Heroic gay characters in popular film: Tragic determination, and the everyday

Abstract

This essay discusses gay identity and notions of character construction relating to the concept of tragic determination in media representations. Issues of adaptation and the significance of the Dionysian and Apollonian drives within tragedy (relating to Nietzsche's foundational work) are explored. A key concept is the examination of tensions between civic usefulness and emotive potential. Through an examination of Alan Turing's disavowal as a gay icon (as a war time hero) in the Hollywood film Enigma (dir. Michael Apted 2001) in the substitution of a heterosexual romance, and conversely his sympathetic representation within the stage and television drama Breaking the Code (dir. Hugh Whitemore 1986), this essay reveals the problem of the gay hero in popular film, and its sensibility in diverse adaptations. In exploring the contemporary ‘heroic’ representation of gay political icons, Harvey Milk and Pedro Zamora, this essay also reveals a problem-oriented cinematic world where the spectre of the sacrificial/tragic gay self offers replacement for the historic subordinated and othered gay character. In this way, new stimulations of mainstream media commodity offer the potential of subaltern transgression, yet at the same time reinforce the periphery of diverse sexual identity.

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