July 28, 2000

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

The X-men cometh Comic-book film offers fans a view of what it means to be different

20TH CENTURY FOX (2)

Patrick Stewart, left, and Ian McKellan

by Kaizaad Kotwal

The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is by no means monolithic, especially when it comes to issues like gay marriage, domestic partnerships, religion, and whether Tom Cruise should or should not be outed.

One thing that most, if not all, GLBT people can agree upon is that somewhere in their youth or childhood they felt like outsiders, like mutants. While such feelings of

Bryan Singer

alienation can be debilitating, when harnessed into the right channels, difference can be incredibly empowering.

This very premise is what has led to Marvel Comics' X-Men to be the most popular comic book series ever in the United States. Now, super talented director Bryan Singer has brought the potent tale of mutation as power to the silver screen in one of the best super-hero films in recent memory.

The X-Men comics have captured imaginations, young and old, for the last three decades. What is so appealing about these superheroes is that they are very identifiable to those who have lived on the margins of society, searching for reasons behind their sense of not belonging.

Bryan Singer, who came to critical attention with the Oscar-winning The Usual Suspects (with Kevin Spacey), has a visual style and flair that makes him perfect for the campy and colorful world of X-Men.

Singer is no newcomer to cinematic triumphs about difference, alienation and the search for true identities. He followed up his first success with a troubling film about the

evils of Nazism in Stephen King's story The Apt Pupil. Openly gay film star Ian McKellan won kudos for his performance as a Nazi leader in the same year that he was nominated for Gods and Monsters.

In many ways, X-Men is about monsters with god-like powers. But the struggle between good and evil is ambiguous here, especially as personified by Magneto (played with depth and grace by McKellan) who is arguably one of the most complex and ambiguous villain in the comic book

genre. The film is littered with mutants, individuals who have great powers but don't know how to use them towards good until they are taught how to harness them by Professor X (played to sublime perfection by Patrick Stewart).

The crux of the story lies in a plan by Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison of Longtime Companion fame) wishes to out these mutants so that they can be further subjugated to humiliation and alienation by the rest of the world. The X-Men are constantly fighting traumas to their selfesteem and this is again what makes them so identifiable with the everyday consumer of the comics, and now Hollywood lore.

In the film's press materials, Singer comments at length about appreciating the comics' allegories about racism and bigotry and their underlying themes of tolerance.

Singer has clearly infused his film with these core issues and yet admirably manages to keep it light.

It is clearly a film pervaded by a late 1990s sensibility of furthering acceptance and tolerance for people who simply don't fit into society.

"Ultimately, the film is about how difficult it is to find a level of tolerance that is mutually beneficial to all involved," Singer notes. "That's a philosophical concept that mankind and mutant-kind could fight about forever."

It may very well be forever if the current movie is any sign of things to come. The

movie, incredibly well-crafted, spectacularly visualized, and powerfully acted by a brilliant and beautiful ensemble cast, almost certainly guarantees more than one sequel in the years to come.

The cast includes Anna Paquin (The Piano) as Rogue, who is struggling hard to understand her powers; hunky Australian newcomer Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, who must learn how to restrain his powers; devilishly good-looking James Marsden as Cyclops, whose eyes can literally melt anyone in his sight; and a bleach-blond Halle Berry as Storm.

Rebecca Romijn Stamos, who has recently captured headlines with her selfprofessed love for bisexual encounters, is Mystique, a shape-shifting villain covered in indigo latex and nothing else for most of the movie's 95 minutes.

One can only hope that the X-Men franchise will not mutate into the incomprehensible rot of the "Batman" movies. Singer provides a lot of hope in that aspect because X-Men is not simply a string of eye-popping special effects. Rather, the director and his team have focused on story, plot, and character development, allowing the movie to be more than just the latest in a series of "Look, Ma, see what I can do with my new computer!" films.

Just as hundreds of thousands of young gay and lesbian youth have made the comic books so popular, so too will they add to the film's success. In addition to being a great summer film, X-Men offers some level of thinking about what it means to be different in a world that is on the surface more tolerant while underneath it all still lurk old fears, hatreds and prejudices.

Even more compelling is the way in which the characters are forced to struggle to accept their own differences for themselves. One of the greatest burdens of being different is learning to accept that for one's self.

So while X-Men doesn't have any openly gay characters, it is still a film worth watching because it is about the human struggle for acceptance and enlightenment. And who understands that better than the scores of GLBT folk across the planet?

Kaizaad Kotwal is a Chronicle contributing writer living in Columbus.