‘Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed’ Examines the Gay Man Behind the Movie Star
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, the latest in-depth documentary portrait by Sid & Judy director Stephen Kijak.Kijak’s films, both narrative and nonfiction, have delved into cultural icons from Judy Garland to Lynyrd Skynyrd to the Backstreet Boys. For this entertaining bio, he worked closely with author Mark Griffin — whose 2018 All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson is considered definitive — “to look at all the facets and angles, and the reflections and double meanings and mirror selves” presented by the bright, ex-Navy seaman from Winnetka, Illinois, who became Rock Hudson.“He was in some of the more indelible films of those classic eras,” Kijak says, ticking off Hudson’s famous Douglas Sirk-directed romances Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows.