I don’t think it’s an exaggeration by saying 2017 was one of the best years for gay themed films. After Moonlight won Best Picture at Oscar, it was like paving the way for more gay themed movies WITH quality. Call Me by Your Name, Beach Rats, God’s Own Country, BPM, and after watching Tom of Finland, I have no doubt to put this movie on the same league of the other gay themed films.
Tom of Finland was Finland’s this year’s Oscar submission for Best Foreign Film, but it was not nominated. I wasn’t (and still is) not familiar with Touko Laaksonen or his homoerotic art, but this movie really put me in that state of curiousness. I watched this movie right after Final Portrait, without realizing that I was watching two films about artist! Though their similarity ends there, Touko inspired me more than Giacometti.
Tom of Finland told the story of Touko Laaksonen, a war veteran who suffered from PTSD and found solace in sketching. I’m not going to reveal the story line or the detail of every scene—because this movie is better to be experienced without reading any synopsis—but I will underline the importance of his art and why it inspired me.
Touko was a talented man. There was no doubt about that. But, what’s the use of it when you can’t even show it? Touko lived when homosexuality was still seen as taboo in Finland. Though he had a small gay community—thanks to his former captain in the army, Heikki—where he can show his talent, it wasn’t long before the gathering got raid and he went back to square one. He kept on drawing and an opportunity finally came to him in the United States. He was well-known as Tom of Finland, and his homoerotic art was worshipped in the gay community and though I wasn’t sure, his arts probably creating a leather community among gay people. Though he found his inspirations mainly in men who wore specific clothing (uniform, leather jackets) it was his first inspiration, a Russian soldier he killed, that really moved me. He turned his trauma into art, and that’s what real artists do. They create art even when their real life suffers.
What inspired me about Tom of Finland and his journey of becoming an icon within the gay community is the way his art was appreciated. His own sister belittled his talent just because he created homoerotic contents, while around the world, he got appreciation and was seen as some sort of a hero.
This scene really got to me because the way Kaija, Touko’s sister, said the line as if she was disgusted by what he did.
So, why Tom of Finland inspired me more than Final Portrait? Because of my preference writing gay themed stories rather than straight ones. To some people, it might not make difference, but to me, it does. I’m not saying that my writing is not appreciated—though not in the same level of Touko—it is appreciated, but it is still overlooked in the publishing world. Unless the gay characters in that story marries a woman or dies, then there’s a little chance the manuscript to be published in Indonesia. The persistence of Touko in keep on creating what he loved, reminded me to be persistence as well with my writing. I might not find fame the way Touko did, but it makes me believe that my stories—hopefully—in a way, will change someone’s life.
I really love this movie for the message that I received, though I have a doubt that I will watch it again. But, it’s inspiring nonetheless.
My rating is **** out of ***** because what this movie did to me. I determined to keep on writing what I love and never cared about pleasing the masses.
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