Originally released by New Line Cinema in 1974, director Christopher Larkin’s A Very Natural Thing is considered one of the first films about gay relationships intended for mainstream, commercial distribution.
The plot concerns a young monk named David, played by Robert Joel, who leaves the monastery to become a public school teacher by day, while looking for true love in a gay bar by night.
Though it didn’t reach the large, mainstream audience the distributors had been seeking, the film offers a unique look at a specific period in the LGBTQ history – beginning with a mini-documentary about New York City’s 1973 Gay Pride Parade and continuing on to take a refreshingly positive and optimistic look at then-modern same-sex relationships.
While earlier queer films were dominated by tales of gays and lesbians being outcasts of society, mentally disturbed or committing suicide – and later queer films were sadly dominated by the emergence of the AIDS crisis – A Very Natural Thing represents a short period in time where gay liberation flourished, and filmmakers could explore relationships in much the same way that films with heterosexual characters did.
Check out the original poster for A Very Natural Thing below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
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