Heavily-criticised film Stonewall has flopped on its opening weekend at the US box office. Danny, the main character, is shown throwing the first brick It comes as critics are tearing the movie apart for its whitewashing of the crucial turning point in the gay rights movement. It’s been heavily criticised for focusing on a young, good looking, white gay man and sidelining the mishmash of people from a range of cultures and identities who played key roles during the iconic riots at the New York bar. In a stinging review, Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson has dubbed the flick “terribly offensive and offensively terrible,” saying it makes a mess of history and adding “Stonewall is ultimately yet another cartoonish fantasy about white saviours and square-jawed heroes; it should be called Independence Gay.” Lou Lumenick from the New York Post writes “Roland Emmerich’s seriously misjudged Stonewall turns the transgender drag queens who helped change America into dress extras in what’s basically a Big Apple retelling of The Wizard of Oz revolving around a Caucasian gay man’s coming of age.” The film's gay Director Roland Emmerich has even admitted he made the main character “straight acting” to appeal to a straight audience. “You have to understand one thing: I didn’t make this movie only for gay people, I made it also for straight people,” he has told Buzzfeed. “I kind of found out, in the testing process, that actually, for straight people, [Danny] is a very easy in. Danny’s very straight-acting. He gets mistreated because of that. [Straight audiences] can feel for him.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 29th September 2015 - 9:00am