The following contains spoilers for the movie Predator.
A few days ago, when I should have been doing homework, I sat down and watched Predator, the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie about the alien picking off the commando's one by one in the Central American jungle. I hadn’t seen the movie since I was about eight years old, but I had always recalled it as an entertaining, if brainless action movie. After watching it again though, I noticed that on top of the action actually being pretty mediocre, there are a mountain of homosexual overtones in this film. When I brought this up to some of my friends however, they didn’t believe me. In fact, they were so insistent to the contrary that I started to think that maybe I had imagined it. So just last night, I chucked on the DVD and watched it again. And boy was I right.
For starters, there is only one woman in this entire film, and despite the fact that she is surrounded by what are supposedly prime specimens of masculinity, she is not romanticised or eroticised in the slightest. In fact, her character serves no real purpose other than to give Arnold someone to save. The gay allusions start in the very first scene, when team leader ‘Dutch’ (Schwarzenegger) steps off the helicopter wearing a polo shirt that’s just a little bit too small. The first line of the film is “you’re looking good Dutch,” which I think you’ll agree was an interesting choice of words (why not “you looking well?”) Still, nothing too suspect.
But then we are introduced to CIA Agent George Dillon (African American actor Carl Weathers) who is definitely the most overtly gay character in this film. Sporting a porn star moustache, black gloves, cap and a sleeveless combat jacket, Dillon looks like he would have no trouble finding work at a bachelorette party. A prior homosexual relationship between him and Dutch is at least implied, whether it be through the matching cigarette lighters (hey, at least it wasn’t matching tattoos) or the long look the two share before Dillon goes off to face the Predator. And that extended arm wrestling sequence? Some might call it macho posturing; I call it an excuse to hold hands. Not to mention that immediately afterwards, Dutch inserts into his mouth a long black cigar. I don’t think you have to be Freud to understand the symbolism there.
Dillon and Dutch, oiled up and ready to go
But the relationship between Dillon and Dutch is nothing when compared to what’s going on with Mac (Bill Duke) and Blain (Jesse Ventura), who are so blatantly in love that it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a deleted scene somewhere where they make up. In an early scene, Blain offers his fellow grunts some chewing tobacco, and when they turn him down, he issues his oft quoted line “Bunch of slack jawed faggots around here. This stuff’ll make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus. Just like me.” Now, on the surface, this may seem like the kind of statement that could come from any red blooded heterosexual American. But when we look more closely, we can see his true colours shining through. Notice that it is only after identify them as “faggots” that he offers to make them a “sexual tyrannosaurus.” And what comes next? Poncho (Richard Chaves) hands Blain a gun, telling him to “strap this on your sore ass.” I don’t want to be crude, but “sore ass?” Open your eyes people!
As for Mac…following Blains death at the hands of the Alien creature, he tells Dutch (and I quote) “He was…my friend”, and the significant glance that follows leaves little doubt as to the exact nature of the friendship. Later, when Mac is standing over the body of his fallen lover, he delivers a monologue so tinged with romance that it sounds like it came out of Romeo and Juliet. Take note of the sections in bold. “Here we again bro, just you and me. Same kind of moon, same kind of jungle. Real number ten night. Whole platoon, 32 men chopped into meat, and we walked out, just you and me. Nobody else. Right on top bro.” Interestingly, when Mac chases after the Predator to avenge Blains death later in the film, he starts singing the lyrics of “Long Tall Sally” by singer/songwriter Little Richard, who was openly gay until he became an evangelical Christian and denounced his old lifestyle.
Blain's enormous...gun
But it’s not just the characters in Predator that display overt homosexuality. There is plenty of subtle and not so subtle visual imagery to go with it. It doesn’t take the soldiers long to get out of their khakis, and soon their muscles are shining with sweat. You’d think that in the jungle they’d want to stay camouflaged, but apparently not. The number of people who get penetrated in this film, either by bullets, knives or laser blasts leaves little to the imagination. It's not much of a stretch to suggest that gun = penis, and nobody has bigger guns than these bad boys. After Blain is killed, the remaining commandoes fire thousands of rounds into the surrounding jungles trying in vain to kill their attacker. Talk about blowing your load! And in another scene, Billy (Sonny Landham) rips off his shirt, pulls out a ridiculously large, ridiculously phallic knife, draws it across his chest and then stands there waiting, as if to say “Take me Predator, and take me hard!” But the best piece of symbolism comes a little earlier in the film. In order to do it justice, I quote a commentator on www.ruthlessreviews.com. “Billy cuts a vine from above his head, grasps it firmly, pulls it toward his mouth, sucks out its nourishing juices, and lets them splash refreshingly on his face and chest.” Wow.
The most famous line in Predator would probably be “If it bleeds, we can kill it” Sounds hardcore, right? But in fact, this line has been interpreted by numerous film scholars (see, it’s not just me) as Dutch’s denouncement of women (the blood referring to menstruation). If you believe this, then Blain’s earlier line “I don’t have time to bleed” could also be interpreted in the same way (for the record, I think this is stretching a little.) Of course, the big climax (pun definitely intended) happens when Schwarzenegger faces off against the Predator for the last time. Bare chested and covered in mud, Dutch looks on in horror as the evil creature removes its mask to reveal a face that is more than a little vaginal in appearance. And what happens then? He gets destroyed in a giant fucking explosion! But not before Dutch begs him over and over “Come on come on. Do it!.”
You're one ugly motherfucker!
I hope this has been entertaining. For what it’s worth I do believe what I have written above to be true. But frankly, all eighties action movies have at least some homosexual leanings (Top Gun, anyone?) This is not necessarily because it was the directors intention to make a homoerotic movie, it’s just because what was then considered to be macho now comes across as, well…kind of queer. I’m not saying Predator is an intentionally gay film. I’m not saying that liking Predator makes you gay. I’m not even saying that Predator is a bad movie. I’m just saying that next time you put on the DVD and watch Dutch and ‘his men’ trek bare chested and sweating through the jungle…keep an open mind.
Next week: The disturbing racial themes in Harry Potter.
