Happy Pride! Desert Hearts (1985) is the subject of this episode of The Movie Hotline. I had to call and tell you about my all-time favorite romantic drama! In this informal analysis I celebrate Pride Month with an appreciation of the best character in this lesbian classic, the engine that drives the plot, Cay’s best friend and former lover, Silver Dale. Silver is a kind, brassy, fascinating, and fierce woman who represents the hopefulness that fills this groundbreaking film. You can watch on YouTube, or read the transcript below.

I’ve been dying to talk about Desert Hearts for Pride Month because it is my favorite romantic drama. I have several academic points that I would like to make about this film, and I will probably return to it, but I’m going to narrow it down and talk about something that I’m qualified to discuss—which is the bisexual character who is the heart of the film, Miss Silver Dale.

Now, if you haven’t seen this movie, it’s about Vivian, who’s a buttoned-up professor of English literature in the 1950s who rides a train all the way from New York City to Reno to spend six weeks pretending that she lives there so that she can get a divorce because of something she can’t reason or explain away. But what it really is, is that she’s not into men, she’s into women, and she’s afraid of those intense feelings. Well, at the ranch where she is establishing residence, there is an openly lesbian woman ten years younger named Cay, who is an artist. Eventually, of course, they get together and ride off on a train for the most hopeful ending of any older gay movie that I’ve ever seen, even though it is only to spend another forty minutes together, and it will be an ambiguous ending. But in an era when things had been ending badly for the gay characters since the beginning of cinema, this was extraordinary.

Silver is the character that moves all of the action along. She is a former lover of Cay’s, but she’s now getting married to a man named Joe. Silver’s flamboyant; she’s a musician, she works at the casino with Cay, and seems to have done some living. Maybe she was a showgirl, some kind of entertainer. I don’t know. But at first, you know, like many bisexuals, and I say this with love because I am one of you, we tend to trust the experience inside of our own head, thinking that everyone is bisexual, and that’s just not the case.

So Silver says to Cay, “You know, why don’t you just get married to this guy you’ve been going around with, Daryl, you know, your beard, just like I’m marrying Joe, and everything will be great.” And Cay’s like, “If you didn’t understand who I am, that would really hurt,” because, you know, she and Silver have been together, and Silver backs Cay completely. Remember again, this is the 1950s…this was just not done. This causes all kinds of problems. Silver’s about to throw this huge party for her engagement, and that pushes Cay and Vivian closer together, and pushes Cay away from her stepmother who, aside from Silver, is like the anti-Silver. She has a lot of great lines in the film but ultimately is kind of the villain. Because of Silver’s party and everyone having such a great time, Vivian ends up getting kicked off the ranch, but this is what gets her and Cay together for the final act.

There’s a point at which… and Joe, Silver’s husband Joe, is just so completely cool. He looks like somebody that would have been in Goodfellas but doesn’t give a shit that Silver likes women. At one point, Silver and Cay are in the tub having the talk about how she’s falling in love with Vivian, and Silver’s just like, “Be careful.” And maybe slightly jealous but, you know, just doesn’t want Cay to get hurt by someone who comes into town and then leaves after six weeks. Joe comes in, and he’s been cooking them dinner, and he’s just like, “Ah, you look great. The steaks are ready.” And that’s the end. He does not give one single, solitary shit. I want to party with these people, Silver and Joe.

The best thing about them is that in this movie, where the whole action of the film is around divorce, the whole industry of the town besides gambling is divorce, these people coming here just so they can quickly get divorced, Silver and Joe are getting married, and their wedding is the final confrontation that we see.

I think there’s hope for the future between Cay and her stepmother, who can’t accept that she’s met someone who counts, and that she’s going to ride away on a train and be a sculptor in New York City. Everybody is really intimidated by Vivian as an academic. I have to say, I wish that people were this afraid of English literature professors in the world in which we live—that would be amazing!

But that’s all I have to say. Got some other great things to say about Desert Hearts, but just remember it’s a love story for everyone, and it’s a great, sweeping romance with an incredible ’50s country soundtrack. It just has a hopeful ending in a time when that was unheard of. It paved the way for so much queer cinema. Happy Pride, and I’ll catch you in the next video. Bye!