MovieChat Forums > Powder (1995) Discussion > Was he gay or what?

Was he gay or what?

posted 21 years ago by coaster10
99 replies | jump to latest

I understand the writer/director of the film, Victor Salva has a past history of homo-erotic themes or whatever you want to call them in his movies, but what's the deal with Powder? He kissed that girl at the picnic table and seemed to like her but the scene with him and Jeff Goldblum's character touching and the scene where POwder's checking out that guy in the gym seem to overshadow what feelings Powder may have had for the girl. If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.

[–] caerlas 16 years ago

If you mistook his viewing of the boy in the bathroom in a sexual context then you are erring on the same side as the punk who called him out for it. Powder was not lusting for the boy, rather, he was wishing he were someone else.

When Goldblum's character pointed out how he was more evolved than everyone, his response was "so what?" What good is being on a higher plane when you're completely alone there? It's that moment later on in the gym when Powder was probably thinking it would be worth giving up all his abilities and understanding just to enjoy the simplicity that a normal body and a normal life could bring. The homo-erotic overtones are there deliberately but only as a plot device to usher on the next conflict. If you picked up on it, you were supposed to, but not so you could actually believe it.

As for the scene in the lunch-room, I don't see that as having ANYTHING to do with sexuality. Let me put it this way: in our society, if a grown man caresses the face of another grown man, it is seen as a sexual gesture on some level. But what if a grown man caresses the face of his own son? We don't look upon that as being sexual at all, but rather as a loving and innocent gesture of affection and nurturing. That is exactly what's going on in that scene. Imagine a boy who had never known the gentle touch of a loving father. That's Powder. He had no one to treat him with the love and affection that both girls and boys need during the vulnerability of childhood. The teacher was demonstrating a familial gesture that Powder had no doubt longed for his whole short life.

It's only through our passage into adulthood and the onset of hormones that we start to see sex permeate every friendly gesture, conversation, and relationship. I suppose that's whole idea of the "end of innocence" truly comes from. We adults tend to stop thinking like we used to, and mundane interactions sometimes seem laced with innuendo. It doesn't mean they are, but our perspective has been warped to the point that we can't NOT notice.

[–] DarkPhoenixxxxx 16 years ago

Yes, he's gay.

<<(When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.)>>

[–] kolcsar_mihai 16 years ago

when goldblum touched him, he acted like that because until then nobody would. he never received love (not the kind where you have sex) from another person.
and he wasn't checking the dude out, but his body, a body so different from his, especially the hair

[–] nunyabiznesskay 16 years ago

no he wasn't gay, he was powder.

[–] In_Correct 15 years ago

I have not read every post in this thread, but who is Jeff Goldblum??? What part did he play????? That one guy who had hair????? In the first few posts, there are people saying Jeff Goldblum's character is named Zane or Skye. I looked on the imdb credits and it says that Jeff Goldblum's character is named Donald. And who touched Powder????? The guy with the hair (who is Powder's age) ??? A teacher (who is older than Powder) ?????

Powder admired people because they didn't destroy things with their minds accidentally when they got mad. They didn't have static inside them. And powder admired the guy with the hair as somebody his own age... and he was extremely jealous of his hair and darker skin.

As for older people, he admired them as guardians since he doesn't have a mother, his father left him, and his grandparents neglected them and then they eventually died just like his mother did.

But about the guy with the hair. I have several questions... I have not seen this movie in years; I never owned it. It was my sister's movie and I think she borrowed it from one of her friends. I do not remember the scene about the guy with the hair.

Wikipedia said that Powder was watching a guy showering...and the thread posts here said he was just taking his shirt off, soaking it, and getting his hair and skin wet. So which one was it?????????????

If it was a guy cooling off, there is nothing at all to suggest that it is lust. Although the scene, as detailed as it sounds, shouldn't be as detailed lol. Powder could have said "Yo nice hair dude. Props on that. I sure wish I was that fly. Totally wicked. Later."

And if the hairy guy was showering....I don't have any opinion of that because I don't know *where* Powder was looking at the guy, but I don't think the movie should have any slow motion and detailed scenes with a guy showering.

I would be more convinced that Powder was attracted to the guy if Powder tried to corner him and touch him over and over again.

I don't think Powder CAN even be gay, or straight. The electricity in his body might have made him sterile???????

Also how did the guy with hair react to Powder??????

I do remember this: A bunch of guys took Powder's clothes off. AND they looked at him and said "Well what do you know?! He's BALD as a BABY." That makes me think that the guys are the ones that are gay, not Powder. Both for them taking his clothes off, and for them looking at him with his clothes off.

And so the director was a pedophile......and as a result there are still strange scenes in it.

I am still surprised because Disney wouldn't let anything as much as a guy's shirt off slide into their so-called polished films.

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[–] mrtraska 14 years ago

Goldblum played Donald Ripley, the science teacher at the high school in town. The one who turned on the 'science project' that ended up electrocuting Powder in class.

As for the director being a pedophile, well, every once in a million years even a wacko can make a sensitive film. Too bad this one had to be publicly tarred with this guy's baggage. It's really a beautiful film that deserved a wider audience.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Myth-and-Mayhem 16 years ago

I also agree with dearheart... I saw it as if Powder was seeing the inner beauty of those "trouble maker boys." They're weren't being mean to anyone, they weren't creating problems, they were just happy, playing basketball, doing something they loved. I believe he was witnessing the beauty of their humanity. Their minds were still, they weren't doubting themselves, threatened, or scared, they just were there in the moment, happy. Of course it all turned ugly after that...

[–] mrtraska 14 years ago

Amen. I'm with you. He was seeing the beauty of the moment, which few of us ever notice. And remember: he had seen so little of the world that everything was new and beautiful to him. He was walking, talking innocence. Unlike everyone else in that film. And the best of them -- the teachers, the doctor, the dying woman -- realized that.

[–] reyls 15 years ago

He was intrigued by the guy's full head of hair and his pubes. He was not gay at all, he was just seeing in others what he was lacking.

This has nothing to do with the director's conviction for molesting a child.

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[–] chivers677 15 years ago

I don't think Powder is any sexuality, although he seemed to like the girl he kissed but about the scene in the gym, he was just looking at that guy to see what he would look like if he wasn't albino.