So I was in Slackers yesterday, wandering through the DVD section, disappointed that there are no gay and lesbian films (none with *happy* endings anyway) on the shelves this week, when I stumbled across an old VHS copy of "Absolute Beginners."

This is the movie version of a book I had to read for Multicultural Britain, which became one of my favorite books ever. I wrote my final paper on it for the class, focusing on the author's use of queer characters in both a positive and negative context, including the character of Wizard, a 16-year-old pimp who I came to believe as I read the novel, was actually in love with his best friend (the narrator) and that their falling out precipitated his siding with the "white right" mob during the Notting Hill riots at the end of the book.

The film was made in 1986, starring David Bowie. The director, Julien Temple, shot the film as a musical which, while interesting, actually eliminates the jazz score that runs throughout the text of the book in favor of a poppy, Comden and Green style songbook and score: a teenage jazz romp scored with a 40-year-old's concept of jazz. Still, we do get an interesting facsimile of Billie Holiday played by Sade near the middle of the movie. It's entertaining overall, with a tacked on "happy ending" that grates on my nerves but is probably well-loved by somebody. And strangely enough, that's not my biggest gripe about the film.

Several themes from the 1958 novel were deemed "too controversial" even almost thirty years later:

1) Interracial Dating: Suzette primarily dates and prefers the company of black men. In the novel, this is the reason she's no longer dating Colin, the narrator. In the film, she and Colin are still "sort of" on and the closest we come to this old problem of theirs is seeing Suze dancing with a black man in a club when he meets up with her.

2) Substantial "Real" LGBT characters: Hoplite, Big Jill and Wizard are all still in the film, but their parts have been scaled back. Wiz, while the best friend in the novel, is banished to the background and the argument that precipitates the decline of this friendship is played down severely. Big Jill's lesbianism is kept in the film, but her occupation as a pimp is not. Her last genuine moment in the novel (i.e. when she tells Colin she won't help him fight the mob outside during the riots) is also excised in favor of the us vs. them atmosphere of the riot sequence.

3) Racial Violence: Again, the decision to shoot AB as a musical also seems to have hurt this crucial theme in the novel. The film does its best but the reality of the 1958 race riots in Notting Hill isn't easily translated into the context of film let alone musical drama. We get some scenes showing the escalation of white-on-black violence in the area building up through the film. But by the climax, the riot -- which is still going on when Colin dashes off at the end of the novel -- lasts a total ten minutes onscreen. Alan Freeman's Call Me Cobber proudly describes a cease-fire to the proceedings as Napoli's citizens start to clean up.. Never mind the historical inaccuracy of the statement.. And the fact that the Teds are still out vandalizing half the block.

All things aside, it's a decent flick. It's just not a flick of the novel I loved. Nerts.