Song of the Loon

From: Back2Stonewall

Song of the Loon is a classic gay love story made in 1968 and released in 1970 that was based on Richard Amory’s best-seller “Song of the Loon: A Gay Pastoral in Five Books”.  Set in the American wilderness of 1870 Song of the Loon movie adaption was among the first gay-porn features distributed.

From BijouWorld.com:

Troubled by sexual conflicts and pursued by a vengeful preacher and a former lover, young Ephraim MacIver seeks and finds peace of mind with the help of a handsome cowboy Cyrus, and a wise Indian medicine man.

Cyrus and Ephraim learn from the Indians how to live in the wilderness, and how to love each other and their “brothers” openly and freely.

Amory’s novels of a young man finding the path to sexual fulfillment via a series of encounters with trappers and Indians in the turn-of-the-century West had been the bread and butter of young men coming out in the early sixties. By the time the film reached the screen, the author’s florid prose had taken on an air of preciousness and pretension. But the film version which did not include Avery himself, for all its quaintness, captured national press attention and was at least mildly applauded for its lack of sensationalism.

Today’s Loon may come across as more than just a little tame, with its lofty aspirations to mystical wisdom and some absolute ‘truth’ about human sexuality; like all classics, it bears both the pride of being groundbreaking and innovative along with the burden of its own aged perspective and represents a cultural awakening for a generation of gay men.

Song of the Loon is available transferred onto DVD from BijouWorld.com