1999 film
Beefcake (1999) is a docudrama homage to the muscle magazines of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s—in particular, Physique Pictorial magazine, published quarterly by Bob Mizer of the Athletic Model Guild. It was inspired by a picture book by F. Valentine Hooven III (published by Taschen) and was directed by Thom Fitzgerald.
The film stars Daniel MacIvor, Carroll Godsman, Jack Griffin Mazieka, Jonathan Torrens, and Joshua Peace in pastiche recreations of life at the Athletic Model Guild, mixed with interviews with models and photographers whose work actually appeared in the early magazines, including Jack LaLanne and Joe Dallesandro. The film was shot in Nova Scotia.[2]
Beefcake was a follow-up to The Hanging Garden, also produced by Thom Fitzgerald.
Beefcake premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999 and was released by Strand Releasing in the United States; it was nominated for three Genie Awards.
Synopsis
The film looks at buff and muscular men of the 1950s in magazines and the repetitive industry that was popular in the health and fitness magazines but were primarily being purchased by homosexual men and underground homosexual communities.[3] The person behind the literature was Bob Mizer, who "maintained a magazine and developed sexually explicit men's films for over 40 years." By the end of the film, a courtroom drama scene is shot as Mizer attempting to run a male-prostitute ring in the early '60s.[3] Clips of Mizer's actual films are included in Beefcake.
Themes
As examined in the Ottawa Citizen, "this odd and colourful mix of interviews, dramatizations, re-creations and naughty homoerotic hanky-panky is made in the style-reflects-content story of Bob Mizer (played by Daniel MacIvor), the man who practically invented the 1950s idea of using muscle magazines to sell sex disguised as athleticism."[4] Although the magazine that Mizer ran (Athletic Model Guide) took a liking to homosexual men, "who could disguise their interest as a fascination with physical culture"[4],it ended up that the magazine additionally grabbed the attention of many young women as well.
Reception
Dan Brown of the National Post claims the film is "the gay equivalent of every opening of every James Bond film ever made."[5] He claims that there has been some pushback on the themes of the films such as the repetition of everyone leading a double life in the film. Viewers bring up questions such as "was everybody in that town leading a double life? Between the closeted homosexuals, the secret communists, the Jews with Anglicized names and the confidential drug addicts, filmmaker after filmmaker has portrayed the City of Angels as a place where everybody has something to hide."[5]
Beefcake explores new themes of male nudity that has never been explored in film before, whereas female nudity has been part of art and film history for decades. Such an increase in nudity within the film is something dramatically different than the typical theme of a movie in the 1960s. Matt Radz of The Gazette explains that "but beefcake demonstrate, in a very graphic manner, plenty of other reasons why in the race to bare all, male nudity has always finished a very distant second."[6] Ftizgerald puts much nudity into "Beefcake" and is a central theme of the film. Radz claims "Beefcake puts so many genitals on display, the title of that promising debut movie could be also used to describe this sophomore effort".[6] Many film critics have had disappointment in the film which is a follow up of the Hanging Garden that is "one of the few memorable movies made in Canada in this decade (1990s)."[6]
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