The celluloid closet

The basis for the film is Vito Russo's landmark 1981 book of the same name, which analyzes how homosexuality has been portrayed on screen since the beginning of the movies and the ways in which those portrayals overlapped with or mirrored society's views. The documentary throws out a swift, certain hook with a delightful title sequence of memorable gay and lesbian screen moments of both the intended and untitled kinds. Narrator Lily Tomlin's intro then points out that in 100 years of movies, homosexuality has been only rarely acknowledged, mostly as something to get laughs, or inspire fear of pity, conditioning straight people's ideas about gay people and gay people's ideas about themselves.