![]() ![]() ![]() Considering that transgender characters in film up to that point had been portrayed as vile killers (see also: Dressed to Kill, Sleepaway Camp, and many others), The Crying Game does, for better, worse, or possibly both, hold an important place in the history of queer people in movies. It also doesn’t help that countless other movies–notably Ace Ventura: Pet Detective–have parodied the moment for cheap laughs.īut does a triggering moment make The Crying Game transphobic? In our interview with Neil Jordan, he also mentioned that he always thought of Dil as a kind of angel–the moral center of the film. As documented in Disclosure, the scene is extremely triggering for many transgender audience members, and understandably so: the moment plays on the anxieties that trans people face every day. One key scene seems to attract most of the criticism: that of Fergus vomiting after discovering Dil is trans. Spoiler alert: Dil is revealed as a transgender woman, and Fergus’ initial rejection of her–followed by his professing his love–fuels both praise and attacks on the movie’s treatment of an LGBTQ character. Jody does die, and Fergus goes on the run, hiding out in London and calling himself “Jimmie.” There, he befriends the beautiful Dil (Jaye Davidson) and feels an immediate attraction. Over the course of three days, an odd kinship develops between the pair, and Fergus promises that if Jody dies at the hands of the IRA, Fergus will seek out Jody’s girlfriend Dil and make sure she is cared for. The story follows an agent of the Irish Republican Army named Fergus (Stephen Rea) who takes a British soldier named Jody (Forrest Whittaker) hostage. Writer/director Neil Jordan took home an Acadamy Award back in 1993 for his script to The Crying Game, a movie that often lands on Best of the 1990s lists. Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch. ![]()
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