This article is about a film. For sexual intercourse (also called love making), see
Sexual intercourse.
Making Love is a 1982 film about a married man coming to terms with his
homosexuality and the love triangle that develops
around him, his wife and another man. It stars Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin, and Michael Ontkean.
Plot summary
Zack Elliot (Ontkean) is a successful young doctor in the Los Angeles area
married to Claire (Jackson), an equally successful television network executive. They
have been married for eight years. They are generally happy in their relationship, sharing in common a love for Gilbert and Sullivan and the poetry of Rupert Brooke, to
whom they were introduced by their elderly former neighbor, Winnie Bates (Wendy Hiller).
They just recently bought a big house together with plans to soon start a family and, if they have a boy, to name him Rupert.
Unknown to Claire, Zack has been struggling with feelings of attraction to other men. He picks up men in his car and starts
frequenting gay bars in West Hollywood on his lunch hour, although he does
not follow through sexually. This changes when he meets Bart McGuire (Hamlin), a novelist who comes to see him for a medical
concern. Bart leads a fairly hedonistic lifestyle, picking up multiple sexual partners,
occasionally doing a variety of recreational drugs, and so on. Zack and Bart are mutually but unspokenly attracted to each other
and go out for lunch. A few days later, Zack calls Bart and asks him on a dinner date. He lies to Claire, saying he has to work
late. Back at Bart's house, Zack and Bart talk. Zack is not yet able to identify as gay, instead labeling himself "curious." That
night Zack has sex with Bart, the first time for Zack. After, Zack wants to stay the night, but Bart, following his usual
pattern, brushes him off. Angered, Zack leaves but returns the next day to confront Bart further about Bart's fear of intimacy.
Bart makes definite plans for them to get together during the weekend.
Claire, concerned about the growing distance in her marriage, goes to her boss seeking a year-long leave of absence. Instead,
he promotes her and sends her to New York City on a weekend business trip. Zack takes
advantage of the opportunity to spend more time with Bart. They end up arguing. Zack calls the outline for Bart's new novel less
than honest, and Bart confronts Zack about his own lack of honesty about his sexuality. That night in bed, Zack tells Bart that
he loves him. The next morning, fearful of his own growing feelings for Zack, Bart pushes him away again.
Bart exits the film shortly thereafter, realizing that he does have feelings for Zack but that he is not ready for the level
of commitment that Zack needs.
With Claire home from her trip, Zack tells Claire of his feelings for other men. Although she said she could handle anything
he could tell her, she reacts very badly and Zack leaves the house. A few days later, an emotional Claire trashes some of Zack's
clothes and finds a matchbook with a man's name and number written in it. She locates the man, someone Zack had picked up, and
they talk. She learns from him that gay people can live happy lives and takes his advice to talk to Zack. She and Zack, after
much discussion, decide to divorce. Zack takes a job in New York City working with cancer patients.
The film ends several years in the future, with the death of Winnie Bates. Zack is in a committed relationship with another
man by this time. Zack returns to Los Angeles for the funeral. Claire has re-married and has a young son named Rupert. After the
funeral, Zack and Claire discuss their lives and express their own happiness and their gratitude that the other is happy.
In an unusual structural choice, each of the three lead characters deliver several mini-monologues throughout the film,
speaking directly to the audience about aspects of their pasts and their feelings about the scenes that had just played out
on-screen.
Themes
Making Love was the first mainstream Hollywood
drama to address the subjects of homosexuality, coming out and
the effect that being closeted and coming out has on a marriage. The film contrasts two
visions of the so-called "gay lifestyle." Zack wants to settle into a long-term relationship similar to a heterosexual marriage,
while Bart represents the somewhat stereotypical view of gay men as being promiscuous and uninterested in forming
commitments.
Issues of the tension many women felt over pursuing careers are also touched on in Claire's fears that she is being forced to
choose between her career and having a baby. By film's end, she does have a child, but it is unstated whether she is still
working, so that theme ultimately remains unresolved.
Popular and critical reaction
Making Love was one of several mainstream Hollywood films to be
released in 1982 dealing with themes of homosexuality in a more tolerant light. Others included Personal Best, Victor/Victoria, and
Partners. According to gay film historian Vito
Russo's book The Celluloid Closet, straight critics found the film
boring while gay critics, glad for any attention paid to the subject, praised the film. Making Love opened strong at the
box office its first week, but poor word of mouth led to a large drop-off in box office receipts the following week.
DVD release
Making Love was released on Region 1 DVD on February
7, 2006.
Awards and nominations
External links
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