Beefcake (1998)

Very entertaining and often funny, this re creation - with selected, astonishing genuine footage - of the AMG he-man 'studio' of the 1950s BEEFCAKE is best seen with a large (gay) crowd in a big cinema. That's how I first saw it and enjoyed the reactions as much as the movie. However the dramatic aspects of BEEFCAKE disappoints or falls short for several reasons: some of the casting is really terrible. Throughout BEEKCAKE, we see genuine footage made in the 50s by Bob Mizer. Parts of the production of these films is dramatized. The actors in these re created scenes are far from physically right. The actor who plays 'Red" has a podgy body, unlike anyone in the real footage, and this is jarring against the photos and film strips screened. Also, one stupid scene with what is supposed to be "Ramon Novarro" with a massive black fake phallus, the old man actor looks like Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons. I cannot fathom the point of having really inappropriate looking actors play parts of well known handsome and athletic men. Even the actor playing Mizer does not look like the real Bob Mizer. BEEFCAKE has some excellent interviews with original AMG talent, especially Joe Dallasandro whose early work is astonishing and humorous. However, the recreated scenes often lurch into territory only seedy gay guys want and it is somewhat alienating from what is basically a fascinating part of Hollywood history. There is actually a good story and better movie unmade (yet) here that is half way successful in this production of BEEFCAKE

I did not expect this film to be as good as it was. It transcendedthe dishy, titillating cliches and avoided all the usual cheap shotsat all the usual suspects. It also avoided the dry, overly objective and ultimately unsatisfyingapproach to such subject matter. It is not afraid of its subject, noris it judgmental, nor does it pander. I takes its subject head on,without flinching.This film does what a good documentary, or reconstruction,should do. It allows us, the viewers, to contemplate its subject, anenigmatic and deeply alluring aspect of human nature, at length,and come away feeling we know something important that wemight never have known about the erotic if we hadn't seen it. It says, as all good films about sex always say, that beauty fades,passion dies, spells break, illusions end, the substance, if there isany, eludes our grasp, but the mystery and fascination, as far aswe are concerned, are eternal. It reveals the erotic, and the homoerotic facet of the erotic, for whatthey are, virtually indomitable forces of nature. And it reveals thestruggles and the fate of many of those who encounter such forcesmost directly. There are a couple of scenes in this film that capture thehomoerotic in its almost pure elemental form. The filmmakersinclude, toward the end, a clip of a naked young man performing ahomoerotic dance. The sequence goes beyond titillation andprurience and even eroticism to revelation. Or perhaps I shouldsay, this sequence is both erotic and revelatory.One comes away informed and humbled, I think, and, not least,with respect and compassion for the subjects of the film.

Beefcake is a fascinating docu-drama about a unique chapter in the history of the Gay liberation movement in the United States. It's a pity this film hasn't received a wider distribution here (if any at all). The MPAA guidelines, no doubt, would require quite a bit of editing to get it under the NC17 barrier. But nudity in the film, however, far from creating a salicious aura, actually conveys a sense of innocence and freshness to most of the dramatic scenes.The interview materials, in need of some tighter editing, did drag at times, though they were, for the most part, interesting and informative. This is more than made up for in the dramatic scenes. The actors convey both the excitement of this emerging masculine/Gay "scene" and the tragedy of the legal persecution suffered by the people who promoted it.By all means, see this movie if you get a chance. It's well acted (Josh Peace is a stand out), well directed and a fitting chronicle of one part of pre-Stonewall history.

I really enjoyed this! I guess you'd call it a docu-drama, since it's a mixture of reality and re-enactment. The story of Max Wiser and the "Physique" magazines of the fifties was funny, sad, and startling. There were interviews with former members of the "Athletic Models Guild", and lots of male nudity. C---, a movie buddy, asked me if I found that a turn-on. Mostly I didn't, though it was interesting to see which young men came across in the pictures as personalities, and which were just standing there flexing.