Burning Blue could be called “the gay Top Gun,” but since Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis were in the original, maybe “the out Top Gun” is more appropriate. Yes, it’s another story of love in the military. That it involves two male Navy pilots raises — but doesn’t answer — the question: Who’s top gun and who’s bottom?
Director and co-writer DMW Greer based it on his own experiences in the 1980s, before “don’t ask, don’t tell” triggered witch hunts that made things even worse for gays in the service. The movie starts in 1995 when Dan (Trent Ford) exchanges glances with Matt (Rob Mayes) at the latter’s wedding, but they don’t act on their attraction until five years later, when Matt acts as Dan’s tour guide in New York City. They wind up in a bar where women pick up the men and two shipmates, but Dan and Matt exchange more glances while having sex with their female pickups in the same bed.
Matt has a fight with his wife and Dan breaks up with his fiancée of eight years, leaving friend Will (Morgan Spector) the only happy hetero in this bromantic triangle that puts the “men” in “ménage a trois.” Will loves Dan more than Matt does, but in a nonsexual way, adding a bi-angle to the triangle.
Shaving his beard moves Dan higher on the suspicion list of a government queer hunter who’s infiltrated the unit on the pretext of investigating a series of training accidents that have cost the Navy men and machines. Of course, Washington couldn’t care less about those when there’s danger of someone getting sucked off aboard an aircraft carrier.
If Burning Blue ever had any credibility, it loses it when Dan is formally accused of being gay and sent before a tribunal consisting of two admirals: his own father and Will’s father!
Fortunately the repeal of DADT, after it caused the discharge of more than 14,000 LGBTs, has relegated this era to the history books, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good movies to be made about it. But Burning Blue isn’t one of them.
Perhaps Greer thought discretion was needed to attract mainstream audiences, which suggests he hasn’t been to the movies since Brokeback Mountain. Aside from some language, the (PG-13) heterosex scene and one kiss between two men, Burning Blue could be screened in a Baptist church. (They would also approve of the way one character is smote after being smitten.)
I’m not asking for porn, but early in the film there are several scenes of hugging, wrestling and even campy dancing that show what’s acceptable between men as long as they’re straight. Against this background the limited actual gay activity is easily overlooked, which will frustrate gay viewers and confuse straights.
Greer has made good use of stock footage of planes and a carrier to suggest the settings on a miniscule budget, but the script isn’t strong enough to smooth over the compromises this requires. While a lack of one kind of diversity may be the film’s point, Greer’s sailors are almost all as white as their dress uniforms.
With a 2011 copyright, it’s taken Burning Blue three years to reach theaters and Video on Demand. That Lionsgate decided to release it may indicate they’re looking for a new niche audience because Tyler Perry’s box office receipts have been dwindling. There are a lot of better films they could have chosen for their experiment.
— Steve Warren
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 6, 2014.