The Meatrack (1970)

The Meatrack, dir. Mike Thomas, 1970, USA, 65 min. 🫤
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 3:30 pm, Vogue Theatre
🌐 World premiere of the 4K restoration
⚠️ content advisory: homophobia, frontal nudity, graphic sex scenes 🔞

The Meatrack (1970)

The Meatrack was a landmark in queer cinema history, released not long after the Stonewall riots but before the rise of hardcore gay pornography. That said, it doesn’t quite seem to know what it’s trying to be: a narrative feature or a softcore porno. It’s filmed mostly in San Francisco, with some scenes in New York City and elsewhere, so it is of historical interest on that basis.

The main character, J.C., is the child of a couple who fell out of love and started sleeping with just about anyone until they finally divorced. His mother repeatedly tells him to go after the only thing that’s important in life: money. He strikes out on his own, moving to various cities, turning tricks (mostly, but not exclusively, male clients) for money, occasionally sleeping with men or women just for fun, but before long moving on to the next city.

The Meatrack stitches together scenes of J.C.’s life with extensive flashbacks to his childhood, often hopping back and forth more than once. The general tone of the film is negative, in particular negative about homosexuals and the possibility of a relationship based on something other than the exchange of cash. The acting, both in the ordinary scenes and in the sex scenes, is not great, although there are certainly many worse actors in porn. It is of interest primarily to queer film history buffs, but, by 21st-century standards, it really doesn’t hold up well. Recommended for film historians, but otherwise not recommended.

• IMDb • trailer • official website •