Was Martin Gay?

I've always wondered when someone would ask that. :) The film doesn't explicitly imply homosexual feelings in Martin for Andy, but he obviously cares for Andy and feels betrayed when Andy sleeps with Celia. It IS because Andy sleeps with Celia specifically though, whether you want to interpret Martin's feelings toward Andy as homosexual or deep but platonic. Martin's poisonous relationship with Celia perpetuates Martin's inherent inability to trust other people. She makes him feel dependant and helpless in addition to the mild thrills he gets being able to toy with her affections without returning them. Andy is a breath of fresh air because he's straightforward and kind; he has no ulterior motives and respects Martin. Martin says at one point that Andy is the first person he's really trusted. So Martin is devastated by Andy's sleeping with Celia because it shows he can lie to Martin, on top of the fact that Celia represents all Martin is trying to distance himself from but lacks the courage to. So she's basically poisoned his relationship with Andy too. Martin knows early on that Andy is heterosexual, so I don't think the tryst with Celia shocked him for this reason.

I'm not saying that it's impossible to think Martin is gay or that his relationship with Andy is a gay crush to some extent; I just don't think the film addresses this one way or another. It is telling that, when Celia attempts to seduce Martin and he flees, he cries out, "I can't...not with ANYONE!" I think Martin is celibate because he has such an instinctive inability to trust others, to allow himself to become emotionally as well as physically intimate. He's thought since childhood that others were deceiving him, starting with his mother, so he reflexively isolates himself. Celia's influence is all the more malign because he does to some extent rely on her, and she only furthers his negative perceptions of humanity. To Martin, Andy's honesty meant more than his friendliness (or possible romance if you think Martin is gay.) In the end, Martin realizes that his perception of his mother was mistaken, that people can be weak without being fundamentally bad, and the friendship with Andy is restored. I don't really see a gay subtext there, but understand why others might. I think Jocelyn Moorhouse would have been more explicit if she intended one. But sexuality isn't what the film is really about, so you can gain the same insights from it whether you see Martin's bond with Andy as a friendship or as something more.

I essentially agree with your interpretation. I don't tell others how to interpret the film, and the homosexual issue is a recurring question raised about the film. Often any degree of emotional intimacy between characters is interpreted by some viewers as erotic; I personally disagree with this tendency but is has become fairly prevalent, particularly when addressing platonic male/female relationships. In this film the interpretation becomes one of labelling Martin gay or bisexual. Also, I think some people might read into the drive-in scene where thugs misinterpret Martin's fumbling around in Andy's car, and Andy's subsequent defense of him, as evidence of a homosexual relationship. Once that theme is raised, it can become lodged in the viewer's mind, particularly as the characters bond and confide in one another after the incident. I personally think the homosexuality accusation is a coincidence, a source of humor rather than a clue to Martin's feelings about Andy, but can understand why others might see things differently. I think Martin is surprised that's he's able to attain a degree of trust--of emotional intimacy--with Andy. This is the thematic hinge of the plot (trust), not Martin's sexual orientation.

It's hard to tell how aroused Martin is by Celia because she basically forces herself on him. Martin coldly dismisses her earlier sexual passes because he's on home turf and feels more comfortable doing so. I do think he enjoys playing games with Celia's obvious desire for him because it's the only advantage he holds over her. Once she's blackmailed him into the date, gotten his emotions uncomfortably near the surface with the concert and lured him to unfamiliar territory, he's uncertain how to react. He might respond to Celia's advances because he doesn't want to seem weak, or because his body is racing ahead of his mind and self-control. The scene is tensed between vulnerability and force; both actors create such memorable characters that you're torn between Celia's unfulfilled longings and Martin's fear of her and of being vulnerable. But the scene also has overtones of rape because Martin is so clearly at her mercy whether he desires her or not.

I watched the film all the way through for the first time last week. (Finally!) Honestly, I don't think Martin had romantic or sexual feelings for Andy. He deeply cared for him, yes, but as a friend and - perhaps - as kind of a brother figure. It seems to me that Andy was the first person Martin was able to open up to and befriend. So, naturally, he was threatened when Celia wormed her way between him and Andy. He wanted so badly to trust someone, and then he discovered that Andy was hiding from him. So that, not surprisingly, threw him into a tail spin.

Anyway, this was an amazing movie and I'd like to see it again. :)

I think it's mildly ridiculous that people read gay subtext into any situation that involves two men not beating each other to a pulp. There was nothing to suggest that Martin was gay; he even complimented Celia's breasts.

The character is sexually repressed and misogynistic, not gay. He attempts to displace onto his mother the feelings of castration he suffers because of his blindness. He resents the power his mother has over him, the power of vision.

In the world of Western cinema and photography, it is chiefly the woman who is made the object of the gaze, not the man. Martin's blindness, in his view, feminizes him and he is indeed made the object of an unreciprocated gaze in the scene with Martin's maid, Celia. She takes advantage of inequality just as men do in patriarchal societies.

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I do NOT think that Martin is gay at all. He is obviously aroused by Celia when she comes on to him, despite how horrid she has been to him. The fact that he's temporarily aroused DESPITE knowing how dangerous and evil she's shown herself to be is proof right there of his heterosexuality--know what I mean? It's like his body betrays his mind and his gut instincts at that moment, but then he comes back to his senses. The fact that he doesn't "want" her lies not in his homosexuality, but in the fact that he's a good guy who wants and deserves a nice, normal, kind, sweet, girl, not some evil, sadistic, psycho, obsessed stalker/freak! It's an insult to Martin to assume that he must be gay because he doesn't want to sleep with Celia, and, thus, have a relationship with her (she would have demanded more, and he knew that). Are blind men supposed to take whomever they can get, no matter how cruel or evil, because that's the best they can ever hope for?! Martin was hurt as a friend about the lie Andy told regarding the park photograph, and then he was hurt about the lie regarding Celia. He had told Andy how important honesty was to him early on, so this felt like such a betrayal. Then, he was upset because he realized that he'd lost the only male friend he'd ever had and he was still stuck with Celia. He was not hurt because he wanted Andy for himself. Thankfully, he managed to, again, come to his senses and fire Celia and forgive Andy.

I do NOT think that Martin is gay at all. He is obviously aroused by Celia when she comes on to him, despite how horrid she has been to him. The fact that he's temporarily aroused DESPITE knowing how dangerous and evil she's shown herself to be is proof right there of his heterosexuality--know what I mean? It's like his body betrays his mind and his gut instincts at that moment, but then he comes back to his senses. The fact that he doesn't "want" her lies not in his homosexuality, but in the fact that he's a good guy who wants and deserves a nice, normal, kind, sweet, girl, not some evil, sadistic, psycho, obsessed stalker/freak! It's an insult to Martin to assume that he must be gay because he doesn't want to sleep with Celia, and, thus, have a relationship with her (she would have demanded more, and he knew that). Are blind men supposed to take whomever they can get, no matter how cruel or evil, because that's the best they can ever hope for?! Martin was hurt as a friend about the lie Andy told regarding the park photograph, and then he was hurt about the lie regarding Celia. He had told Andy how important honesty was to him early on, so this felt like such a betrayal. Then, he was upset because he realized that he'd lost the only male friend he'd ever had and he was still stuck with Celia. He was not hurt because he wanted Andy for himself. Thankfully, he managed to, again, come to his senses and fire Celia and forgive Andy.