The Observer

Date posted:
29 May 2003

"Nine Dead Gay Guys"

The most shocking film showing at the Cannes Film Festival this year is not a gruesome foreign thriller or an explicit erotic drama. It is a British comedy.

Nine Dead Gay Guys has had critics and hardened film industry executives walking out from screenings in droves. 'I am not easily shocked,' said Arlene Carter, an American assistant producer, 'but I could not believe what I was watching and hearing.'

The dark, sexually graphic film stars the veteran British actor Steven Berkoff, alongside Fish, the lead singer with the band Marillion, and Vas Blackwood, who appeared in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It also stars Michael Praed, the former star of the Eighties American soap opera Dynasty, who in his youth played Robin Hood on British television. 'It is hard to believe an actor who was such a wholesome children's hero has come to this,' said Carter.

While pundits had predicted that Irreversible, the uncompromising new film by the French-Argentine director Gaspar Noe, would be dubbed 'the scandal of the festival' due to its long and graphic rape scene, it is Nine Dead Gay Guys that has provoked the biggest protests.

The plot revolves around two young boys who arrive in London from Belfast to try to make a living. Unemployed, they quickly fall into the underground lifestyle of the rent boy in order to supplement their Giro cheques.

The boys build up a clientele of gay misfits, mostly drawn from a pool of negative racial stereotypes, including a rich Orthodox Jew, a well-endowed black man, and an unhygienic Indian taxi driver. The supporting cast also features a dwarf who attracts lovers by touting a cattle prod.

'Most people in the cinema left after the first few scenes,' said Carter. 'I lasted it out as long as I could and by that point there were only four dead gay guys.'

The film's backer and promoter, Hannah Rothman of Park Entertainment, said it was not intended to upset people. 'It is just a light-hearted look at the scrapes these two boys get into. OK, these may include prostitution and killing people, but it is meant to be silly and not to be taken too seriously.'

I have to see this movie, if only for the screen pairing of Fish and Michael Praed. If there's a scene in which the big Scot gives the pretty-boy Robin Hood a good seeing to, accompanied by a prog rock backing track, so much the better.

Replies: 1 Comment

If something is done in excrutiating bad taste it can end up been rather good. We shall see. I suspect I'll give it a miss, though!