The Awakening
- 1971
- 56m
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Storyline
Featured review
Another evocative gay porn film from Jai
The mysterious Jai (here credited was "J. A. I.") strikes again with another flick that seems more art than porn. Across a small but potent body of work, he's managed to leave a strong impression on me, and I hope others seek out his stuff too.
Like other known Jai efforts UP & COMING and THE LAST THRILL, THE AWAKENING feels more like a sketch than a finished project, but it's effectively handled and full of promise, unified by many of the same obsessions that inflect the director's other films: art, melancholy, and loss. Simple but effective set-up finds a car running off the road before an excellent opening credits sequence, which makes effective use of Cat Stevens' "Sad Lisa" over images of a pretty blonde intercut with countdown leader - an effective meta touch that works well despite feeling charmingly "film school."
We meet our protagonist (Jason de Witt) driving down LA's Pacific Coast Highway, where he's retreating to his lonely beach house one year after the death of his wife. Along the way he picks up handsome hitchhiker David Michaels, who, with his long flowing locks and beard, has a Barry Gibb / James Brolin vibe that's quite sexy. Letting the stranger crash at his, our hero is surprised when the guy crawls into his bed that night after a long cry on the couch, trying to assuage whatever pain he's feeling through a passionate bout of fellatio.
It takes the film an incredible 16 minutes (out of 56) to get here, and the sequence itself, while generally too shadowy to be good porn, is nevertheless great as a piece of mood building, bathed in cool blue light as the ocean waves crash mournfully in the distance. The next morning, the narrator admits he's never been with a man but hopes this won't be the last time. Dressing his new paramour in a Christlike tunic from one of his photography shoots, he allows him to wander the beach and make up his mind whether he wants to stay.
Up to this point (around halfway through), the film has been superb, effectively building an incredible sense of slow-burn mood. Unfortunately, around here it becomes clear the movie doesn't have much of an idea where to go: the guys wander the house some more and have various brief sex scenes, but any sense of narrative progression dissipates. Eventually, the Christ guy turns up with another, twinkish dude from the beach (the oddly-spelled Sabastian McKenzie), and the trio make love - unfortunately bereft of any catharsis because it's unclear, emotionally, what anyone is going through. After that, they all go their separate ways.
Despite petering out, THE AWAKENING still leaves a positive impression. Even more so than Jai's other films, it's evocative and mournful, making great use of its location and a few well-chosen musical tracks. The cinematography is professional, and if anything suffers as a result of the surfeit of style it's the sex, which is given short-shrift. In a sea of so much interchangeable porn, however, I'll gladly take an intellectual turn-on over a physical one. Unfortunately, Jai never quite seemed to nail it with any of his productions, always feeling like he was starting with a great idea but didn't quite know how to develop it. Nevertheless, something as evocative as THE AWAKENING still deserves praise - it's another breath of fresh air from one of early gay porn's most interesting unsung auteurs.
Like other known Jai efforts UP & COMING and THE LAST THRILL, THE AWAKENING feels more like a sketch than a finished project, but it's effectively handled and full of promise, unified by many of the same obsessions that inflect the director's other films: art, melancholy, and loss. Simple but effective set-up finds a car running off the road before an excellent opening credits sequence, which makes effective use of Cat Stevens' "Sad Lisa" over images of a pretty blonde intercut with countdown leader - an effective meta touch that works well despite feeling charmingly "film school."
We meet our protagonist (Jason de Witt) driving down LA's Pacific Coast Highway, where he's retreating to his lonely beach house one year after the death of his wife. Along the way he picks up handsome hitchhiker David Michaels, who, with his long flowing locks and beard, has a Barry Gibb / James Brolin vibe that's quite sexy. Letting the stranger crash at his, our hero is surprised when the guy crawls into his bed that night after a long cry on the couch, trying to assuage whatever pain he's feeling through a passionate bout of fellatio.
It takes the film an incredible 16 minutes (out of 56) to get here, and the sequence itself, while generally too shadowy to be good porn, is nevertheless great as a piece of mood building, bathed in cool blue light as the ocean waves crash mournfully in the distance. The next morning, the narrator admits he's never been with a man but hopes this won't be the last time. Dressing his new paramour in a Christlike tunic from one of his photography shoots, he allows him to wander the beach and make up his mind whether he wants to stay.
Up to this point (around halfway through), the film has been superb, effectively building an incredible sense of slow-burn mood. Unfortunately, around here it becomes clear the movie doesn't have much of an idea where to go: the guys wander the house some more and have various brief sex scenes, but any sense of narrative progression dissipates. Eventually, the Christ guy turns up with another, twinkish dude from the beach (the oddly-spelled Sabastian McKenzie), and the trio make love - unfortunately bereft of any catharsis because it's unclear, emotionally, what anyone is going through. After that, they all go their separate ways.
Despite petering out, THE AWAKENING still leaves a positive impression. Even more so than Jai's other films, it's evocative and mournful, making great use of its location and a few well-chosen musical tracks. The cinematography is professional, and if anything suffers as a result of the surfeit of style it's the sex, which is given short-shrift. In a sea of so much interchangeable porn, however, I'll gladly take an intellectual turn-on over a physical one. Unfortunately, Jai never quite seemed to nail it with any of his productions, always feeling like he was starting with a great idea but didn't quite know how to develop it. Nevertheless, something as evocative as THE AWAKENING still deserves praise - it's another breath of fresh air from one of early gay porn's most interesting unsung auteurs.
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