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Newsies
Directed by Kenny Ortega
with Christian Bale, David Moscow, Robert Duval
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Every generation deserves the cult film that it gets. Remember in the mid-1960s when Bogie was the rage and The African Queen was considered hip? And then the unwatchable Reefer Madness was the cool midnight flick? Only to be replaced by Night of the Living Dead, a film which jolted the pot-heads back to some alternate reality. These, of course, were replaced by The Rocky Horror Picture Show which at least had energy. Video seemingly killed the idea of the cult film, which can only thrive on large, live audiences who respond in unison-- as Rocky Horror (the only still extant example) continues to prove. Sure, lots of films are enormously popular, but they're usually watched on video and in the privacy of the home-- not very cultish. So is it curtains for the cult film?

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Call off the funeral, because for some weird reason, Newsies-- a 1992 Disney musical about striking late-19th century New York newsboys-- has been steam-rolling to cult status over the past two years. Curiously so, because not only was the film a box-office flop nearly a decade ago, but Newsies isn't available on DVD or videotape. In fact, the Disney corporation stopped producing tapes more than six years ago, so second-hand ones go for as much as $75 on Ebay. On the web there are countless Newsies fan sites, with many postings from women who claim to find the plethora of boys oh-so cute. The cult of Newsies grows in spite-- or maybe because of-- the scarcity of hard copies. Disney execs have noticed and are now planning a re-release of the film.

Alas Newsies isn't very good. In fact, it's a godawful mess. Directed by Kenny Ortega, it belongs to that rare genre of turn-of-the-century strike musicals that showcase boys as sex objects. Well, all right, this genre isn't "rare"-- it's non-existent. The plot is Marx meets Mickey Mouse. "Newsies" are essentially homeless lads who sell newspapers-- particularly "extra" editions-- on street corners. The story here revolves around orphan Jack Kelly (Christian Bale), a newsie extraordinaire, who befriends David Jacobs (David Moscow), whose father is temporarily out of work. The two youths attempt to form a newsies's union, and when they do publisher Joseph Pulitzer (he of the prize; played by Robert Duval) tries to break it by raising the wholesale price for the newsies' papers, or "papes" as they are called here.

Newsies is Annie and Oliver crossed with The Cradle Will Rock and On the Waterfront. Jack and David becomes best friends, Jack is almost imprisoned in juvenile hall, Jack appears to sell out to that rat-bastard Pulitzer in order to protect David's family, and by the end the newsies win, and Jack finds a family with David's parents and siblings. Who knew that child labor, homelessness, poverty, abuse, and capitalist thuggery could be so much fun?

A long-time union buster, Disney is the last studio to be doing pro-labor musicals. Newsies offers other ironies as well. Whatever its reputation for wholesome family entertainment, Disney has produced here a wildly homoerotic romantic love story with only a smidgen of heterosexual subject matter. Although Jack has a small flirtation with David's sister, their scenes together are so vacant, so lacking in chemistry that, if anything, they're anti-erotic. Newsies's homoeroticism follows from its focus on the boys' relationships with one another, and on glorifying the teenage male form in its musical numbers. All this cute young male energy being contained and channeled to, well, other cute young males is also what gives Newsies its narrative and visual drive.

Too bad that Newsies isn't a better film. The topic of the turn-of-the-century newsboys strikes is a terrific, lost piece of American history. If people know it at all it's through the little-read-now novels of Horatio Alger-- books such as Tattered Tom and Ragged Dick, in which boys have to make their way in the big city and have lots of adventures. Alger himself-- after he was thrown out as minister of his Brewster, Massachusetts, Unitarian church for "the revolting crime of unnatural familiarities with boys"-- lived in Manhattan's newsboys lodgings for several months doing research. Well, that's what the recent biographies call it. While Alger's name never appears in Newsies, Jack and David are the obvious decendants of those Dicks and Toms (ragged and tattered) of Alger's imagination. Indeed, this story could come out of any of Alger's novels, replete with their faux innocence and their knowing innuendo. Why, for instance, are we treated to the scene, early in the film, of a newsie waking up in bed with the feet of another (horizontal) newsie in his face? This never happened to Disney's Little Mermaid, and surely Beauty was never seen in this compromised position with the Beast.

There is no doubt that newsboy street culture was fraught with what we now call homoeroticism-- as is much 19th century American literature (think of Moby Dick)-- but unlike now, it was just considered "natural," not un-. That is why Newsies is so curiously weird: it is a celebration of homoeroticism dressed up as a kids musical about labor reform. Sure, Newsies isn't very good, but as a cult film it may be one that we actually do deserve today.

Oh, and if you are interested in actual historical info about "newsies" try: Children of the City: At Work and at Play by David Nasaw, Stephen Nissenbaum's The Battle for Christmas as well as Stephen O'Connor's new Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Lost.

Author Profile:  Michael Bronski
	Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	Email:	mabronski@aol.com