Too 'hard' to be gay, too queer to be 'manly'.

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 1999)

Velvet Goldmine isn't as queeny as Priscilla but isn't intended to be a serious rockumentary either.
One shouldn't view the characters as representations of real people. Kurt Wild is a hybrid of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed & Mick Jagger. Bryan Slade is Bowie than anyone else but there are also elements of Jobriath & Bryan Ferry. Jack Fairy is more Eno than Ferry (& so many 'forgotten' 70's drag queens).
Surely this film cannot be criticized for bending the historical facts when it is so clearly an evocation of the spirit of that time. The recreation of Brian Slade into the bland Stone character at the end of the movie is a statement about how conservative and moralistic the 80's were in comparison. Bowie's Let's Dance is the prime target. Eno also has 'gone straight' in recent years with his new status as ambient guru, RCA lecturer.
The innocence of that time meant that gay pop posturing still had the power to really shock. It's a sign of how far our culture has absorbed these influences that a film like this got funding and was made in the first place. I can't help but feel like we've lost something in the process.