Around the same time that mainstream audiences are being turned on and grossed out by the teen homoerotic vampire horror movie Twilight (and there's controversy about its release and its target audience), one of perhaps the most violent and graphic gay porn movies, Raging Stallion's To the Last Man, is facing similar controversy.
The trailer was too hot for YouTube and was yanked after only a day, but the surprise came when porn fans themselves got talking about some of the violence in the trailer, which not only showed shooting and strangling, but a hanging, branding, a rape and a guy being burned alive.
After he responded to some of the debate on his blog, Raging Stallion Studios owner Chris Ward discussed with GAYVN some of the controversy: "We knew that if we wanted to do something like a real cowboy drama, we needed some blood and some real shooting in it, so we knew it wasn't going to be a PC movie from the outset."
The non-politically correct film was co-directed by Ward, Ben Leon and Tony DiMarco and consisted of gritty manly sex that sometimes ended in violence. A fan of mainstream movies, Ward said he was looking at movies like the Coen Brothers' Best Picture win at the Oscars for No Country for Old Men and the Daniel Day-Lewis flick There Will Be Blood. What he was surprised about was the sometimes "outright nasty comments" made about the trailer before the movie was even released.
GAYVN was offered a sneak peek at the multi-part western epic, and it truly has the feel and sense of a mainstream movie, with appropriate and realistic violence.
Ironically, the film was shot in Arizona on the grounds of a ranch where a true family feud erupted and many men were shot. On the tombstones near the graveyard, the way some of the men met their fate was written on their stones. And, not far from where the porn epic was shot, western writer Zane Gray lived as well.
Ward said although he knows there is a fine line between sex and violence, he understands that it is problematic: "None of us condone killing, none of us get off on rape and we are aware that some of our viewers may be sensitive to it, so there is an ‘all-sex/no-violence edit' for some of our viewers." In the DVD release, Raging Stallion will include a non-violent version, allowing viewers to watch the movie without some of the more graphic death scenes.
However, in a particularly brutal rape scene, where the model is screaming throughout, a few select viewers have already confessed to Ward that they were aroused during the scene.
"We really think we've done something different, and we can't wait for people to see the whole thing," said the award-winning director, who won a slew of honors for Grunts last year.
However, for those who love it, they've also released a calendar with the photography of Geof Teague called "They Died With Their Boots On," which has 12 shots of the porn stars in their death scenes. R.J. Danvers has his throat slit, Jimmy Tripps has a hole in his forehead and Jake Deckard is shown hanging; the sole survivor is pictured at the end of the full-color calendar.
To the Last Man stars Ricky Sinz, Scott Tanner, Scott Campbell, Jimmy Tripps, Damien Crosse, Jake Deckard, Damian Rios, Logan McCree, Antonio Biaggi, Tristan Jaxx, Antton Harri, R.J. Danvers and more. The title will be released in two parts. The first half came out at the end of November, and the second part will be released close to the end of the year.
