Question about the plot to In & Out (1997).

SPOILER

I watched the movie and I didn't understand or grasp, why a school teacher being announced as gay by an Oscar winning actor, was such a hot topic for the media, to the point where they literally invade a whole town from all over the country to find out more about this person. Maybe it was suppose to be intentionally over the top of course, but I didn't understand the concept of why the media would care really. Unless I missed something?

Yeah, the script was written about 20 years too late. Had it been set in the 1960's or 1970's, then the reaction would have made more sense. However, by the late 1990's, it is very much old hat.

Some context... Tom Hanks won an Oscar for Philadelphia





The fulcrum of the story is what happens if the Actor makes that announcement while the subject is engaged to be married to a woman.



Also to put some historical perspective on the time frame when the film was released the film came out in September.


Ellen came out in April





So it was very much a film of it's time. Now would the media make a huge deal about this story...we've had stupid human interest stories for decades.


And you know we seem to get one every year...though nowadays they tend to be far more negative and nasty.

Yeah, but the problem was that, in the movie (just like with Ellen), everybody knew already. It took Kevin Kline in the movie and Ellen in real life years to admit it publicly, but everybody else already knew. We shrugged our shoulders and went on with our lives.

Well okay, say back in the 90s, what if after Tom Hanks made the movie Philadelphia, he made a speech saying he too knows a gay guy from back home who he admired. Would all the press from all over, go to that guy and give him a full on paparazzi, just because Tom Hanks said that?

See earlier response about it being made a little too late.

Also, maybe?

Yeah, okay thanks. If the script was written in the 60s originally, then why not just set the movie back in the 60s then?

It wasn't written in the 1960s, he was saying it'd have made more sense if it was written back then.

The thing is, it’s a comedy. Loads of comedies rely on exaggerated daft plots so In and Out is more of a ‘what if’ film. I agree that it’s very dated now although I don’t think it was intended as radical back then.

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You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)

I still liked it, it's a good movie and had lots of laughs and some good moments.