#nighthawks 1978

[celluloidrainbow]

NIGHTHAWKS (1978) dir. Ron Peck Jim, a London teacher by day, spends his evenings cruising bars and discos meeting men from different backgrounds and places, constantly on the lookout for any kind of connection. He tries to keep his personal life separate from his professional one, compartmentalizing his 'Gay encounters' and his 'friendships with school colleagues' in different boxes, but this status quo can't remain forever. (link in title)

[monkeyspanker69]

[pierppasolini]

Nighthawks (1978) // dir. Ron Peck

[actorsinunderwear]

Ken Robertson in Nighthawks (1978)

[lazzarella]

“The film only shows one part of the gay scene . . . it does not cover everything as many people wish it did. But such a hope or expectation is only a reflection of the dire situation in which there are so few films with or about gay characters. Almost any film starts off with the burden of trying to redress an imbalance, to make homosexuality visible in the cinema. We need hundreds of gay films, not half a dozen.”

- Ron Peck, director of Nighthawks 1978, quoted in The Celluloid Closet revised edition by Vito Russo

[cosmicanger]

Nighthawks (1978)

dir. Ron Peck

[marvelousmrm]

Doctor Strange #29 (Stern/Sutton, Apr 1978). Nighthawk recruits Strange to investigate a murder. Perhaps the Daredevil foe Death-Stalker is more mystical than we’d assumed!

[betogun]

“We all are innocent while we sleep” - Fotograma de “Nighthawks” (1978) de Ron Peck.

[mogwai-movie-house]

The Best of Tom Waits

Every album, ranked and rated high-to-low:

Swordfishtrombones (1983) ★★★★★★★★★★

Rain Dogs (1985) ★★★★★★★★★½

Closing Time (1973) ★★★★★★★★★☆

Frank's Wild Years (1987) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Bone Machine (1992) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Real Gone (2004) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Heartattack and Vine (1980) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Mule Variations (1999) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Small Change (1976) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Blood Money (2002) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Nighthawks at the Diner (1975) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Blue Valentine (1978) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Orphans (2006) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Alice (2002) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Bad As Me (2011) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

The Black Rider (1993) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Foreign Affairs (1977) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) ★★★★★★½☆☆☆

Night On Earth (1992) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

One From The Heart (1982) ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

[garethllane]

FILM LOG || March 2024

★★★★★ - Blonde Ambition, Lem Amero and John Amero (1981) ★★★★☆ - Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975) ★★★★☆ - Theorem, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1968) ★★★★☆ - Wild at Heart, David Lynch (1990) ★★★★☆ - Chatterbox!, Tom DeSimone (1977) ★★★★☆ - Barbara Broadcast, Radley Metzger (1977) ★★★★☆ - Peeping Tom, Michael Powell (1960) ★★★★☆ - Streets of Fire, Walter Hill (1984) ★★★★☆ - Women in New York, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1977) ★★★★☆ - Shock Corridor, Samuel Fueller (1963) ★★★★☆ - Pumping Iron, George Butler and Robert Fiore (1977) ★★★★☆ - Rapture, Ivan Zulueta (1979) ★★★★☆ - Superstar: Karen Carpenter Story, Todd Haynes (1987) ★★★★☆ - Pumping Iron II: The Women, George Butler (1985) ★★★☆☆ - Muscle, Hisayasu Sato (1989) ★★★☆☆ - The Death of Maria Malibran, Werner Schroeter (1972) ★★★☆☆ - Reform School Girls, Tom DeSimone (1986) ★★★☆☆ - Hell Night, Tom DeSimone (1981) ★★★☆☆ - Angel III: The Final Chapter, Tom DeSimone (1988) ★★★☆☆ - Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, Sarah Jacobson (1996) ★★★☆☆ - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Howard Hawks (1953) ★★★☆☆ - Death on the Beach, Enrique Gomez Vadillo (1991) ★★★☆☆ - Erotikus, Tom DeSimone (1973) ★★★☆☆ - I'm Going to Get You Elliot Boy, Ed Forsyth (1971) ★★★☆☆ - Mondo Trasho, John Waters (1969) ★★★☆☆ - Nighthawks, Ron Peck (1978) ★★★☆☆ - Bloody Muscle Body Builder, Shinichi Fukazawa (1995) ★★★☆☆ - Fortune and Men's Eyes, Harvey Hart (1971) ★★★☆☆ - She Devils on Wheels, Hershell Gordon Lewis (1968) ★★☆☆☆ - Jail Bait, Ed Wood (1954) ★★☆☆☆ - Athena, Richard Thorpe (1954) ★★☆☆☆ - Flaming Creatures, Jack Smith (1963) ★★☆☆☆ - The Hunger, Tony Scott (1983) ★★☆☆☆ - Jesus Christ Superstar, Norman Jewison (1973) ★★☆☆☆ - Beefcake, Thom Fitzgerald (1998) ★★☆☆☆ - Partners, James Burrows (1982)

Shorts:

★★★★☆ - La Ricotta, Pier Paolo Passolini (1963) ★★★★☆ - I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, Sarah Jacobson (1993) ★★★☆☆ - Le Plus Del Homme Du Monde, Jean Mineur (1948) ★★★☆☆ - Sins of the Fleshapoids, Mike Kuchar (1965) ★★☆☆☆ - Ed Fury on the Beach, Bob Mizer (1960)

[queerstuffonscreen]

Nighthawks (1978)

108 min.

Country: UK

Genre: Drama, History

Language: English

A gay teacher is forced to hide his sexuality by day while living his secret life by night, in Great Britain in the 1970s, not mixing his professional and private life, until the day comes when his students and his headmaster find out.

Watch on Tubi or Kanopy

[pierppasolini]

Nighthawks (1978) // dir. Ron Peck

[actorsinunderwear]

Ken Robertson in Nighthawks (1978)

[lastchancevillagegreen]

Now Playing! Sunday, 26 March 2023:

Blue Valentine Tom Waits (Asylum) (released in 1978)

I first bumped into Tom Waits’ music in Carbondale listening to WIDB, the college radio station.  It would have been one of two songs I first heard: Better Off Without A Wife (from his live 1975 album Nighthawks At The Diner) or Romeo Is Bleeding from this album.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter which I heard first, both made a huge impression on me.  I had never heard anyone like this in my lifetime.  Someone singing about not wanting a wife (even if ironically, it felt subversive) and someone who sounded like this?  I bought both albums in 1978 and as often felt the case, most of my roommates made immense fun of me: ‘the man cannot sing!’  My take was always, are you kidding me?  Listen to those lyrics and listen to the emotion in that voice and music!  That my friends, is some serious singing.  Yes, albeit an unconventional voice perhaps, but certainly an emotional voice like I had never heard.  And for goodness sakes, the subject matter Waits was singing about.  It all impacted me and made me think differently about what music and singing really was.  College gave me musical insight I had not had before.  Sure, I was a dork who refused myself admission into the Ramones work and I bought London Town when I should have been buying Road To Ruin.  All these years later I no longer own the former, but I do own the latter.  We can’t be everything all at once.

I was astonished to discover he was on Asylum as I was a fan of the label.  It wasn’t until I realized that he was a California boy and not a New York boy that it made sense.  Essentially a singer/songwriter he just didn’t fit in the mold of that moniker. Waits was always so much more in my mind. 

I remember the very first time I put this album on and heard Waits’ version of Somewhere, the Leonard Bernstein/ Stephen Sondheim song which comes from West Side Story.  When my gay roommate heard that emanating from my room, he barged in and demanded to know who that was.  He thought Waits’ version was the most spectacular thing he had ever heard.  He got Waits and understood there is power in visceral emotion which impacts lyrical content in ways not even the most beautiful voice can deliver.  I was always a sucker for his ballads like Kentucky Avenue.  It was then I realized that Waits spoke heavily to the melancholia I’ve always felt deep inside myself.  There is something agonizingly beautiful about pain and sorrow and his work speaks to that in a manner unlike most artists are able to do.

I caught Waits’ live at Shryock Auditorium in Carbondale in 1979 and it was mesmerizing.  I’d never seen someone who had an actual set onstage as if there would be some kind of a reading.  It looked like a park with a park bench, a wire trash can, a tree, grass...Waits of course was not just musically performing, he was giving an acting performance as a drunken man muttering to himself about a litany of why life bothered him.  When Waits later became a fine character actor, I was not at all surprised.  It was just Waits and his piano and the park bench.  The audience would roar with laughter or they would be hushed as he whispered out his vocals, crushing us with emotions.  It was the most memorable show I saw during college. 

After college I lost sight of Waits’ work operating on a hit and miss approach to his albums.  Heartattack and Vine, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine I bought and then I vanished for supporting his work.  The double release of Blood Money and Alice brought me back to his music and I proceeded filling in all the gaps in my collection of his work and then bought everything as it came out from that point.  Heaven knows I don’t play him enough, when you have as much music as I do, some artists suffer.  But here he is on my turntable now and the memories come flooding back from when I first discovered this fine work.  It means the same thing to me now as it did all those years ago. 

[filmap]

Nighthawks Ron Peck. 1978

Buildings Ledbury Estate, Ledbury St, London SE15 1BA, UK See in map

See in imdb

[marvelousmrm]

Defenders #59 (Kraft/Hannigan, May 1978). Kyle tests some upgrades to his Nighthawk gear, while Strange strives to prevent the impending xenogenesis. It doesn’t go great for either of them…