YMMV / Calamity Jane

• Awesome Music: Every single one of the songs. Special mention must go to "I Can Do Without You", "Just Blew in From the Windy City" and "Secret Love".
• Les Yay: Plenty between Calamity and Katie. This movie has even been shown at gay & lesbian film festivals.
  • When they first meet, Calamity calls Katie "the prettiest thing I ever saw"; It's worth noting that Katie was trying on a showgirl outfit in the mirror, one that shows off a lovely hourglass shape and long legs.
  • When Katie falls for Danny, Calamity doesn't insult Danny behind his back but Katie, as though Katie were cheating on her.
  • The "A Woman's Touch" number, which is all but a love song about how "the touch of a woman" can fix all their problems while they're living in a cabin together. They even get their names painted on the front door!
  • Then there's the Oscar-winning "Secret Love," which is practically a queer anthem. It's ostensibly about Calamity's love for Wild Bill, but the song never mentions him, or even uses any male pronouns. It's also not entirely clear why Jane's love for Bill would even need to be a secret, while her love for Katie, in either the Old West or the 1950s, would.
  • And ultimately, Calamity's and Katie's relationship is the most important in the movie. It even ends with a Race for Your Love situation... with Calamity racing after Katie. It really does seem that the heterosexual pairings are an afterthought, especially given how bland Bill and Danny are compared to the complex, strong-willed women.
  • When Calamity goes to Chicago, she stares at the wiggling bottom of a woman in a fancy dress. She then bumps into another woman, who gives her a smile and a wave which are not quite a come-on.
  • When Henry Miller addresses the audience eager to see Miss Adelaide Adams perform as "gentlemen... and gentlemen", they still erupt in cheers.
• LGBT Fanbase: Calamity Jane is supposed to be about a tomboy getting the help of a more feminine woman in order to attract a man. However, Jane and Katie have a lot of Les Yay to the point where it's easy to wish they'd be the Official Couple. In the "A Woman's Touch" sequence where Jane and Katie spruce up a cabin together feels awfully romantic and the "Secret Love" song doesn't even use male pronouns. The film has a queer woman following and has even been shown in LGBT film festivals. The Celluloid Closet documentary discusses the romantic implications between Calamity Jane and Katie.
• Memetic Mutation: The "A Woman's Touch" sequence went viral when someone noted how high the Les Yay is. On comments for the song, they mostly just point out how the two feel like a Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple.
• Tear Jerker: The scene in the woods. Here, Bill tries to talk some sense into Calamity, and reveals that he shot the glass out of her hand to teach her a lesson and that scaring Katie out of town would not stop Danny from loving her. A heartbroken Jane breaks down and cries about how she was crazy about Danny. Bill then solemnly tells her he felt the same way about Katie, revealing that he's similar to her. This scene can be pretty heart-wrenching. But it soon leads to a heartwarming moment when they slowly realize that they had feelings for each other all along.
  Jane: (crying) I was so plumb crazy about him.
  Bill: Yeah I know. I felt the same way about her.
  Jane: You mean, you're in love with Katie?
  Bill: It's funny, ain't it?
  Jane: Oh Bill, I'm sorry. I didn't know.
  Bill: Oh, that's all right. It'll take some time, but I'll get over it. You will, too.
  Jane: No, I won't. Not Danny.
  Bill: Yes, you will.
  Jane: All I've done for months is dream about him.
  Bill: Yeah?
  Jane: About getting married, and building a cabin... and having young'uns. I know it sounds silly, I guess, but... Oh Bill, I really wanted all those things.
  Bill: Well I was... kind of hankering for them myself.
  Jane: There'll never be another man like him. Not for me. Not ever.
  Bill: It ain't going to be easy getting her out of my system either.
• Values Dissonance: The film is very of its time.
  • Calamity is shamed constantly to be more feminine, so much that when she sees herself in the mirror, she becomes insecure for not being "feminine" enough and is given a makeover. Only when she gets a makeover is she recognised as "beautiful". The film tries to convince us that she'll be happier as a wife, as a message to Fifties women in the United States who threaten to break from conformity.
  • The film also contains the casual racism common amongst Westerns at the time.
• Values Resonance: The movie contains the (probably unintentionally) subversive idea that gender norms are not inherent, but rather learned, given that Jane has been living a very masculine lifestyle and has to be taught how to be feminine.

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