‘Sebastiane’ brings the queer male gaze to religious epics—and it gets pretty kinky!

For this week’s edition of our queer film retrospective “A Gay Old Time,” we are getting down on our knees. And, in a surprising turn of events, it is actually not just for pleasure, but also for religious reasons!

This week, it’s all about faith, martyrdom, biblical epics, boys in tiny thongs, sweaty muscles, and dripping homoeroticism with 1976’s Sebastiane, directed by Derek Jarman, one of the biggest icons of subversive queer cinema.

The Set-Up

The film tells the story of the titular Sebastian (Leonardo Treviglio), the captain of a Roman palace guard in the third Century AD, right at the peak of the persecution against Christians. When he decides to embrace Christianity himself, the emperor exiles him to an island with other disgraced soldiers, under the strict vigilance of the cruel master Severus (Barney James).

While there, Sebastian must battle a daily tug-of-war (sometimes more literal than he thinks) between the “purity” of his new ideals,” and the desires that the other men bring out in him. And each other.

So this is very much not your average biblical picture. Intentionally so.

Auteur Provacteur

The films of Derek Jarman (an absolute forward-thinker and iconoclast of gay cinema) would become well-known for bringing out the new, hidden, and often repressed and subversive sides of topics and images that the public was otherwise well-acquainted with.

In Caravaggio (1986) he shined a spotlight on the male form and the pain behind the Renaissance artist’s paintings. He reimagined Edward II (1991) in an amalgamation of medieval and modern-day England, and sent Queen Elizabeth I barreling into a steampunk future in Jubilee (1978) for a glimpse into what would become of the country she rules.

In Sebastiane —his full-length feature debut—Jarman gives his spin to what had become well-known and beloved film genres: the biblical picture, the sword and sandals epic, the war camaraderie film. And he brings out the latent homoeroticism that had always been buried underneath them.

Softcore Seduction

The plot of the movie is very straight-forward. There aren’t that many characters, it’s not complicated narratively, and it takes place almost entirely in a single location.

It’s the seemingly simple journey of Sebastian trying to reconcile his internal beliefs with what the outside world tells him he should want and desire. When he is unable to give up his beliefs (or his body), after being repeatedly tempted, he is killed and becomes a martyr of Christianity.

And, boy, are the temptations on this island a feast. It’s as if the film wants into audience to feel the irresistible pull of seduction right alongside Sebastian.

Most of the runtime is devoted to gazing at muscled, tanned, barely clothed young men: practicing for battle, sleeping together in cots, shaving their bodies smooth in the baths, and, yes, kissing and fooling around with each other.

It is explicit. And it is very, very sexy. Much of it plays out like the scenes in an adult film before the real action begins—where there’s a semblance of a plot, a setting, and characters, but it’s really all about the brewing sexual tension. 

The Male Gaze

Sebastian is surrounded pretty much all day, everyday by visions of entangled nude young men, giving in and enjoying each other’s company. His biggest transgression—and the most he will allow himself to do—is to observe.

He stares from a distance, while refusing (but wanting?) to engage. It is all about the gaze; Sebastian’s, the other soldiers’, and the audience’s. 

Early in the movie, Sebastian is observed by Maximus as he takes a bath. It is a long sequence filled with close-ups that arouses such a desire in Maximus that, when Sebastian doesn’t reciprocate, it’s what eventually gets him killed.

In what is perhaps the most memorable scene, Sebastian watches two soldiers wrestle in a lake. It is filmed in slow-motion. Never crossing the boundary of lurid, but with flesh, muscles, and playful masculinity spilling out of the frame. It’s basically the forefather of the volleyball scene in Top Gun.

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Punishment As Kink

But Sebastian doesn’t cave in. When asked to surrender his beliefs (and really, to just give in and join in on the fun), he keeps refusing. And for that, he must be punished.

Here, the punishment means getting tied with ropes in a dungeon, or being left out in the sun to boil. Sure, it is definitely torture. But the way the bodies are draped, the way he is tied with the ropes, the way the camera shoots him in the sun right from underneath the armpit… It is not unlike your preferred S&M video set up. Again, very much intentional.

Because the most interesting aspect of the movie is that, even though the central conflict is Sebastian’s internal struggle between his faith and carnal temptation, the movie never portrays these desires, or the actions of the soldiers that do participate in them, as debaucherous or villainous.

Temptation Island

Shot through an explicitly homoerotic lens, by an openly queer filmmaker who made movies for and about queer bodies, the movie flips a switch on an old, toxic trope. Restraint does not equal suffering. Indulgence becomes freedom.

In the end, Sebastian dies, shot with arrows by the other soldiers—by the very desires he decided not to give in. He becomes a martyr, a hero, for a religion that denied him that.

And the soldiers get to keep wrestling in the water, cuddling together at night, shaving each other’s thighs. They get to keep being part of a community that, even if isolated from the rest of the world (a world that considers them outcasts) remains intimate, strong, and unapologetically sexual. Now, doesn’t that sound familiar?

Sebatiane is now streaming via GayBingeTV, The Criterion Channel and Kanopy. It’s available for digital rental/purchase via Flix Fling and Kino Now.

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‘Sebastiane’ brings the queer male gaze to religious epics—and it gets pretty kinky!

If you thought the volleyball scene in ‘Top Gun’ was homoerotic, they’ve got nothing on the beach boys of this provocative classic.