Insistent bodies versus the rule: male sexualities and gender identities in The Devil's Playground

This paper explores The Devil's Playground (Schepisi, 1976), with reference points from the opening sequence serving as a springboard for a discussion of the representations of male sexualities and gender identities. In the analysis that follows sexualities and masculinities are taken to be diverse and intersecting, and bodies are understood as powerful sites for their interaction. This analytic focus on sexualities and masculinities reveals that the film speaks to a much wider historical canvas concerning the production of the modern gender order than a 'national cinema' analysis would show.