Beefcake

This film is a huge departure from Thom Fitzgerald's first film The Hanging Garden. Beefcake is a loosely woven docu-drama of photgrapher Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guild. The style of the film will look very familiar to anyone who's seen the NFB's "Forbidden Love" where interviews with those who knew Bob are blended with a storyline about a court case involving an alleged prostitution ring. Good use is also made of archival footage from AMG and others. The interviews are quite well done- Joe D'Allesandro and Jack LaLanne in particular but the new footage seemed a little 2 dimensional and predictable.

I was curious mostly about this movie. Not being one to pass up on seeing a movie based on information or history I took a chance and watched it on the HERE! network a couple of years ago. It was better than I expected.

Ignoring the continuous display of frontal male nudity (which didn't offend me in the least), This film was very informative and entertaining. The interviews opened my eyes to a part of history that I have only read about. It is a pity that this film didn't get more exposure, but I believe that the "exposure" on screen would and probably did prevent any real showcasing in worldwide theaters.

I think that anyone who likes to know what occurred in the past in regards to pre-stonewall life should watch this film. And if anyone who just wants to see guys in the nude without the sex involved, will like it too. In any case, it's really interesting.

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

This is a wonderful mixture of documentary, drama and vintage material, skilfully inter-weaved to tell us the story of AMG studios. It is fascinating to see these physique films recreated before your very eyes and then masterfully inter-cut with the actual vintage material. It is also sad to see the men who appeared in these movies, at the very peak of their physical beauty, interviewed so many years later when it has all but gone. However, their personalities still shine through and all those interviewed remember their experience in this genre fondly. Technically superb, my one and only reservation about this film is that the actors portraying the models are only vague approximations of the real thing. However, Josh Peace gives a thoroughly charming and charismatic performance as Neil E. O'Hara and Jonathan Torrens is excellent as the mightily naughty David. It would be really nice to have a boxed DVD set of these original films, carefully selected, remastered and presented chronologically. They capture a particular moment in time, far removed from the excesses of today, but still carry a hefty erotic charge.

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.