2 Fast 2 Furious Review [2]
Posted By Tim C. on 06.11.03
For years Hollywood has skirted around the issue. Press releases, false marriages, beards, outright lies and denial have all been used to mask the sexuality of many of their film stars. Even more so, the community they came from was always denied role models and heros, constantly relegated to fashion designer, interior decorator and hairdresser. Even with the advancements made in the portrayal of homosexuals in mainstream media, they are almost always shown as fey, shrieking and otherwise weak.
With the release of this summer's 2 Fast 2 Furious, the landscape of cinema has finally changed; We now finally have the first gay action movie.
Furious tells the tale of Brian, played by the bronzed Paul Walker. It's continues the story of a young police officer who, in a fit of confused passion, let his love for Vin Diesel override his duty as a police officer in The Fast and the Furious. When given the chance to apprehend him, he instead let him go. The movie- in a surface gesture- implies that obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting a felon were why he was dismissed as a police officer. But the truth is there, so very simple and so very obvious; His love for another man so threatened his fellow police officers that he was forced to leave, "disgraced" in his love for another man.
In 2 Fast 2 Furious he finds himself in Miami on the lamb from the law, street racing to survive and maintain a lean, tan physique. During an intense race he is apprehended by the authorities and told that he if helps them with a sting operation against a drug lord, he will have his so-called "disgrace" of man-love erased from his record. Upon learning this, he decides to bring in an old friend.
Enter Rome, played by R&B-singer Tyrese, an accomplished driver in his own right. We learn that when Brian became a police officer, during a bust he came across Rome without realizing it and was forced to arrest him. We learn this as the two fight and wrestle with one another in the dirt under the hot sun. Their writhing bodies cling closer and closer to one another as they confess their inner animosity.
It is all a veiled pretense to cover the true subtext of the scene. We really know that the obviously openly gay Rome finally confessed his love to a young Brian, who was confused by this admission. Not knowing what to do he conformed to the "norm" and dismissed Rome by "sending him away" to prison. Now, as a grown man, ready to confront his true self, he seeks out his first love, Rome, to fill the hole in his life. Brian's love for the man let a criminal go before and he finally awakened to his inner self.
The two go undercover for a local drug lord, and are forced to endure the presence of fag-hag extraordinaire Monica, played by Eva Mendes. She serves as a temptation to Brian, trying to drag him back in to the straight world, but never succeeds in more than kissing him as Brian has an awakening and never turns back, in fact ending up with his true love, Rome, at the end of the film as they decide to "Open a garage" together.
The movie is for men about men and manly love. It's about cars, sleeveless shirts, toned abs, and more sleeveless shirts. The movie does so much but is still held back. The two leads never kiss, although their animal passion gets the better of them on many occasions, so much so that they come nose to nose and pull away before a manly embrace. The car races are pure euphemisms for sex for the two men. They engage in tag-team racing and it's through their drive and performance that they win in climatic and almost orgasmic celebration after victory. The cars are fully extensions of their psychological and metaphysical libidos.
Every car race features hard turns, white knuckles, sweaty brows, collisions of pure sexual violence, with shattering frames flying through the air like the explosive release of passion. The movie cannot show it's two leads in an emotional and physical embrace so it constructs embraces and erotic lust in the form of automotive encounters. The film is not high minded with it's embracing of cars as nothing more than the colloquial equivalent of their "cock", but it doesn't matter. The film, especially under the written focus of Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, is the utmost epitome of "gay".
The day of the gay action film is finally upon us. Hollywood will finally recognize the masculinity of these gay men and their gay cars embarking upon gay races- be they physical or metaphorical.
It matters little that the film at it's core is a hodge-podge of cultural "of-the-moment" slang and expression, fueling and capitalizing on a fad that has been embraced by upper-middle-class-suburban teens bankrolled by their parents, horrible movie clichés, and most of the entire run of "Dukes of Hazzard" (before the cousins took over for Tom Wopat and John Schneider). It matters little that this movie suggests a stunning regression for John Singleton after his very personal and very mature Baby Boy, because he will be a part of the new gay vanguard.
So, when you see 2 Fast 2 Furious, do not be ashamed to walk out of the theater and in the loudest voice you can muster, shout to the world "I just saw a gay film!"
