Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) starred Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as a couple of most excellent valley dude teenagers who travel through time, tracking down historical figures for their history report. I recall some homophobic slurs, which was de rigueur in the 1980s; but there was also significant buddy-bonding between Bill and Ted, in spite of the Medieval princesses they rescue, and between Billy the Kid and Socrates.
Plus Alex Winter had a bitchin' bod.
I didn't see the sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), but apparently the duo go to heaven and hell and start a band with a Swedish Ingmar Bergman-style Death.
Re-releases of the films come with a content warning, endorsed by the stars: "This movie reflects historical attitudes which audiences might find outdated or offensive." According to Alex Winter, it refers only to the homophobic slurs; "other than that, the movies are extremely wholesome."
Now maybe they could include disclamers in The Breakfast Club, Lucas, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, American Werewolf in London, Revenge of the Nerds, Pretty in Pink, Animal House...
Someone on twitter asked Alex Winter about Bill being a trans icon. He responded by posting a Black Trans Pride Flag. I'm not sure why Bill is a trans icon.
Everything old is new again. The duo are back in Bill and Ted Face the Music (2020), with wives and young-adult daughters (Billy and Theadora), but still heterosexual life partners, so closely aligned that neither can say "I love you" to his wife; it has to be "we love you."
For that matter, they never actuallly state that they are heterosexual. Maybe it's a polyamorous bisexual four-way coupling.
The daughters have some masculine traits because they are imitating their fathers, and Billie is played by a non-binary actor, Brigette Lundy-Paine. They state that the daughters have an "innocent genderlessness," with atypical costume choices and no gender expectations. As well as no romantic interests. They could easily be read as gay or asexual.
The plot: In order to save life, the universe, and everything, Bill and Ted must play a song that will "bring everyone together" that night. The problem is, they haven't written it yet, so they travel through time looking for future versions of themselves who have written the song. The bad guys send a robot (Anthony Carrigan) to kill them, but he reforms and becomes an ally.
I don't know if he's actually this buffed or it's a photoshopped image; he never appears without his robot suit.
Meanwhile the daughters help by going through time and recruiting the greatest musicians who ever lived to play the song:
1. Jimi Hendrix (DazMann Still)
2. Louie Armstrong (Jeremiah Craft), who may overdo the imitation a bit.
3. Mozart (Daniel Dorr)
4. Ling Lun (Sharon Gee), who brought music to ancient China by inventing the flute.
5. The prehistoric drummer Gromi (Patty Ann Miller)
Plus record executive Kid Cudi (playing himself) and Death (William Sadler).
The greatest musicians in history represent a variety of musical styles, two fo the five are women, and four out of five are people of color. A nice course correction In the original Bill and Ted, all of the historical figures were men, and four of the five were white.
Also, in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, the duo have sons. They turn into daughters here to add some girl power to what was a decidedly fratboy franchise.
Of course the song brings everyone together and saves the universe. The closing credits display people of various ages, races, and musical tastes playing music.
A dumb, goofy, feel-good movie with almost painstaking inclusivity. Just the thing we needed to see in the summer of 2020.
My grade: B+
See also: I was Betrayed by Keanu Reeves; Will and Scott Have a Wild Night with Keanu Reeves
Not to mention other attitudes. Revenge of the Nerds had one of the nerds tricking a sorority girl into sleeping with him because she thinks he's her boyfriend. (It's dark, and he has a Darth Vader mask on.) In fact, it's amazing how many late 20th century sex comedies have casual rape, voyeurism, flashing, and other non-consensual behavior. At least PCU limits rape to a villain, with your standard arrogant rich kid who gets his comeuppance complaining that these days, you can't even coerce a girl into sex without facing charges. But Porky's has voyeurism followed by flashing, American Pie has viral voyeurism, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat's clearly a suit. I would've modeled the face after De Nomolos (The future is surprisingly backward.), the bad guy in Bogus Journey, myself, for extra nostalgia, but whatever.
You can find lines in the original that can be read multiple ways. Their future selves know the first number they'll think of is 69, but the people involved, and how their genitalia align, is never specified. Obviously the implication is heterosexual, they're dating medieval princesses (and don't ask how that works when historically nobles married for diplomatic purposes), but you never know.