"Amazing dope,

amazing grace, it makes her skin tingle."

That is a quotation from Don Winslow's thriller, Savages, which has recently been adapted into a movie by 3-time Academy Award winner Oliver Stone, to be released July 6th, 2012.

As is indicated in the tag to this post, I've decided to start a segment on queer cinema. Because God knows there's too much heteronormative, mononormative film out there, with plotlines such as:

1. Boy meets girl.

2. Boy is in trouble.

3. Boy rides in fancy cars.

4. Boy sleeps with girl.

5. Boy shoots some people.

6. Girl gets kidnapped.

6. Boy shoots some more people.

7. Boy wins.

OK, so I basically just summarized a typical Jason Statham movie, but you get the idea.

Savages does follow this action-type plotline as well, but the queerness of it comes in the polyamorous nature of its three central characters. The film takes place in Orange County, and follows Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), best friends who share a pot-growing business worth millions. Their territory becomes challenged by the Mexican Baja cartel, headed by Elena (Salma Hayek) and her accomplice, Lado (Benicio del Toro), who demand that the entrepreneurs sell their drugs through them. Facing resistance from the Americans, the cartel decide to kidnap Ben and Chon's lover, Ophelia "O" (Blake Lively) and hold her for ransom. This sets off a chain of events that sees Ben and Chon going after the cartel. In other words, the shit hits the roof and we get guns, explosions and all the good stuff we expect to see in action movies.

The film was written by its author, Don Winslow, along with Shane Salerno and Oliver Stone. It also stars Emile Hirsch, John Travolta and Uma Thurman.

Feel free to read some of the comments being posted by youtube users. Words like 'slut' and 'whore' get thrown around a lot, as well as calling out the male protagonists for not being 'real men.' It seems that the concept surrounding polyamory is still very foreign to people. Cheating is very familiar - people cheat in real life, people cheat in the movies. When it comes to adultery, we are quick to call women sluts and whores, men pigs and players. It's a human behaviour that is naturally accepted. Yet the concept of open relationships, where all members involved are aware of one another, care and love one another, is somehow sinful and 'unnatural' human behaviour, so to speak. Adultery is OK because it is masked under monogamous disposition, yet polyamory is not OK because it is purposefully so.

It is ironic because we live in a western society that often excuses adultery (ie. the belief that men, by evolution, cannot be monogamous therefore cheating is 'expected'), yet this society also cannot accept polyamory as a healthy relationship orientation. If you're a woman in a polyamorous relationship with one man that you share with other women, then you have somehow been manipulated into it. If you're a woman in a polyamorous relationship with other men, then you are a slut. On the other hand, if you're a man in a polyamorous relationship with many women, then you are a pimp. If you're a man in a polyamorous relationship with a woman that you share with other men, then you are spineless because you won't stake claim and ownership over your woman. 


Because relationships, obviously, are all about staking territory belonging to you and you only. Yes, that may work for some people. But it does not work for everyone, and to believe that it does is an ignorant assumption.

It will be interesting to hear how this film is taken by the general public when it is eventually released. It already seems to be generating negative attention from people who believe it to be an unrealistic and unbelievable film. Not because of its blatant glorification of gang violence and drug war, but because of its representation of a polyamorous love story. I would like to think that the misrepresentations in the film come from the former and not the latter.

Polyamory is sometimes an identity, other times a choice. It is very real, and I think it is very important that we eliminate the belief that it is rooted in manipulation and sexual perversion. Yes, it is often linked to negative social realities, such as those associated with the FLDS church, in which children are forced into polygamous marriages. Despite the fact that this religion does define itself by the orientation, polyamory is not defined by this kind of religious corruption. Polyamory amongst consenting people is entirely acceptable, much in the same way that monogamy amongst consenting people is entirely acceptable. As long as they are not breaking any laws, people have the right to live the way they want with whomever they want, loving however many people they want. 

I didn't mean to use this movie as an excuse to rant about political correctedness regarding polyamory, but yeah, I kind of meant to.

Polyamory Pride Flag, by Jim Evans