The Family in the Birdcage

The film The Birdcage follows Armand, the owner of a nightclub and drag show, his partner, Albert, and Armand’s son, Val, through a series of hysterical events as Val tries to create the image of a normal family for his fiancé’s conservative parents, who are coming to visit. While this film focuses heavily around Armand and Albert’s sexualities it does not criticize them, instead the film concentrates its criticisms on identity, family, love and acceptance, to prove that sometimes being different is not as awful as some may think.

In keeping with most of the movies we have watched thus far, The Birdcage has many characters with identity issues. Val, wants to hide his family from the Keeleys so that they will approve of his marriage to their daughter, Barbara. He does not necessarily seem ashamed of his family, he just wants to appear normal in front of the very conservative Keeley family. In this way, he allows the thoughts and opinions of others to affect him and his outward identity. Armand allows this to affect him as well, he does not seem to care as much about how people see him, but he allows his son to pressure him into acting differently. Though he struggles to help Val, he always returns to Albert. Albert has no identity issues whatsoever. At one point he says that he knows he is strange and he knows that people laugh at him, but he never changes. Senator Keeley has more issues than any of the other characters. He is so involved in his job and getting reelected to office that he will do anything to gain and maintain a good public image. Ironically, because Senator Keeley unsuccessfully tries so hard to impress others, he seems more ridiculous than all of the other characters, including flamboyantly gay Albert and Agador, the house keeper.

Family is also examined in this film. Despite being a nontraditional family, the Goldmans function far better as a family than the Keeleys. Armand and Albert love each other just as much as they love Val. It is a very big moment in the film when Armand goes chasing after an upset Albert to give him their palimony agreement and tell him how important he is to him. The agreement is more or less like a marriage contract; it legally binds the two and gives each man the right to half of the other’s assets. Armand explains that Albert now owns half of his life. The palimony agreement is not about possesions to Armand, it is about love and sharing his life with the person he loves the most. The importance of family in the Goldman’s life is also seen when Armand and Albert do everything in their power to help Val impress the Keeleys so that he can be with the girl he loves. The Keeley family is not nearly as close as the Goldmans. Everything in their family revolves around Senator Keeley’s career. He only agrees to meet the Goldmans and think about letting Barbara get married when his wife mentions that a happy, hopeful wedding in the family might be good for his career. Mrs. Keeley is miserable, constantly fighting for her husband’s attention by acting interested in his career. Once again the criticism falls on the “normal” and “traditional,” implying that maybe that lifestyle is the one in need of reevaluation, rather than the nontraditional.

More than anything else, The Birdcage seems to be about love and acceptance. Armand and Albert love each other no matter what, even putting up with differences in opinion and personality. They are also very accepting and as supportive as possible when Val decides to get married because they love and support him. Armand and Albert may be more accepting simply because of their situation. It would be strange for two people whose lifestyles defy social norms to be judgmental of others. The Keeley’s are close-minded and allow their love to be influenced by material and societal factors. It is almost shocking to see how little love there is in the Keeley family. Acceptance also seems to be a foreign idea to Mr. Keeley, who only agrees to accept Barbara’s engagement when the Goldman’s show him undue kindness in helping him to avoid the press and save his career when leaving The Birdcage.

By constantly poking fun at senator Keeley the movie criticizes close-minded people who cannot accept others for who they are. Creating more pathos with the audience and the Goldmans allows the viewers to see that gays are not really that different from heterosexual people. The Birdcage teaches that it is not a bad thing to be different and sometimes those who are most different may be more loving, accepting, and “normal” than anyone else.