homosexuality

That is a photo of a war hero. Buxton-born Edward Brittain was that dashing mustached man in uniform. But, even in the compelling and passionately pacifist period drama Testament of Youth, the real story of Edward’s (Taron Egerton) shooting has been subsumed in the female-driven drama of his older sister, Vera (Alicia Vikander). She after all, wrote the popular WWI memoir published in 1933. And when Vera Brittain wrote the book, she was likely unaware that of the real cause of her brother’s “heroic” death.

Edward Brittain took an Italian sniper’s bullet in the Somme five months before the Armistice, but the real betrayal stemmed from British Army homophobia. Shades of Alan Turing and The Imitation Game. Brittain’s commanding officers discovered a cache of Brittain’s letters that revealed sexual relations with ordinary soldiers n his unit at a time when homosexuality was illegal. According to Oxford-educated historian Mark Bostridge, Brittain was given an option: submit to court martial Army justice or place yourself in harm’s way and die “honorably.” It was the WW1 version of don’t ask, don’t tell, just go away.

The Three Musketeers: Vera’s brother Edward, Leighton, Victor Richardson — all WW1 casualties

While this even darker chapter in Vera’s story does not appear on screen, Director James Kent (who is gay himself) revealed the fascinating and deeply sad historical anecdote during a post-screening talk in Manhattan hosted by ZEALnyc.com in answer to the question: what did you have to leave out of the book to make the movie. Brittain later wrote about her brother in her 1936 novel Honorable Estate.

Taron Egerton in uniform as Vera’s brother Edward

Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar Hoover, Leonardo DiCaprio, forbidden gay love, blame the mother

Leo: desperately seeking seriousness

Do you hear that sound, like ice cracking in Antarctica? That’s the impact of Oscar hopes — for Warner Brothers, for Clint Eastwood, for Leonardo DiCaprio — being dashed on the shore of reality. Oscar insiders across the country have returned to their abacuses to rejigger the odds in the top five, as J. Edgar fails, albeit nobly, on the big screen at 137 minutes of wrong-choices and self-aggrandizement.

The opening scene, with Leo as ancient FBI honcho J. Edgar Hoover (1895 – 1972) inspires snickers. I apologize to the man in the screening room who shushed me; I couldn’t help myself. The make-up is just that bad. Here’s a part that Jack Nicholson could play — or Eddie Murphy in the latex to transform him into an old white man from Coming to America. If that had been the movie’s only problem — is there a Razzie for worst make-up? — then the snickers in the theater would have quieted, and the snores that soon erupted from my neighbor’s gaping mouth would never have occurred.

The central flaw to this big budget “behind the music” style biopic is Milk Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black’s script. It tells every thing and nothing about the man. With an abundance of voiceover, it narrates the story, shows the story, explains the story as if it were a Weekly Reader expose.

Yes, it addresses Hoover’s homosexual tendencies, his rumored cross-dressing, but those scenes arrive late and are few and far between, and overwrought. Let the guy have a kiss, an urge, a spot of warmth — but, no, [Read more…]

Director James Kent ‘Outs’ Vera Brittain’s Brother, Edward, at Manhattan Screening

“J. Edgar” gets Hoovered