Desert Hearts

Desert Hearts was fucking groundbreaking. This film is one of the earliest lighthearted lesbian romances featuring a happy ending to get wide release and have something resembling a budget. There had been dramas and exploitative romances in previous years but Desert Hearts is one of the earlier films to be directed by a woman and made for a female audience probably of a queer persuasion.

The film follows Vivian Bell. Vivian has gone to Reno to get a divorce. In the midst of divorce proceedings, she meets Cay. Vivian and Cay strike up a close friendship that turns romantic. This ruffles feathers in the social circle Cay travels in. Likewise, Vivian worries about how her academic circle back home would react to her being in a relationship with a woman.

The plot of Desert Hearts is pretty basic. There’s not really any surprises or twists on the romance genre. As such, by the time I watched it in 2016, it didn’t feel fresh. I’d seen a lot of movies like this that had something different or unique about them. But this isn’t Desert Hearts’ fault. This movie would feel fresh in 1985 because the twist on the romance genre was that both characters were women. The fact that so many WLW movies since have been inspired by Desert Hearts or used it as a jumping off point is a positive, not a negative. This movie laid the foundation for WLW romances movies decades to come.

The movie is also notable for its really good sex scenes. Reportedly, producers of the The L Word had actresses watch the sex scene in Desert Hearts. Even though the movie was more than ten years old at that point, it was still considered the best example of how to do a lesbian sex scene right. It still holds up to this day. Frankly, I wish more producers and directors would look at the sex scene in Desert Hearts before shooting their own.

I can’t pretend like Desert Hearts is the most exciting WLW movie I’ve seen. Because so much of the genre is inspired by this movie, seeing it after already seeing dozens of more recent WLW films felt a bit like going backwards. But again, I can’t get after the movie for this. What? I’m going to critique this movie for being made before I was born and setting up a standard of storytelling used in movies I saw first? On its own, Desert Hearts is a solid film. The directing, acting and writing are all good. It certainly deserves respect for being as groundbreaking and influential to the genre as it is.

Overall rating: 8.1/10

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