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Clash of the Classics

What Happened When We Pitted Landmark Gay Films Against Camp Classics?

What Happened When We Pitted Landmark Gay Films Against Camp Classics?

Clash

Not so much into the World Cup? We've got the tournament for you right here.

Not only did we have to go and list 175 most essential movies for LGBT viewers and come up with the math to rank them, but we also had the idea of making them face off, tournament style. So here we are, with the first round of our Clash of the Classics all finished, leaving sweat and sequins all over the place.

A majority of our first-round match-ups had clear winners. While The Women was clearly a much beloved classic flick, Brokeback Mountain blew it out of the water. The most fun part of that particular match, however, was watching our Facebook fans and devotees of the 1939 comedy still quoting it. "Zips up the back and no bones?" "Get me a bromide and put some gin it it?" Our readers know their stuff. While many voted for The Women because "Brokeback Mountain was a gay movie for straights," at the end of the day, the modern love story won out both on Twitter and Facebook.

Other blowouts included Milk versus Capote, even though screenwriter Dustin Lance Black technically voted for Capote when he retweeted that match (or maybe he was just being a good sport). The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert flew right past My Beautiful Laundrette, and 1999 comedy But I'm A Cheerleader beat slice-of-life Looking precursor Weekend.

And then there were a few major upsets, particularly Paris Is Burning, which was ranked third on our list of 175 movies. While that seminal documentary gave a good effort on Twitter, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, ranked 30th overall, had a strong enough Facebook following to pull ahead.

Overall, old-school camp largely lost out to specifically LGBT-themed flicks (like Auntie Mame versus Boys Don't Cry or The Women versus Brokeback). But there's another 1939 classic that could possibly walk away with the whole thing: The Wizard of Oz. They don't call us Friends of Dorothy for nothing. Judy Garland's iconic movie clearly beat Parting Glances and could be a big winner in the later rounds.

But first Dorothy has to beat Bound in our next round, while Brokeback Mountain faces off against Beautiful Thing,Torch Song Trilogy competes with Boys Don't Cry, and Milk goes head-to-head with Gods and Monsters. Check out the full bracket below to make your picks; you'll be able to vote throughout the week on Facebook and Twitter:

Advocate Channel - The Pride StoreOut / Advocate Magazine - Fellow Travelers & Jamie Lee Curtis

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Michelle Garcia