If “Barbie” has taught us anything, it’s that few symbols signal hypermasculinity as directly as horses.
Perhaps this is why gay cowboy stories persist in Hollywood – after all, one way to make a love story interesting is to make it subversive or taboo.
Luke Gilford’s “National Anthem” falls into that tradition of films. But it doesn’t either.
It’s true that the 21-year-old Dylan hasn’t been raised in an environment that celebrates or is open about his sexuality. A poor construction worker in the American Southwest and father figure to his younger brother, Dylan mostly stays quiet and keeps his head down when his mother and co-workers scornfully mock him or make fun of him for being gay.
Though “National Anthem” is indeed a story about lovers madly in love, more importantly, it is a story of a person’s quest to find society and a place of belonging. It also raises questions about how much autonomy we have in this quest.
In it, Dillon is pressured by his mother to work more to provide for their cash-strapped family. He finds it on a ranch unlike any he’s seen before – a quirky community of rodeo performers living together in what seems like an ideal oasis, free from the oppressive constraints of the outside world.
Almost nothing is said about each person’s sexuality or gender identity – this does not need to be the case in a place where variability and rejection of norms are assumed.
Dylan, perhaps for the first time, begins to consider what his own gender performance would be like if he were not constrained by society’s expectations.
The young construction worker is fascinated by everyone’s strong sense of identity and the camaraderie that exists within the nameless group. He almost immediately strikes up a romance with the mysterious and independent-minded Skye, but their relationship is complicated by Skye’s current open partnership with the group’s leader, Pepe.
Cinematographer Caitlin Arizmendi artfully evokes a sense of wonder and awe in the landscape, which is almost its own character in the story. She also gives the film a hint of surrealism, which further enhances Dylan’s dreamlike stupor as he is swept up in this heady romance.
When Dylan goes to his first rodeo with the group, a montage of majestic scenery that screams Americana – reminiscent of a Budweiser commercial – fills his gaze. But alongside the scenes of bulls, horses and rugged landscapes are scenes of gay romance, pride flags and drag queens getting their makeup done.
Although he finds a new freedom and acceptance here, the tension in his relationship with Skye leaves Dylan struggling to decide where he should live – within the community or struggling with his younger brother and alcoholic mother?
Dylan’s family backstory is frustratingly underdeveloped, often relied upon as a prop to show that his life is difficult, but never described in detail or resolved in a satisfying way. References to his absent father are made throughout, but it’s unclear what effect, if any, this absence had on him.
Gilford, the son of a Colorado rodeo rider, has a deep personal connection to his feature directorial debut. For most of his life he had an ambivalent relationship to his cowboy roots — until he founded the International Gay Rodeo Association.
As a participant and a researcher who conducted interviews and took photographs, Guilford saw that it was a way for members of the LGBTQ community to reclaim the idea of ​​patriotism in a place where they are not traditionally welcomed. Guilford’s 2020 photography book of the same name, “National Anthem,” documents scenes from these queer rodeos.
More than anything, Gilford’s film should be applauded for telling the story of a subculture few people know even exists.
“National Anthem,” released in theaters Friday by LD Entertainment, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for sexual content, graphic nudity, language and some drug use. Duration: 99 minutes. Two-and-a-half out of four.
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