Review of Tom of Finland (2017) by Jonathan B — 05 Sep 2017

Known better by his assumed name Touko Laaksonen defined a particular, hyper-masculine look for gay men, particularly during the late 1970s and 80s. Tom of Finland's art was pretty ground breaking showing confident, happy gay men, celebrating their sexuality and enjoying all it has to offer.

This biopic of his life begins in the 1940s when the young Touko was a soldier in the war seeing active and harrowing duty. Damaged and haunted by his experiences, he finds Helsinki to be a depressing and oppressive city where gay man are harassed by the authorities and to the general public, they are the lowest of the low.

Forced to keep his sexuality a secret, he begins to develop his artistic style and seeks to get his work published in Europe and the US. The fact that recognition and fame took 30 years to achieve is a testament to his tenacity and owes much to his images becoming popular with a section of the burgeoning gay rights movement centred around San Francisco.

There have been many articles, books and documentaries about this quietly spoken and unassuming man in the past but this movie still has a great deal to add to our knowledge of the man. Pekka Strang portrays Tom with an understated, quiet performance breathing life into a man who was perhaps understandably nervy and frustrated.

The contrast between the grim reality of his life in Finland and the brash, garish vision of gay life the USA is handled well and almost explodes onto the screen when it happens. The movie doesn't shy away from the injustices gay men faced in the past or the backlash that Tom and his followers faced during the early days of the AIDS crisis.

It is a thoughtful, well observed movie that I would hope gives a wider public an insight into the life and character of a man who did so much to give gay men a vision of how life could be lived to the max and demonstrate that we need not be ashamed of who we are and who we love.