Hacker Cinema
The Birdcage
1996 · Film · 119 min
Directed by Mike Nichols
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen partner agree to put up a false heterosexual front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's conservative parents.
3 positive2 neutralfrom 5 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
A bunch of movies off hand that weren't mentioned elsewhere. This doesn't include tv shows, the two I remember off hand are M*A*S*H and The Kids in the Hall.
1999: Hilary Swank won best actress for Boys Don't Cry.
1982: Julie Andrews nominated for Victor/Victoria
1983: Barbara Streisand in Yentl -- before she became the effect.
1996: Robin Williams and Gene Hackman in The Birdcage.
1995: Patrick Swayze in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar
1994: Mignight in the Garden of Good and Evil directed by Clint Eastwood
1992: The Crying Game
+1 for The Conversation, an underated, gripping, and creepy movie that is underrated indeed and that I came to watch or even know about only last year (featuring a really young Harrison Ford btw). It's ahead of its time, yet also vaguely reminiscent of 1960's avantgarde movies like Blow Up. I also loved Hackmann's comedy performances, like in French Connection II and in The Birdcage. RIP
I have to go with The Birdcage. Just a silly movie, with Hackman playing a rather timeless portrayal of a politician. The meandering story about “purple mountains” always gets me for some reason.
"The Conversation" is a masterpiece of the golden age of 70s film. "The French Connection" would be on my list too, for similar reasons. Popeye Doyle is a classic 70s protagonist.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned "The Birdcage" yet. Fantastic ensemble cast, and Hackman plays his part to perfection.
"Heist" and "Royal Tenenbaums" would finish out my list.
According to Wikipedia [1], comedy TV shows with LGBT characters by decade (which is probably a good proxy). Ellen's "coming out" episode was in 1997.
70s: 12 80s: 11 90s: 28 00s: 45
Willing to wager the trend is similar to movies.
We had (just the ones I can recall off-hand, but had to lookup years):
Paris is Burning ('90) My Own Private Idaho ('91) Fried Green Tomatoes ('91) Philadelphia ('93) To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar ('95) Jeffrey ('95) Birdcage ('96) Bound ('96) In & Out ('97) Boys Don't Cry ('99)
Of course, most of these role were filled by cis people.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_comedy_television_series_with_LGBT_characters