Widescreen Dreams: Growing Up Gay at the Movies (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog) [Hardcover]

Patrick E. Horrigan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog | Publication Date: May 21, 1999

"In Widescreen Dreams, Horrigan allows us to witness,identify with and to join with his own youthful rollercoaster of ecstatic highs and tormented lows of being a fervent fan."-Felice Picano

In 1973, a sweet-tempered, ferociously imaginative ten-year-old boy named Patrick Horrigan saw the TV premiere of the film version of Hello, Dolly! starring Barbra Streisand. His life would never be the same.

Widescreen Dreams: Growing Up Gay at the Movies is a funny, poignant coming-out story of a generation Xer who came of age in the 1970s. In many ways it is also the story of every young gay man who grew up in suburban America, propelled by bigger dreams.

Horrigan's dreams revolved around the movies, and this chronicle of his coming out focuses on five Hollywood films that were touchstones of his personal evolution. Ranging from The Sound of Music to Hello, Dolly!, The Wiz, The Poseidon Adventure, and Dog Day Afternoon, these films, for all their low comedy and high drama, reflect Horrigan's sense of isolation and sexuality, as well as his complex relationship with his large Irish Catholic family.

Widescreen Dreams is an emotionally charged autobiography as well as a perceptive work of cultural criticism. Horrigan offers us a soulful, many-sided exploration of what it has meant to be young, gay, and alive within the mind-altering movie palace of American culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In five idiosyncratic and overtly personal essays and "outtakes," Horrigan, an assistant professor of English at Long Island University, discusses how The Sound of Music, Hello, Dolly, The Poseidon Adventure, The Wiz and Dog Day Afternoon provoked an active fantasy life in his childhood and teen years that in turn grounded his sense of self as a gay man. Mixing autobiography, film criticism, cultural commentary and his own fantasies, he examines his responses to these films in the context of his family life, sexual desires and relationships. His insistence on recounting such minute details as how the Alps in The Sound of Music reminded his mother of the hills of her Reading, Pa., birthplace can detract from his more sustained reflections. But when Horrigan is on target, as when he reveals how his sexual fantasies about Al Pacino enabled him to understand and act upon his own sexual desires, his personal anecdotes illuminate the complex relationship between film and the imagination. Horrigan can write directly and elegantly; occasionally, his over-the-top projections, such as a five-page transcription of a fantasy interview with Dick Cavett after "Patrick Horrigan" makes a gay film with Al Pacino, are both daring and exhilarating. Like Wayne Koestenbaum's The Queen's Throat or D.A. Miller's Place for Us, Horrigan's take on the interaction between gay men and mainstream culture is challenging, although at times so personal that a more universal appeal cannot be taken for granted.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This memoir began as an experiment in merging cultural studies with autobiography, and it succeeds beautifully. Horrigan transforms a series of his critical writings on film into a touching and insightful look at a gay youth coming of age and coming to terms with himself. Each of the five chapters discusses a film in the context of Horrigan's family life and personal development. The book begins with The Sound of Music, moves on to the Barbra Streisand era, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Wiz, and ends with Horrigan's memory of Al Pacino's role as a gay man in Dog Day Afternoon. Particularly interesting are Horrigan's childhood fantasy movies and his mock interview with Dick Cavett about his own role playing Sonny, Pacino's young lover in a film he writes himself. This fascinating autobiographical tribute to American filmmaking is highly recommended for academic libraries with gay/lesbian and film studies collections.ALisa N. Johnston, Sweet Briar Coll. Lib., VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (May 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299161609
• ISBN-13: 978-0299161606
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,531,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Movie Memories and More!, December 18, 2000

By 

Terry Christopher (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Widescreen Dreams: Growing Up Gay at the Movies (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog) (Hardcover)

This book gives enjoyable insight into the mind of a boy who was captured in the journey that cinema can take us on. He reveals quite well his child perspective and the impact films like The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly, The Wiz, and The Poseidon Adventure had on him. You get to travel through Patrick's recollections not only of film experiences but also of his large Catholic family, his self embrace of being gay and his dating interactions as a gay young man. I often found myself recalling my own childhood memories of cinematic impressions, relating to my early identity as a gay male, and I often found my self laughing out loud. Though it's a book of Patrick's history, it touches off sparks of memories that we all have in common and unknowingly share. It transports the reader to their own childhood memories which is a gift to any reader and the work of a skillful writer.

3.0 out of 5 stars He loved The Wiz?, June 11, 2000

By 

M. C. Wolf (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Widescreen Dreams: Growing Up Gay at the Movies (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog) (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book despite myself. The author just LOVED some really wretched movies - The Wiz shaped his life? However, his tales of growing up gay in a Catholic family in Reading, PA are interesting and evocative. A fun little diversion for those of us who grew up more into theatre, movies, and glamor than sports and girls.