Kenneth Anger is one of the most influential figures in film to this day, making himself a major figure in underground film. Many people have heard of him whether a person realizes it or not. Few filmmakers can boast having influenced the LGBT community in film the way Anger did. In his films, Fireworks (1947) and Scorpio Rising (1963), Kenneth Anger toys with the ideas of sex and homoeroticism. By displaying the male body in high-action, and often sexualized scenes, he creates films that would pave the way to a more inclusive future. Anger uses symbolism and pushed the boundaries of homoerotic ideas in film. Subliminally inserting a homoerotic agenda is what Anger does best.
Anger’s films merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult. Being one of the first filmmakers to break through and be open about these themes from the 1940s to 1960s was revolutionary. He is often referred to as one of America's first openly gay filmmakers. The first whose work addresses homosexuality directly and pushing gay culture to the foreground of American cinema. Many of his movies being release before homosexuality began to be accepted. Kenneth Anger’s fascination with homoerotic imagery has always been a focal point in his films. In an interview, Anger states, “As an artist, I am aware of sensuality and eroticism. To me, many of the filmmakers that I am interested in have quite an acute sense of eroticism. I mean, everyone from Luis Bunuel to Russ Meyer. To me, it’s erotic if it has an element of mystery (Haug & Anger 82).” He draws his inspiration from his life and other filmmakers. It makes sense to create and work on something that a filmmaker would enjoy. In the journal, Masculinity, the Male Spectator and the Homoerotic Gaze, Patrick Schuckmann reinforces, “Some images of the muscular male body on display in a spectacular cinematic context are characterized by violent action-laden plots and visual excess (Schuckmann 672).” This is exactly what Anger does to draw the audience in. By creating these fast pace films that toy with sexuality, he can tease society with the stability of clear-cut identities, showing the fluidity between homosexuality.
Kenneth Anger s fascinated with how Hollywood branded itself. Benshoff and Griffin go in depth on the struggles of homosexual filmmakers, “During the insecurity of the post World War II, Red Scare, Hollywood became increasingly intolerant of anyone deemed different, for “conformity to a white, middle-class, heterosexual, jingoistic American norm became an oppressive national obsession (Benshoff 86).” Anger directed and starred in his first major film, Fireworks. It introduces many of the themes that he would continue to use in his later work. He shot the film at his parents’ home in Beverly Hills while they were out of town. Fireworks is one of the first films to feature explicitly homoerotic images and gay identity, a daring theme for 1947. The short film featured Anger as a young man who fantasizes and is then abused by a group of sailors. Their actions and gestures of sex and masculinity are captured in the fantasy. In scenes where the sailors are set against a black set, the patterns of the lights have a phallic effect. Even at the end of Fireworks, a sailor with a roman candle sticking out from the fly of his pants like a phallus suggests homosexual desire to explode with pleasure as much as with self-destruction. Suggesting this only gives the audience the idea unlike if Anger were to show a fully naked man. That would not have gone over well with society.
One of his most known films from the ’60s caused some controversy. Scorpio Rising made a few huge waves after a Los Angeles theater manager was found guilty of obscenity in 1964 for screening Anger’s film. Only a few flashes of nudity and genitalia are seen in the film so sexual innuendos and suggestive scenes fill Scorpio Rising. The 1963 homoerotic film about a New York motorcycle gang is only 28 minutes long and references pop culture and the top songs of the decade. Though it contains absolutely no dialogue, it is often compared to a modern day music video. It is his most celebrated and arguably most accessible work of film in the Avante Garde. The homoerotic scenes in the film are not as prominent compared to Fireworks, but they are just as important. Christof Decker, the author of Interrogations of Cinematic Norms: Avant-Garde Film, History, and Mnemonic Practices agrees, “Scorpio Rising illustrates not only the fundamental doubts about the fabrication and thus the artificiality of myths, but also a degree of fetishization, which disavows sexual difference and the fear of castration by creating a homosexual universwomen as historical agents (Decker 126).” The film is a whirlwind of crazy antics. In scenes of the film, the biker group seems to be engaged in an orgy. Even for a split second a member of the groups' genitals are flashed on the screen. Kenneth Anger, himself, knew exactly that a camera following the biker group around gave them a pass to act however they pleased. Anger states, “I know my presence with the camera when I was working with the group of bikers [in Scorpio Rising] was encouraging their exhibitionism (Haug & Anger 77).” The gang was free to be as rowdy as they pleased. With the amount of alcohol and drugs, they felt more adventurous just having the guys around instead of their girlfriends being there. That anticipation, of course, would create the same sex tendencies seen.
The conceptions of homosexual desire in Scorpio Rising and Fireworks continue to influence our thinking about sexuality today. Perhaps the best way to appreciate the two films’ approach in LGBT representation is to review the state of homosexual visibility in popular culture. Often times films such as these can be viewed as homophobic. Society does not understand that for Anger’s time the two films are filled with innovation. In the 1940’s being homosexual was unacceptable. By the time the 60’s roll around the LGBT revolution was just beginning. The openness of sexuality was seen as explosive by most, but Anger handled the homoerotic theme without an ounce of shame. That is what kept him on top.
Fireworks and Scorpio Rising entertains the ideas of sex and homoeroticism in such an unconventional way that pushes him into the spotlight. Kenneth Anger is one of the most influential figures in film to this day, making himself a major figure in underground film. Inspiring the LGBT community like very few filmmakers before and after can take credit for.. Displaying the male body in high-action, and often sexualized scenes in his films, he is able to pave the way to a more inclusive future. Inserting a homoerotic agenda, subliminally, using the symbolism to push the boundaries of homoerotic ideas in film.