Drive (1974)


Directed by Jack Deveau
****

The gay porn equivalent of a midnight movie. The lead character, Arachne, feels like Divine's distant cousin who just stepped out of a Warhol movie. She's a masterwork of camp, first appearing in a gorilla suit, riffing on Marlene Deitrich, and later giving a surprisingly moving monologue. Her goals are clearly defined and motivated, unlike the cheating James Bond-esque man trying to defeat her but constantly getting distracted by sex. It's hard not to be disappointed by the ending which as well as being very unsatisfying falls prey to some lazy gender politics.

The sex here is notably unerotic, overlaid with strange animal sounds and chaotically edited. Also, has an insane fisting jump scare which has to be seen to be believed. I've often wondered, as I've been watching the Ilsa films, what a gay version of them would look like. The final third kinda answers that; irresponsibly horny and ending in a giant orgy. One of the tortures is kinda impressive though. A man is strapped to a table, his dick dangling over another man, just out of reach. Sexual tension = erotic. Watched with my boyfriend over Skype. He was just confused and weirded out the entire time and bemused by that fisting scene, so a good couple time.

Listened to Evan Purchell and Tyler Thomas' podcast the next day. Again, hugely informative around the specific background of the film but also around queer culture during the 70s. I was most interested by a discussion about the death of gay porn theatres which happened as early as 1976. With the rise of cruising hot spots like bath houses and sex clubs, the theatre had less of an appeal. Especially when we consider that gay films were a lot more expensive (as mentioned in last week's episode). As time went on, gay theatres had to put in facilities like sex arcades and rooms in order to remain relevant. Straight porn theatres had less of this problem as cruising wasn't really something straight people did.

This was really fascinating to me, because I'd always assumed that gay porn theatres were mostly eradicated by the introduction of the VHS making it easier for people to watch at home. And with the AIDS crisis of the 80s killing off bathhouses and other cruising hotspots, the writing was on the wall. It's interesting that even before these massive cultural events that the theatres were already facing extinction. A sad fact.

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