Love Gun

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Director: Jan Możdzyński

 

The film’s events take place in an unspecified time on the untamed prairies and backstage in the saloons of the Wild West (note: in order to reduce the cost of the set, the film set can be moved to a Western town near Warsaw, any gaps in the architecture and animal inventory can be filled in with the help of a puppet theatre, i.e. made of cardboard). The characters are a group of vagabonds, oddballs who yearn for a life away from the oppressive chains of routine and social norms. 

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Scene I

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Following Judith Butler’s ideas that gender polarisation perpetuates patriarchy, each character’s physiognomy is obscured by a mask or the roundness of a cowboy hat. Gender is performative, and performance is our speciality. The costumes are close to the practice of cross-dressing, bordering on burlesque and drag.

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Establishing shot, boundless emptiness, horses grazing in the distance. Silence. The scene is shrouded in fog, which after a moment reveals itself to be smoke from a cigarette burning in someone’s mouth. A long sequence of close-ups of a motionless figure. Close-up of a cigarette butt which accidentally begins to hang from the corner of the mouth. Snoring can be heard in the background.

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The character, who used to raise horses, wakes up as a bounty hunter – Belle ‘Long Shot’. She’s out hunting outlaws.

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Belle ‘Long Shot’

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Dagnabbit, I feel this place changing. Will I crave the same, now that I am someone else?

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Scene II

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As in a classic Western, the heroine has an opponent, a bandit and gunslinger – Conchita Velour. In a velour jacket with a turned-up collar like a rock star. Evil to the core, dead inside, ready to take a life for a fistful of dollars. 

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Conchita Velour 

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I throw down the gauntlet!

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Belle ‘Long Shot’

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I accept the challenge, Conchita! There is a bounty on your head worth more than a pound of gold! I must intervene. Surrender or perish!

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Conchita Velour 

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Okey dokey, I don’t have time for wimps.

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Close-up of a pistol dripping with lubricant. The audience begins to sense that the protagonist is passionately engaged in activities other than killing.

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Scene III

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The scene is a parody of the 1974 movie ‘Zardoz’, in which the privileged caste of Exterminators, with Zed (Sean Connery) dressed in futuristic but skimpy costumes seemingly taken from BDSM fantasies, ride horses and kill Brutals. Their deity – Zardoz – has given them weapons and convinced them that ‘the gun is good; the penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds and makes new life to poison the earth with the plague of men. But the gun shoots death and purifies the earth [...] Go forth and kill.’

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The inevitable – a duel.  We hear the long strains of a harmonica. A figure in a costume that crosses the line between sci-fi and space porn points a pistol at his opponent. Zoom in on the barrel shaped like a male organ (‘penisolver’).

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Conchita Velour

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Shoot, cowboy!

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Belle ‘Long Shot’

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No one will miss scum like you. A bullet’s too good for you, you scrawny varmint.

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Deafening shots are heard. Suspense. It turns out that there are no winners or losers in this battle. The trajectory of whistling love bullets forms a tender path in the shape of a heart. 

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Scene IV

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A crowd of onlookers watches the fight.

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Supporter

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Blast it! What’s all this racket? Bella and Conchita aren’t just fooling around.

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To the surprise of the crowd, the unresolved duel is moved to the saloon by mutual agreement.

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Supporter

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The world’s got enough violence and lawlessness. The Wild West’s secret is the understanding that it’s not just the law of the jungle that rules, but that among the things we value are equality and freedom. Looks like Bella and Conchitta are in cahoots.

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Scene V

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The building at the centre of life in every town in the Wild West appears from the outside to be a cradle of evil and corruption. Or simply the embodiment of the patriarchal need to drown difficult emotions in liquor, objectify the female body and relieve stress with violence. Only tough cookies or those with nothing to lose can venture inside. And those who want to confront and resist this top-down order. 

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Scene VI 

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A figure on horseback rides up to the saloon. Before tying the reins and claiming the dance floor, they ride into the building and make a ruckus. They hold out a hand with shiny, freshly done nails. Confetti shoots from a popgun, sparkling like stars in the saloon sky. 

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Ramona Starr

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This town is mine! Here I broke free and proved myself much stronger than I thought. Watch out, coyotes.

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Scene VII 

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Reference to the documentary film ‘Paris is Burning’ (dir. Jennie Livingston, 1990), offering insight into the world of queer people of colour and the balls they organized around Harlem and the Bronx in the 1980s.

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The camera moves inside, the interior contrasting with the unwelcoming façade. Thanks to a fabric stylized as a curtain, the scene takes on a theatrical or circus-like character. Drinks are on the bar, and figures in grotesque costumes gyrate on the dance floor. Bling, cowgirl boots and harnesses all sparkle. Fishnet stockings wink flirtatiously, glitter-smudged eyelids half closed under the weight of glued-on eyelashes. This place emerges as a subversive paradise where we reject our previous roles, question gender norms and subject them to transformation. The arena becomes both the site of fierce fashion battle and a venue for community building. This is where our protagonists will fight for victory. Catwalk, duckwalk, spins and dips. Strike a pose! Tonight the saloon is burning. 

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Scene VIII

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The fight for trophies in various competitions begins. Everyone has a chance to rise and shine – to be noticed and understood. Vaginal Bill steps off the dance floor, his bare chest adorned with feathered tulle.

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Vaginal Bill 

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That was quite a bloodbath! (says he, taking off the heels that were chafing his feet)

 

Ginger ‘The Snake’

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We cowboys embrace the wild and won’t be fooled!

 

Coco Wild 

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The show comes at the price of our sweat! But we are filled with pride at its success!​

 

Scene IX

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The atmosphere heats up. The audience feels like clubbers heading for the exit to catch their breath. Zoom in on the saloon doors, decorated with ornaments resembling swollen breasts. And on two pairs of hairy legs clad in cowboy boots. Their trembling produces rhythmic sounds as spurs jingle on the wooden dance floor. Soft whispers and accelerated breathing can also be heard. It’s Belle and Conchita. 

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Scene X

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Reference to ‘Barbie’ (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2023). In Barbie Land, the main character could be anyone she wanted, but in the real world, she learns that she doesn’t ‘operate the rail system or control the flow of commerce’. She begins to feel the constraints and violence of society. Men view her as an object. Ken, on the other hand, notices policemen on horseback, company bosses, western advertising and the image of Ricky Balboa. All this leads him to conclude that ‘horses are just men extenders’ and that patriarchy appears to him as a system ‘where men and horses run everything’.

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Even if death rides on horses in the West, it’s certainly not on these ones. In our world, horses couldn’t care less about being ridden or chasing unruly herds. They embody delicacy and grace. The horse is illuminated, just as patriarchy is thoroughly exposed.

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Scene XI

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The night is deep and the party is in full swing. One of its participants, turned away, gazes at the flickering horizon in the candlelight. He no longer longs to cross it. He feels at home. Soon a newcomer appears in the window, holding the reins of his mustang. He looks at our hero, then at the crowd, then makes eye contact with the audience. The fourth wall is broken. 

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Newcomer (looking at camera) 

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Clearing the ubiquitous dust from the open plains – I have seen the light.

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The Wild West, or its alternative version, becomes a place of unbridled imagination, of challenging the status quo. We see our own faces in the mirrors of the windows. Our selves, recognised and loved, not abandoned or betrayed, crossing borders and yearning for freedom. 

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screenplay: Katarzyna Piskorz

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