Introduction to a Film: Making Love

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This article is about a film. For sexual intercourse (also called love making), see Sexual intercourse.

Making Love is a 1982 film about a married man coming to terms with his homosexuality and the love triangle that develops around him, his wife and another man. It stars Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin, and Michael Ontkean.

Plot summary

Zack Elliot (Ontkean) is a successful young doctor in the Los Angeles area married to Claire (Jackson), an equally successful television network executive. They have been married for eight years. They are generally happy in their relationship, sharing in common a love for Gilbert and Sullivan and the poetry of Rupert Brooke, to whom they were introduced by their elderly former neighbor, Winnie Bates (Wendy Hiller). They just recently bought a big house together with plans to soon start a family and, if they have a boy, to name him Rupert.

Unknown to Claire, Zack has been struggling with feelings of attraction to other men. He picks up men in his car and starts frequenting gay bars in West Hollywood on his lunch hour, although he does not follow through sexually. This changes when he meets Bart McGuire (Hamlin), a novelist who comes to see him for a medical concern. Bart leads a fairly hedonistic lifestyle, picking up multiple sexual partners, frequenting gay discothèques, occasionally doing a variety of recreational drugs, and so on. Zack and Bart are mutually but unspokenly attracted to each other and go out for lunch. A few days later, Zack calls Bart and asks him on a dinner date. He lies to Claire, saying he has to work late. Back at Bart's house, Zack and Bart talk. Zack is not yet able to identify as gay, instead labeling himself "curious." That night Zack has sex with Bart, the first time for Zack. After, Zack wants to stay the night, but Bart, following his usual pattern, brushes him off. Angered, Zack leaves but returns the next day to confront Bart further about Bart's fear of intimacy. Bart makes definite plans for them to get together during the weekend. Claire, concerned about the growing distance in her marriage, goes to her boss seeking a year-long leave of absence. Instead, he promotes her and sends her to New York City on a weekend business trip. Zack takes advantage of the opportunity to spend more time with Bart. They end up arguing. Zack calls the outline for Bart's new novel less than honest, and Bart confronts Zack about his own lack of honesty about his sexuality. That night in bed, Zack tells Bart that he loves him. The next morning, fearful of his own growing feelings for Zack, Bart pushes him away again. Bart realizes that he does have feelings for Zack but that he is not ready for the level of commitment that Zack needs. He is last seen in the film back out on the circuit, cruising.

With Claire home from her trip, Zack tells Claire of his feelings for other men. Although she said she could handle anything he could tell her, she reacts very badly and Zack leaves the house. A few days later, an emotional Claire trashes some of Zack's clothes and finds a matchbook with a man's name and number written in it. She locates the man someone Zack had picked up, and they talk. (Thinking at first that this was the "other man".), She learns from him that gay people can live normal and happy lives. Claire attempts to get Zach to remain in the marriage (Even claiming that she would be okay with him having affairs with other men.) but Zack advises her that she must let go. Zack then tells Claire that he has a job prospect in New York City, working with cancer patients. In the end the two agree to a divorce.

The film ends a few years in the future, with the death of Winnie Bates. Zack is living in New York and in a committed relationship with another man by this time. Zack returns to Los Angeles for the funeral. Claire has re-married and has a young son named Rupert. After the funeral, Zack and Claire discuss their lives and express their own happiness and their gratitude that the other is happy.

In an unusual structural choice, Bart and Claire deliver several mini-monologues throughout the film, speaking directly to the audience about aspects of their pasts and their feelings about the scenes that had just played out on-screen.

Themes

Making Love was the first mainstream Hollywood drama to address the subjects of homosexuality, coming out and the effect that being closeted and coming out has on a marriage. The film contrasts two visions of the so-called "gay lifestyle." Zack wants to settle into a long-term relationship similar to a heterosexual marriage, while Bart represents the somewhat stereotypical view of gay men as being promiscuous and uninterested in forming commitments.

Issues of the tension many women felt over pursuing careers are also touched on in Claire's fears that she is being forced to choose between her career and having a baby. By film's end, she does have a child, but it is unstated whether she is still working, so that theme ultimately remains unresolved.

Popular and critical reaction

Making Love was one of several mainstream Hollywood films to be released in 1982 dealing with themes of homosexuality in a more tolerant and sympathetic light. Others included Personal Best, Victor/Victoria, and Partners. According to gay film historian Vito Russo's book The Celluloid Closet, straight critics found the film boring while gay critics, glad for any attention paid to the subject, praised the film. Making Love opened strong at the box office its first week, but poor word of mouth led to a large drop-off in box office receipts the following week.