Breaking out of the (Bird)cage

My first thought when I was watching The Birdcage was “Why are there transvestites singing and dancing on the stage?” I was really confused by the opening, but my thoughts were relatively correct, except the entertainers were not transvestites but rather just men dressing in drag.

I found the funniest parts to be when a character acts in an opposite way, there like when Katherine says she’s not motherly whilst putting a champagne bottle between her legs and popping the cork. Or when Albert tries to walk like John Wayne, or just act straight.  I was weird to see Robin Williams portraying a homosexual club owner.

I think this movie shows the beginning of the change of mindset toward homosexuality. A conservative senator’s daughter and a gay couples son married? To me this seems a bit extreme for the 1990’s especially when there was/is still a homophobic feel in the US. Yet this movie was made and did pretty well, illustrating the changing mood toward homosexuality. So in a sense Albert and Armand are breaking out of the homophobic cage.

Were nightclubs as popular in the 1990’s as they are shown to be in movies like The Birdcage, the Mask, and Night at the Roxbury?

To me the most important theme in this movie is the emphasis on being who you are, not someone you aren’t.  Albert is invited to the dinner as Uncle Albert, but was not comfortable, so he came back in a guise that suited him better, as Val’s Mother.

I think that this is a great movie, especially because Robin Williams is in it. I like its progressiveness and its message of be yourself, not anyone else.