By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Kirby Dick
Country: united_states
Year: 2009
Running time: 87
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049400/
Bruce says: “Being a huge fan of Kirby Dick’s Chlotrudis award winning documentary THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, I was rather excited about Dick’s latest film OUTRAGE whose subject is the hypocrisy of gay politicians who routinely vote against all legislature that might benefit the gay community. Earlier this year a friend gave me a deck of cards, each card devoted to a gay Republican involved in a sex scandal. Before seeing OUTRAGE I viewed the bridge deck as a passing amusement. Sadly I must report it is more informative than the film. OUTRAGE simply does not cover any new territory. To be fair OUTRAGE is a well-made film, one that may be more interesting to those who have not followed the nightly news or blogs about gay politicians.
“The film begins with a conscious cleansing message from Jim McGreevey former Governor of New Jersey. Using McGreevey to discuss his burden of being a gay man living a lie strikes a false note. It is public knowledge that McGreevey revealed his homosexuality only after he was blackmailed by a former male lover. Until he was blackmailed, McGreevey showed no remorse for living a duplicitous life, hiding his sexual activities from his wife and children.
“Dick uses many talking heads, a veritable Who’s Who in the gay community. The gay politicians Dick profiles – namely the aforementioned McGreevey, Larry Craig, Ed Schrock, Charlie Christ, Ed Koch, Jim McCrery, David Drier and Jim Kolbe – are a mixed bag. The more interesting cases are the Congressmen who are responsible for budget allocations and legislature which affects the gay population. The best voting percentage of all politicians was only 28% while one actually scored a 0%, consistently voting ‘No’ on all gay issues while he was having same-sex relations.
“One frightening thing about those who have sex with politicians is the frequency with which the sexual partners disappear from public view. Ed Koch’s reputed lover fled New York after being threatened. When Charlie Christ ran for Governor of Florida, two of his former sex partners disappeared from the state prior to the election.
“Some funny moments are captured. Larry Craig, in his first public appearance after his tearoom tap dance, thanks everyone in the audience for ‘Coming out.’ McGreevey suggests that being in the closet gives you skills that you can use as a politician. Those skills remain unnamed but certainly deception must head the list. My favorite: late in the film someone suggests that ‘you can’t swing a dead cat in Washington’ without hitting a closeted politician. 3 cats
“(OUTRAGE screened at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.)”
Jason says: “There are grounds to critique how OUTRAGE is put together as a movie, and plenty of them, but they are relatively minor. For the most part, the film does what a good piece of documentary journalism should, in that it presents information clearly, in a manner that is entertaining enough to keep an audience’s interest without diminishing the subject matter’s import. Even if a viewer disagrees with Kirby Dick’s message or tactics, he or she must admit that he argues his point reasonably well.
“That point is this: Many politicians and members of their staffs are gay and in the closet, which ordinarily would be their own business. Unfortunately, a sizable portion of this group acts in a way that is directly counter to the interests of other LGBT people, and that sort of hypocrisy should not be allowed to stand. The film offers up examples of these politicians, shows the process of investigating, and makes an attempt to explain why so many smart and capable people would choose to live with such a contradiction in their lives.
“Writer/director Dick is not terribly subtle in how he does this: He introduces a politician, presents the evidence that despite his public front (the outed politicians are, by and large, male and conservative), he enjoys the company of other men, and then displays a graphic of their dismal voting record on issues like marriage rights, anti-defamation laws, and AIDS relief: A big ‘NO’ pops up (with thumping sound effect) next to each time the issue was raised and is followed by a tiny percentage of gay-friendly votes. That the template is obvious from the second time its used is not a knock against it; it makes its point very clearly.
D”ick also takes care to make sure that the outings are substantiated, either by having people speak on the record or making sure that any anonymous sources are confirmed. The journalists who originally broke these stories on their magazines and blogs are very careful to point out that there’s no room for doubt in these stories; they must be able to withstand scrutiny. Most seem like they would, although in one or two cases it did seem as though the independent sources weren’t necessarily so independent as claimed.
“The film also has some structural problems. The opening graphics, for instance, state the film’s premise but also say that there’s a conspiracy to keep this secret. Conspiracy is a loaded word, and the film does not follow up on this accusation in a very substantial way. It also has a tendency to return to points that don’t need reiteration. Take the case of Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida. Early scenes do a fair job of establishing that he’s gay, claims otherwise, and actively works against gay rights. Returning to him multiple times almost seems to work against the film’s aims: He’s got a gregarious, charming manner that are a great asset to his political career, and it’s almost possible to sympathize with this guy who has to keep answering the same questions despite there not being much new proof; we forget just how damning those original accusations were.
“The movie keeps coming back to him, though, because his story fits the topic in so many ways, and he’s one of the few subjects that does not have ‘former’ attached to his position when identifying subtitles come up (aside from the reliably entertaining Barney Frank). It also sidesteps the ethics of outing, to a certain extent: Early claims of how it is much better for all involved to be out of the closet, no matter how that happens, dangle until late interviews with former New Jersey governor James McGreevey and former Arizona legislator Jim Kolbe. Many of the interview subjects say that normally, they’d never out someone, but in these circumstances… The line is not well-defined, and offers critics a chance to charge that the filmmakers are as hypocritical as those they criticize.
“And maybe they are, in some ways – there’s room for debate about the film’s ethics and the politics. Its information, on the other hand, seems pretty solid, and the presentation is good. That’s what makes for a good documentary, if not a perfect one. 4 cats
“Seen 8 June 2009 at Landmark Kendall Square #7 (first-run)