know what you could pick up from him because of his penchant to rub his hand on the undersides of toilet partitions. Yuck!
I must add that I totally agree with the posters here that Brief Encounter is nowhere near film noir. It's kind of insulting to suggest that it is. Brief Encounter is more of a humanistic masterpiece which still rings true today, but I really don't get the comparison between the film and Craig. I think the author here is stretching a point.
As for those who think that the affair in the film is really code for homoseuxality (based simply on the fact that the author of the original play, Noel Coward, was gay) is being a little too overanalytical. Just because Coward was gay doesn't mean everything he ever wrote has gay subtext. I never saw that for a minute.
The point of this article isn't about the film Noir, but the story of Craig's hypocrisy.
-----BUT ------
Brief Encounter has all the characteristics of film noir. Rain-slick streets, dimly lit interiors, and dark train passagways all within a tale of unfilfilled love heading toward a tale of doom.
Larry Craig, steps straight out of Film Noir. He reflects the tensions and insecurities of our homophobic times - that's classic noir with a strong current of moral conflict and a sense of injustice. Most often a film noir story is developed with a hard-hearted, down-on-his-luck male character who encounters an double-dealing woman. In Craig's case this simply turned out to be a double-crossing undercover cop. Like all good film noir, Sen Craig will follow a common plot - the protagonist who suffers from amnesia.
I hope Larry doesn't commit suicide.
He does need support right now...
Its a trajedy that many confused teenagers, thousands really, won't get the opportunity to have Larry Craig as a role model.
Coming out of the closet, or latrine stall isn't easy for anyone.
I wonder how many kids could've learned that from Larry Craig before trying to commit suicide.
Hang in there Larry.
As others have pointed out, Brief Encounter is not a film noir-it has no crime, no femme fatale, no grit. It is not even lit like a noir. Its picture of marriage is not negative-Laura's husband is not a boor; he may be dull, but he treats his wife quite tenderly. This is one of the subtleties of this beautifully written melodrama, which is also beautifully acted. Nor is it a secretly-gay story. Noel Coward was a gay man of genius, able to write a story which could touch and move human beings of any orientation. It has that in common with Brokeback. But thanks for reminding us how great it is. Netflix, people!
I was 12 years old when the Lux Radio Theater broadcast a one hour, condensed version of BRIEF ENCOUNTER. I lay in bed listening intently and imagining it all. I certainly did not hear it as a homosexual affair, disguised. It was a tragic heterosexual love affair to my pre-teen understanding. I have often thought of that drama when learning of other tragic lovers. But film noir? Non.
Brief Encounter is Film Noir? Not even close.
However, it is (quite possibly) about a homosexual love affair. The censors wouldn't have allowed Noel Coward to put that in a screenplay, so he changed the gender of one of the protagonists
Mr. Gregory - Thank you for your beautiful and poignant post. I am proudly the sister-in-law of a wonderful and brilliant gay man. I'm also a step mom to a beautiful gay woman who, with her partner of ten years, bravely stood on the steps of the San Francisco courthouse to commit their lives in marriage and in love. They were the last couple to receive that honor before it was cruely stripped from them by the California Supreme Court. Both family members have endured punishing remarks and wrong-headed legislation from people who share Senator Craig's unfortunate and uninformed bigotry. They also, incredibly, wish only the best for people like Senator Craig.
I can do no less.
My wonderful family members have taught me that thriving in a relationship, whether gay or straight, is only possible when the people are open, forthright and courageous. I wish Senator Craig well as he navigates his self-made stormy waters. I suspect he needs all the good wishes he can get about now.
"thriving in a relationship, whether gay or straight, is only possible when the people are open, forthright and courageous
As Mr. Gregory writes, "his life will be made miserable by his own hypocritical actions," the senator brought this upon himself, but HE had a CHOICE and he had a VOICE in writing, voting for, and/or enacting these dehumanizing laws.
What of our fellow human beings who seek suicide to end their suffering because they're viewed as "different"? My heart breaks for those LGBT teens who felt death was the only answer to their troubled lives.
We are the same inside. We are all humanKind.
Well done, you have calculated a cost for Craig's behavior that transends his petty political career and details the terrible penalty for him and those other self righteous purveyors of hate. The more appropriate movie metaphor to characterize this is Frankenstein, the public in general are still like the frightened villagers armed with torches and pitchforks ready to destroy what they do not understand.
Brief Encounter is most definitely not film noir.
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Posted September 6, 2007 | 02:06 PM (EST)