In 1997, after two decades of watching porn and one decade of writing about it, I felt I was ready to pick the best gay porn films of all time.

That project took another year. The choices were amazingly tough; there were more than 100 titles on my "short list." To simplify decision-making, I adopted two rules:
(1) the films had to be in print, and readily available on VHS;
(2) I had to have re-watched the film within the past six months.

I read my decade's-worth of film notes and columns. Winnowing the list down to 75 or so was fairly easy, and my inability to locate several titles cut it even further. What might be readily available in L.A. might be near-impossible to locate in Phoenix, such as most of the films of J.D. Cadinot. I also decided that the list would not include films released in 1998.

My research got an invaluable boost from Catalina Video and Bijou Video, who sent me countless screeners, and from Phoenix's Castle Boutique, which gave me carte-blanche to borrow films from their vast gay inventory. A year later, I had my list.

It is now 2009, and I'm getting ready to update that list by a decade. If I were to start over, would I pick the same 25 films? Probably not. Some films that were not available in 1997 now are, while others that you could find 10 years ago are out of print. So I'll let sleeping porn lie (while saying that An American in Prague, Brian's Boys or Big Guns might be able to knock one of these titles out of its slot).

Every video on this list is a classic in the fullest sense. I hope you will make an effort to view them, and to let me know what you think. Look for my updated list next month.

Onan the Vulgarian

March 2009

1. Sailor in the Wild, Catalina, dir. William Higgins, 1983
No one captures uninhibited youth like William Higgins. Here he's abetted by the irresistible and handsome Bill Henson (as a forest ranger, no less), and by the physically amazing Brian Thompson (he's the sailor of the title), who can stuff both his balls into his ass, then fuck himself. The sex is nonstop and Henson's outdoor seduction by Thompson a must-see.

2. El Paso Wrecking Corp., HIS, dir. Joe Gage, 1977
The ultimate road/buddy porn flick and the second film in Gage's infamous road trilogy, El Paso Wrecking Corp. features the best porn performance on video, by Fred Halsted. It's also a paean to older, rugged, masculine men who can be butch and still need love. Look for Georgina Spelvin (The Devil in Miss Jones) in a cameo. Beware of butchered DVD version.

3. Boys in the Sand, Bijou, dir. Wakefield Poole, 1971
Arguably, gay porn's coming of age film, and the vehicle that launched Casey Donovan into the porn cosmos. Films today are still imitating it. Donovan is glorious, and carries the film, beginning from the first moment when he emerges from the surf on Fire Island, like Venus, sans the half-shell.

4. The Bigger the Better, Matt Sterling, 1984
Brian Michaels reaching out for Matt Ramsey is one of the most palpable realizations of carnal need and lust on video. You'll also see the celebrated bottoming by teacher Matt Ramsey (normally a top, now only a straight porn actor-Peter North-who denies his gayporn past) for student Rick Donovan; Buster and Mike Ramsey "making do" with each other when they fail to land any chicks on Saturday night; and nasty-mouthed Brian Hawkes (Shawn McIvan) orchestrating a toilet orgy.

5. The Other Side of Aspen 1, Falcon, 1980
Al Parker, Disk Fisk, Jeff Turk and Casey Donovan give birth to Falcon. Ski instructor Turk is snowbound, in a chalet with his students. When he sees what's going on in one of the bedrooms, the teacher becomes the student. Be sure to get the version with the fist-fucking scene intact.

6. That Boy, HIS, dir. Peter Berlin, 1975
Narcissism as high art. Part head trip, part meditation, part body worship, pure fantasy. Berlin, who also stars, is as close to Tom of Finland ideals as it's possible to be, but he's so universally desired that he disdains all but a blind youth, who perhaps will be able to "see" beyond the voluptuous package.

7. Falconhead II: The Maneaters, HIS, dir. Michael Zen, 1984
Porn travels through the looking glass. The startling images and characterizations are as vivid in my mind today as when I first saw the film: the mustachioed glamour queen with the big tongue; the blond youth's autoerotic encounter with a red rose, complete with thorns; the falcon-headed messenger from beyond; and the stalwart youth who must, like Orpheus, travel to the other world to rescue the kidnapped boy, but finds that he might want to keep the victim for himself. Avoid the DVD version, which is missing 21 minutes.

8. Full Exposure, Jean-Daniel Cadinot, 1988
Only Jean Genet could get away with writing about assholes opening and closing like flowers, and only Cadinot could realize such an image on film. The sex is so raw you can smell it. Joel Duvernay plays a sexually faithful porn filmmaker who throws monogamy to the winds after he catches his lover cheating on him. Out of print, but scheduled for transfer to DVD in 2009 or 2010.


9. Flesh & Blood, All Worlds, dir. Jerry Douglas, 1996
No one is as good as Douglas when it comes to showing how much sex is about power, and about what you can't have while you're having it. This homage to Hitchcock is also a brilliantly acted (by Kurt Young, playing identical twins) and directed character study, with one of my favorite mind-fucks of all time: between two men and the woman who desperately wants one of them.

10. Erotic Explorer, Bijou, dir. Josh Shafer, 1994
The worst review I ever wrote was for this incredible movie, whose title says it better than all my words did. The cast of three non-professional porn stars takes the viewer on a cerebral, transcendental and exquisitely erotic journey. Watch it with a lover. Although out of print, Bijou's Steven Toushin promises that it's on the schedule to be converted to DVD.

11. Powertool, Catalina, dir. John Travis, 1986
Released in newly-edited 10th anniversary and 20th anniversary editions, this guys-in-prison classic launched careers for Jeff Stryker and John Travis. Claims to be the best-selling gay porn film of all time (as do a couple of other films).

12. Hush, Brad Braverman, 1994
Magnificently filmed in black and white, this AIDS allegory is visually fascinating and ends with a magnificent, unforgettable coupling. Braverman holds his characteristic editing style in restraint. Aiden Shaw wrote the poetry that adorns some of the models' bodies. Out of print and hard to find, on VHS only.


13. Drive, Bijou, dir. Jack Deveau, 1974
A brilliant performance by Christopher Rage (Mary Jim Sstunning) as a mad scientist trying to control everyone's sex life, and the best depiction of gay disco life on film, not to mention the wild sex and flights into stream-of-consciousness narration. The soundtrack is memorable (and was used by Wash West in his film, The Fluffer), the editing a perfect complement to the narrative, and the story hilarious. One of the best films from the 70s' Hand in Hand studio.

14. River Patrol, Titan, dir. Bruce Cam, 1995
Titan's auspicious debut, with sex hot enough to start a forest fire, rugged men, fierce sex, bravura sexual performances, incomparable locations and Cam's matchless camera work.

15. Carnaval in Rio, Kristen Bjorn, 1989
Bjorn's first non-solo video, which set the gayporn industry on its (r)ear and gave the world its first glimpse of what the Garden of Eden might have been like if God really had created Adam and Steve — a vision which Bjorn continues to refine and redefine with every new video.

16. A Matter of Size, Huge, dir. Matt Sterling, 1984
According to one Internet source, this video, not Powertool, is the best-selling gay porn flick of all time. A series of wet dreams brought to lush life by cover hunk Bill Henson and his costars. One of the most iconic box covers of all time.

17. Going Down in Style, All Worlds, dir. Dave Babbitt, 1994
The first porn acting ensemble, in which the sex becomes indistinguishable from the banquet attended by the cast, who act out commands issued by their unseen host. Not as dark as Babbitt's other films, but the most original. It was the porn industry's loss when this director quit making films.

18. Screen Play, Bijou, dir. Steve Scott, 1984
The 8-1/2 of gay porn, starring the late greats Jon King and Lee Ryder, in which one film unfolds as another film is being made. One of the best works by the late Steve Scott, who has left a great porn legacy. The sex in this film is blazing.

19. L.A. Plays Itself/Sex Garage, HIS, dir. Fred Halsted, 1972
This pair of films, always screened together, remains (up to 2009) the only porn films, gay or straight, to be included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. L.A. Plays Itself is two juxtaposed scenes, one a bucolic idyll and the other a brutal S&M ritual (beware of versions with the watersports and fisting deleted). Sex Garage is still the biker fetish film to beat. Man. Motorcycle. Magnificent. Blurs the distinction between sex on the motorcycle and sex with the motorcycle. Out of print and never transferred to DVD.


20. More of a Man, Seabag, dir. Jerry Douglas, 1990
Douglas elicits great performances like no other director, and he tells stories in ways that sacrifice neither plot nor sexual heat. Here, Mike Henson helps an early-career Joey Stefano come to terms with his sexuality and the religious conflicts it engenders. The public sex scene in the bar is galvanizing.

21. Naked Highway, BIG, dir. Wash West, 1997
A younger generation road movie with impeccable credentials, an eye-catching cast, coast-to-coast locations and the ultimate pool table sex scene. Out of print and never transferred to DVD.


22. Tradewinds, Huge, dir. Matt Sterling, 1996
Sterling again shows us what it's like when it's perfect, and it's never been captured more idyllically than it was by Kurt Young and Derek Cameron on the hurricane-torn beach, when they declare their lust despite each thinking the other is straight. Deservedly won gobs of awards.

23. Ballet Down the Highway, Bijou, dir. Jack Deveau, 1975
A love triangle. Young dancer loves famous dancer; famous dancer has a thing for trucker. The sex is lyrical at times, down-to-earth at other times, and includes a rape scene and a fascinating impromptu three-way with the trucker and the two dancers.

24. Route 69, Catalina, dir. William Higgins, 1984
Road movie, frat-boy movie, buddy movie. College buds Mike Ramsey and Mike Gibson slowly but inevitably set off on a course destined to bring them what they most want but take a long time to acknowledge: each other.

25. A Few Good Men, Bijou, dir. Steve Scott, 1983
The first and the best military fantasy-fetish video, in which repression is the catalyst that gets everyone's libido fired up. Scott eschews story here in favor of atmosphere, milking every uniform fantasy dry.