It opened to controversy in the winter of 1982 and for many of the Hollywood A list at the time they turned down the roles fearing it was a sure sign of death to their careers.
But, when “Making Love” did hit the big screen it also brought in sizeable audiences. It wasn’t just gay men coming to the theater to see two men kiss, but, they were bringing female dates.
I remember when my friends and I saw it the women behind us were uttering “gross” under their breaths while their boyfriends were engrossed with the kiss that made movie history.
Making Love” is about a happily, successful married couple (Michael Ontkean and Kate Jackson) who find their ideal dream house. While planning for the future, Ontkean begins to question his sexuality as he leaves work and finds himself in the West Hollywood bars during cocktail hour.
When semi famous author Bart McGuire (Harry Hamlin) comes into the office for a physical young doctor Zack becomes smitten with the rugged writer and after announcing he’s going to lunch, Hamlin decides to tag along.
Bart’s no stranger to the gay scene (a new trick every night) and something inside of him starts to care for Zack. He denies his feelings while the two of them continue to “hang out” giving wife Claire cause for concern since Zack is no longer affectionate toward her.
Claire thinks having a baby will bring the two back together and requests a leave of absence from her television programming job, but the pot only gets sweeter when she’s denied the leave but instead gets a promotion.
With Claire out of the picture for a few days, Zack spends more time with Bart and realizes he’s falling deeper in love with Bart.
Fearing the worst when she comes back from her business trip he tells her of “the phase” he’s going through and the two break up.
Once everything is out in the open so to speak, Bart tells Zack he’s not looking for a relationship and then the focus shifts back to Claire and the efforts she goes through in trying to make the marriage work.
She had just completed a successful run on “Charlie’s Angels” and seemed to be loved by everyone. Unfortunately, the role of Claire doesn’t fit her as she becomes clingy and lives in a world where she wants everything to be perfect even if she has to deal with hubby’s occasional “experimentation.”
Hamlin, on the other hand, is fine as the aloof Bart. The camera loves his sexuality and his character is basically lonely, but not as lonely as the divorce bound Elliott’s seem to be.
For it’s time “Making Love” is a classic when it comes to gay cinema and a groundbreaking movie at that. The one good thing about all of the actors are they look like real human beings. Not like any of today’s “current Hollywood actors” who’ve been nipped and tucked by the time they’re 25.
While not commercially successful the movie’s title song of the same name (sung by Roberta Flack) did climb to number 13 on the Billboard top 40 chart.
