Gay Sex Scenes That Made Movie History

From:   The Backlot

James Wilby (left) & Rupert Graves in Maurice

Maurice 

(1987)

Based on the novel by gay author E.M. Forster, the nature of sex between men is at the very heart of the story.

Written starting in 1913 (although only published after Forester’s death in 1971) and set in the early 1900s, Maurice, like Another Country, takes place at an upper class school in Britain. In fact, many of the same actors appear in the smaller roles, and the actor who plays Maurice, James Wilby, at times bears a striking resemblance to Cary Elwes.

Maurice’s first love is schoolmate Clive Durham, played by Hugh Grant. Clive confesses his love to Maurice, who rejects him, only to admit his love later on. The two kiss passionately, but during an idyllic country picnic, Clive convinces Maurice that their relationship would reach its highest levels of honor only if it remained platonic.

While visiting Clive and his wife in the country one weekend, Maurice meets and has sex with the new groundskeeper, Alec Scudder (Rupert Graves), after Alec climbs in his bedroom window in the middle of the night. It is apparently Maurice’s first sexual experience, and it changes his life. The lovers have two more sexual encounters in the film, one in a boathouse and the other in a London hotel, before parting, supposedly for life. There is a probably unrealistic happy ending, however, and the two spend one last night at the boathouse before embarking on a life together.

Maurice is notable both as a novel and as a film for being about not just homosexuality as an identity but specifically about sex between men as an act of personal expression and even liberation.

Hotness: 7

Romance: 10

Significance: 7