Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

1More Film Blog

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Understanding Subtexts: Christian Reflections on The Celluloid Closet

Understanding Subtexts: Christian Reflections on The Celluloid Closet

Last updated on: June 20, 2014 at 5:23 pm by Kenneth R. Morefield

Understanding Subtexts: Christian Reflections on The Celluloid Closet 2014-06-20T17:23:47-05:00 Kenneth R. Morefield

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Part I: Subtext is Real…But What is It?

“You’re reading too much into it!”

“Do you really think [the author/artist] meant it to be taken that way?”

“Aren’t you just interpreting it to suit your agenda?”

Any teacher of art or literature has heard these complaints and questions scores of times. Perhaps the only one who hears them as often as the professor of literature is the film critic. I am both, so I’ve heard these remarks, or variations of them, regularly over the last two decades.

Sometimes the questions are sincere. Most of the time when students make such remarks they come with a residual respect for their teachers. Since film journalists aren’t always credentialed, these comments more often are directed at them as a form of dismissal–not just of their interpretations but of the act of interpretation itself. Nobody likes being told what to do, including how to interpret something. Nobody likes feeling (or actually being) hoodwinked. You liked what!?! You know what that is really about don’t you?

Yes, claims about subtexts can be passive-aggressive tweaks at the audience (by the critic or the artist[s]), but they shouldn’t always be dismissed as such.

Maybe that is why I have had a soft spot–long before I worked or traveled in circles where such soft spots were acceptable–for The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epstein’s and Jeffrey Friedman’s documentary translation of Vito Russo’s massively influential study of gay representations in cinema. I recently watched Closet again for the first time in many years and I was struck by how thoroughly embedded in our interpretation practice is the acceptance of subtext. Russo’s work is one of those touchstone books that affects the way we look at and talk about films whether we’ve actually read it or not (I have). Success breeds imitation…and push back. But it is hard to push back against something (in this case an interpretation) without acknowledging it exists. And it is nearly impossible to read or watch The Celluloid Closet and deny that subtext has long been a part of our cinematic history.

I would argue that much as with certain terms used in psychoanalytic criticism, “subtext” has entered into the vernacular, broadening its definition and complicating its use. Dictionary.com lists its primary denotation as “an underlying theme in a piece of writing.” Only as a secondary definition does it describe “a message which is not stated directly but can be inferred.” These definitions are somewhat at odds with one another, which is less unusual in the history of word usage than you might think. If “subtext” is simply synonymous with “theme” than too much is hanging on the term “underlying.”

Nor is it entirely satisfactory to suggest that the line between spoken and unspoken, implicit and explicit is always clear in art. Art is dependent upon metaphor, symbolism, analogy. It differs from other forms of discourse precisely in that it seeks to communicate its messages through narrative (or in the case of poetry through figurative language) rather than plain speech. Authors will often use various devices, more or less successfully, to signal ambivalence or even contradiction of explicitly stated themes. When Huck Finn declares, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” how do we know that Mark Twain is critiquing his society’s morals and not presenting the tragic loss of his protagonist’s way? When Jane Austen’s narrator states that Emma Woodhouse had “very little to distress or vex her” and subsequently tells us of her mother’s early death, nowhere is the theme that jealousy makes us quick to dismiss another’s misfortunes explicitly stated, but it could hardly be more clear.

Artists are skilled at teasing out themes gradually and subtly. Why? Because while few of us enjoy being misled or fooled, fewer still like having opinions or ideas (i.e. themes) shoved down our throat. Witness Alexander Pope’s advice to poets: “Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot.” St. Augustine said that which is sought with more effort is received with more pleasure. We esteem art that rewards careful attention. We like art that tells the truth, but we prefer art that tells it slant so that we might discover it for ourselves.

Where subtlety crosses over into subtext is at the point where the author may not wish everyone to pick up on the theme. In Closet, Gore Vidal confirms the intentional homoerotic subtext included in his uncredited contributions to the Ben Hur screenplay. He is equally emphatic that everyone informed of that angle agreed not to tell Charlton Heston, ostensibly because the star would not have agreed to such a portrayal. Part of what makes Vidal’s claims deliciously ironic is because the first move of the reader who wants to deny subtext is usually to cite authorial intent, but when the author declares his intent, such readers often turn around and reject that criteria, claiming it does not matter what the author meant only what is “in” the text.

The Ben Hur example is enlightening for another reason. To modern viewers, it seems impossible to imagine that Heston would be unaware that his co-star is treating Judah Ben Hur as an ex-lover. It appears so overt. But to be “subtext” a theme requires something more than being hidden. It needs to exploit the ignorance of one audience or the special knowledge of another. By relying on codes (language, dress, symbols) familiar to one audience but not to all, the subtext strives to remain hidden (historically to avoid reprisals) from one audience while being perfectly clear to the initiated. Of course once the code is made manifest, the preliminary goal is impossible. The disconnect between Heston’s awareness and the modern viewer’s may not be one of acceptance (or not) of homosexuality but awareness of the codes that announce it.

Similarly, as homosexuality becomes more culturally accepted and the broader audience becomes aware of some of the most common signs used to signal it, the possibility of subtext becomes less. Narrowly speaking, Craig Ferguson and Dean DeBlois announcing that Gobber, a Viking in How to Train Your Dragon 2 is gay doesn’t make that character’s utterance that there is “another” reason (besides never finding the right woman) that he never got married a subtext. Ditto J.K. Rowling telling audiences that Dumbledore is gay. What sort of cultural work is done by these proclamations will be discussed in part two of this post, but the very fact that the definitive answer is given by the author suggests that these are hints about initially repressed truths, meant to be attended to not merely by those who will be sympathetic to such readings but by everyone.

[Continue to Page 2]

Essays

Frozen

How to Train Your Dragon 2

The Celluloid Closet

Vito Russo

Previous Post

June 12, 2014

Manuscripts Don't Burn (Rasoulof, 2013)

Next Post

June 16, 2014 Win a Free Copy of The Lego Movie on Blu-Ray (CLOSED)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Years Later 1999 Top 5 2007 Top 10 2008 Favorite Discoveries 2008 Top 10 2009 Favorite Discoveries 2009 Top 10 2010 Favorite Discoveries 2010 Top 10 2011 Top 10 2012 Top Ten 2013 Top Ten 2014 Top Ten Best Picture Winners Christian Spotlight on Entertainment Christianity Today Coming Soon Disclosure Disclosure--AS Disclosure--Book Disclosure--DVDS Disclosure--SEOL Disclosure--Travel Dissenting Opinion Elsewhere Emergenetics Essays Featured Film Fest DC--2014 Film Festivals Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2011 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2014 Headline Interviews Laura on the Oscar Winners Podcasts Quick Impressions Reviews RiverRun Film Festival 2014 Television The Criterion Collection The Thin Place To Stream or Not to Stream? Top 10s and Other Lists Toronto International Film Festival 2009 Toronto International Film Festival 2010 Toronto International Film Festival 2011 Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Toronto International Film Festival 2014 Uncategorized Video Virginia Film Festival 2011 Virginia Film Festival 2013 Women's Film Festival 2012

Select a Month February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many stringed instruments were used in the Temple?

Select your answer to see how you score.

10 7 3 5