Richard James | General Store / 1998? || New Balls Please / 2004

gay macho

by Douglas Messerli

 

Richard James (animator and director) General Store / 1998?

Richard James (animator and director) New Balls Please / 2004 [3 minutes]

 

Since 2006 British animator Richard James has been primarily working as an animator of children’s TV films. But back in 2004, awarded the position of Animator in Residence at Channel 4 and with the support the British Film Institute, James wrote, directed and animated the film New Balls Please (2004), and served as the animator only for The Computer Virus (2004) (directed by Jesse Chambers).

     At around the same time he directed a stop-camera animated work of clay figures titled General Store—although this work is not mentioned in any of the IMDb collations, and shows up only as a video on Vimeo, with no other internet mention that I could discover. The last frame of the short film suggests it might have been made in 1998, perhaps as a project for the University of Wales, Newport, the date I have decided is the only appropriate one without further information.

      Neither of these are outright LGBTQ statements, although the earlier work, General Store is certainly homoerotic in its use of the barrel-chested figure of a Western Cowboy. And the second work definitely plays with notions of thwarted masculinity and counter notions of sexual difference.

      And both charmingly explore male sexuality that challenges and even mocks heteronormative behavior, and the latter is mentioned on several of the Letterboxd-related LGBTQ+ lists. Together they make an interesting paring for discussion.

 

In General Store, a Western cowboy suddenly shows up at the general store, where the clerk immediately greets him (in a definitely British brogue) with a friendly “Can I help you?” The cowboy, obviously the silent type, doesn’t answer, but immediately goes over to check out the knives. He soon speaks, however, again with a British accent, politely responding, “No, just looking,” the gentleness of his voice and the accent putting him immediately at odds with the standard notion of the American cowboy, even if the set has the look of a small Western town.

     A moment or so later, he walks back over to the front counter telling the now bent-over clerk that he would like to buy a shirt, the solicitous store owner responding, “Certainly, any particular size sir? I’ll bring a selection.” He soon brings over a small selection, the cowboy touching one of them, to which the clerk immediately replies, “Nice, that one. Would you like to try it on?” The cowboy answers with a simple, “No,” grabbing up another checked one, the clerk suggesting that there’s a mirror “over there.”      The cowboy puts it up to his chest, the clerk suggesting he try also another one, but again the cowboy answers, “No,” having definitively decided on the first one. The clerk immediately sells him a neck scarf to go with that, on special for $1, the total coming to $5.00. But when the cowboy opens his billfold he finds only $4.

      He puts down the 4 bills, looks out the window at the bank across the street, turns back and tells the clerk to “Wait there.” The cowboy leaves.

      We soon hear a gun go off and a woman scream. The cowboy reenters and hands the clerk another dollar bill, taking up the shirt and scarf and leaving. The cash register rings up the $5.00 sale.

     The credits begin to roll, but are soon interrupted by the return of the cowboy to the general store. Displaying his full chest to the clerk, he gently tells him, “I need a larger size.” A horse whinnies in the distance.

    This a cowboy with whom I could fall in love.

 

*

 

New Balls Please takes on two further macho figures, male tennis players at Wimbledon, where, as the movie begins, the reigning champion Kurt Bruckner is already two sets down to the new teenager, Jorge Romero, from the Dominican Republic. When Romero wins this set as well, Bruckner is so furious he puts a towel over his head, while as the announcer points out, Romero remains so calm, even though it’s his first time out at Wimbledon.

     The handsome teenager carefully unties his long mane of black hair and lets it fall into full form, waving his head to shake it loose, the crowd applauding. The defending champ is clearly agitated; as Romeo takes a drink of water, Bruckner also takes a drink but, in macho style, spitting it out. Even the announcer suggests it unsportsman-like conduct.

 

     Bruckner then takes out a banana, peels it open as he stares at Romero and begins to lick it before sticking it full into his mouth as if sucking cock. He throws the peel onto the court. Romero shakes his long dark locks again as he reties his hair up. Even the announcer suggests they are trying to out-psyche each other.

     Bruckner suddenly pulls off his shirt and throws it to the crowd, the crowd going wild and shouting out his name. Romero looks down at his naval and pulls up his shirt to show his brown hairy chest, lighting going off at the same moment, which leads announcer to declare, “Even the Gods are impressed.” And suddenly the crowd’s chants switch to “Jorge, Jorge.”

 

     Bruckner puts on another shirt and stands, picks up his chair and turns it away from Romero before sitting down again, his face buried in his hands. The hero has lost his charm. Rain begins to fall as if to suggest the tears that might be running down Bruckner’s hidden face.

    Romero zips up his bag and begins to head off to the shower, but quickly turns back seeing his opponent in tears and goes over to him, gently placing his hand upon his back. They head off together for the showers, and the workman quickly take down the net and cover the court to protect it from the upcoming storm. As two Letterboxd commentators argued, “They definitely fucked after this.”

 

Los Angeles, March 13, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (March 2024).