#michael ryan

Lucie's View , Rue de l' Université , Paris - Michael Ryan

American , b. 1953 -

Some homophobia is to be expected in just about any representation from this decade (whether from characters in the story or filmmakers, and Dangerous Lady has some of both), but this takes the cake. When we meet Michael Ryan, he's a teenage boy being groomed by the head of a London crime family. Years later, when this man wants to retire, Ryan believes he will leave him charge of the business. When the man decides instead that he wants to go away and take Michael with him, Michael plans a vehicular homicide for him with his brothers. When he survives, Michael strangles him in his hospital bed. That's all well and good, but some years later Michael also kills Johnny, the man featured in this clip, because his jealous brothers suggest he cannot be trusted. I'd had enough by that point, especially knowing that Michael then dies from an HIV related infection during the 1980s at the series' end. Every bad thing ill-wishers in the 90s claimed happened to gay men all the time actually happens to Michael Ryan, and yet . . .

There isn't a hotter scene between two men from the whole decade that I've seen. The opening shot is a close up on Johnny's hand on Michael's lower back wearing the ring Michael's first lover had given him. They are naked. The white satin top sheet is doing more to highlight how thick and round Michael's ass is than to conceal it. As the camera pans back it becomes clear they are lying with their heads well below the pillows, near the side of the bed. Michael's feet, which the frame of the mirror in which we are seeing them cuts off, are likely hanging over the edge. Their positioning suggests that Johnny fucked Michael from behind and then they fell asleep like that. There is also a bottle of whiskey on the bedside table, with the stopper sitting next to and an empty glass, indicating that at least on of them had been drinking heavily the night before. I wonder if this might connect to the internalized homophobia Michael shows in an earlier scene with Johnny at a gay bar where the two argue about whether to attend an anniversary party for two acquaintances. The liquor gives him an opportunity to disassociate himself from his own desires.