Defying Gravity (1997)

The Age of Commercialism

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The first must-see film of the year.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I can't believe it's been almost 20 years since I saw this film (from a Super 16 print) in a dingy little San Francisco theater. It only played for a week and I went to see it again almost every night. No, it's not "Star Wars" but at that time gay cinema was dominated by depressing AIDS-related tragedies and horrible stereotypical gay caricatures. "Defying Gravity" was one of the first full length films to show us a fairly ordinary guy who just happens to like other guys. Candidly, I was always put off by the gay bashing plot point, but I'll cut the writer some slack for needing an strong dramatic element to move the characters from point A to B. Sadly, only a short time after this film was released the real life Matthew Shepard murder occurred. I know it's easy to find fault with these low budget affairs that have to be shot in two weeks with no rehearsal and no more than two takes. But if you know anything about film making, you really have to respect the entire cast and crew for pulling off anything remotely entertaining under these conditions. It's a shame Daniel Chilson didn't make any more films after this. He created a character that was immediately likable. I just saw a big budget gay film this weekend where I didn't care about any of the main characters, even after 90 minutes.

I loved this movie. It was touching and heart wrenching.It showed that love conquers all no matter what happens. I can't stop watching this movie. I play it over and over again I just can't get enough of this film. The director did a great job with this film. It captured the essence of true love and what is meant to be in love with someone.I think they should make a Defying Gravity 2 even after all these years. I would like to know what happened with Pete and Griff's relationship, Griff's friendship with Denetra. The second movie should be class reunion about what happened in their lives after the first movie and what they been up to.

I don't know whether anyone has raved about how beautiful Daniel Chilson is. I have tried to search the net for some more information on him. On the contrary, the only one who was not attractive was his lover, Pete. It is hard to me to believe that any one so gorgeous as "Griff" would fall in love with anyone so homely as "Pete". That, of course, is a subjective opinion. I would recommend this picture to all gays where the themes are still quite valid and the good old boy atmosphere of frats still remains supreme. Even today, after so much "Gay Liberation" talk, reality is such that our society is still mainly homophobic. Straights even avoid seeing programs in which gay characters are featured. Effeminacy still makes them wince. Even gays wince when they see someone who is flaming. This, of course, continues to be unfair. I am not sure how to change all that. It certainly is not through film if straights won't see them. I know that a great amount of effort is expended trying to have us accepted just as another human being with the same needs as straights but when we see the governor of the only State where gay-marriage is legal, running for President and completely in favor of amending the constitution so as to eliminate the gay-marriage in Massachussets, and our own President in favor of the same, in spite of how the straights have turned marriage into a farce by divorcing over and over again, we then see what we are up against. We are still low man on the totem pole and it is because of the rotten hypocrisy of the fundamentalists of organized religion. I still think Daniel Chilson is gorgeous.

This reminded me of those After school specials that were on TV when I was a kid, except for the swearing. This barrage of out of work straight actors trying to play gay roles is getting a bit out of hand. You have to be GOOD to do it. Gay actor Rock Hudson was great at convincing the audience he was passionate about his female love interests. There are other to be nameless gay actors who have also managed this task. It's very rare that a straight actor involved in a love scene with another man can pull it off. This movie is no exception. That said, I'm sure it's not that easy to cast leads in film like this as good gay actors won't touch them out of fear and good straight actors don't need them. I still got teared up at points, but it only because the story was very personal to me. Anyone else might find it boring, but these stories have to be told. If you're interested in this story, I would suggest a film called "Get Real". Much better film dealing with a similar subject.