The Top 5 Offbeat Love Stories of All Time
by W. Blake Gray
As a many-splendored thing, love shouldn't be limited to romance between humans.
Who can forget the affection of King Kong for Fay Wray? Roy Rogers for Trigger? Clint Eastwood for his .44 Magnum?
So in picking our Top 10 Offbeat Love Stories, we've tried not to limit ourselves to the traditional man-woman thing. After all, love means never having to say, "Sorry, but your antennae are tickling me."
Boy and His Dog (1975). Director: L.Q. Jones. Stars: Don Johnson, Susanne Benton. Sci-fi black comedy starts with the nuclear devastation of life on the surface of the Earth, which leads to radioactive dogs that can telepathically communicate with their masters and sniff out rare human women. No greater love exists post-holocaust than between a boy and his dog.
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). Director: Siu-Tung Ching. Stars: Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong. Did you know Chinese vampires have no legs? These and other cultural tidbits enrich this charming tale of beautiful Wong's love for bumbling tax collector Cheung. Only one impediment to their bliss — Wong (a girl) is dead. But it keeps their relationship pure.
The Crying Game (1992). Director: Neil Jordan. Stars: Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson. Hiding out from his role in the Irish Republican Army, Rea looks up the lover of a man he helped hold captive, and finds himself attracted. And why not — Davidson is beautiful, sexy, feminine, everything you'd want in a woman. And more. Heh heh.
The Fly (1986). Dir: David Cronenberg. Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis. Goldblum and Davis met on this love story that turns into a horror movie and later married. The chemistry crackles between them in this flick about a scientist who turns into an insect. Both the best horror film of the '80s and the best human-insect love story of all time.
The Graduate (1967). Dir: Mike Nichols. Stars: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman. Guess what? Hoffman picked the wrong woman. Funny how we didn't realize that 30 years ago. But Bancroft, as Mrs. Robinson, is liberated and downright sexy, while her daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross) is a boring airhead. See it again, then seduce the guy who cuts your lawn.