Okay, I’m always about ten or fifteen years behind on my movie viewing, so I’m just seeing this for the first time tonight.
Now from what I remember about the hype when this was first released, the big suprise was that Jody’s “special friend” that the IRA guy falls for turns out to be a man. My question is, did anyone really not know the minute they saw this character that it was a guy?
I remember it being one of those twists that no one would give away during interviews and promotion because it was supposed to be such a shock. :dubious: I’m just not gettin it. He didn’t even slightly resemble a real female.
I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I think Jaye Davidson is a very fetching girl. When I saw that dick, I was shocked. And I think my husband almost had the same reaction that Stephen Rea had!
Unusually for me, the film had not been spoiled for me, and I didn’t suspect a thing.
A cool thing about that bar? It looked totally “normal” before the Big Surprise, and then it looked totally gay/drag afterwards! I watched it again, and nothing had changed but my perception. Well done, Mr. Jordan.
She might only look masculine to you because you know she’s a man from the get-go. Remember, when we saw this back in the theater, nobody had any idea. When you watch a movie, and a character is introduced as a strikingly beautiful woman (or a gangster, or a wizard), you buy it. Suspension of belief is part of the deal.
Also, back then (in the distant '90s), even if you knew there was a big surprise, you didn’t automatically think it’s a gender-switch. I think this was even before the Eddie Murphy trannie-hooker scandal, so that plot device is far more commonplace now.
Yes, I was convinced. I thought the “big twist” was something that had happened earlier in the movie, so when she was introduced I wasn’t waiting for another one. As the movie went on, though, I thought it looked like she had an adam’s apple. Not long after that was the big reveal. And what a brilliant reveal it is! Even with the adam’s apple, during the camera-pan I was still thinking, “gee, her breasts are pretty small…”
As for the bar, I did think it looked like a gay/trans bar from the beginning. But it didn’t seem (too) out of the question that they might have a female torch singer.
I had no idea. I don’t think anyone in the theater knew because there was this huge gasp followed by various screams and “yikes!” and "Oh my God!"s. Everyone was blown away. It was quite the big deal, back then in the dark ages.
IIRC, at the point when Fergus (Stephen Rea’s IRA member) finally gets down to business with Dil (Jaye Davidson), they do a slow pan down Dil’s body as Fergus undresses her, eventually revealing the meat and potatoes. As a gay man, I’ve always found his reaction a tad extreme and more than a little drama-queeny, but…
The only false note for me was the … shrinkage effect. Given the situation you’d expect him to be erect, I would have thought. I understand why they didn’t/wouldn’t/couldn’t show him like that, but it still seemed wrong to me.
I was going to agree with you until I flipped over in the middle of the movie just now. The ads showed him at his manliest… right now he looks fairly girly.
When I first saw the movie it was on VHS. I had rented it and I lived in the barracks then. It was late, I was having a few beers, and I was watching it when the dick part came up. Took me totally by surprise. I woke up a bunch of my buddies and my squad leader and rewound the part for them to see if they would be shocked. Every single one of them were like "Thats a DUDE? OMG!"
But if I watch it again I’m so aware that Jaye davidson is a man its hard not to see it when he’s in drag.
I saw this film as a Sunday afternoon matinee. When the junk appeared I murmurred a “what the f*ck?”. There were plenty of gasps and “ooohs” in the crowd. Several people got up and left.
I guess we were all surprised.
Remember back then we didn’t have the plethora of digital outlets filled with info that we have today. I knew jack-shit about this film other than the fact that there was some sort of twist.
It’s *not *gay/trans at the beginning. I mean it is, but not discernably. That is why they have the ‘second look around the bar’ scene, with a tonne of trans/gay faces. On the one hand it is a bit devious to have a major plot point that turns on manipulating the audiences’ suspension of belief. Nastily done, I generally think. On the other hand the film is a good one, with or without the trans theme.
