That's running for Governor of Massachusetts next year.The polls show that it's leading its nearest opponent by 15 points.
Posted on 12/28/2005 8:48:09 AM PST by presidio9
In case you've been hunkered down on Mount Kenya, "Brokeback Mountain" recently opened. No hurricanes destroyed Orlando. No meteorites were reported in Los Angeles.
In fact, the film quietly attracted record-breaking crowds in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. And so it seems that Ang Lee's film about two cowboys in love is — at minimum — surviving. The reason for this is hard to figure out.
Could it be that all three opening cities have hefty gay populations? Another option is that right-wing groups, such as Focus on the Family, are all but keeping silent, in hopes that the film just goes away. Or it might have to do with Hollywood hunks Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and their huge female fan bases.
Whatever the reason, Exhibitor Relations Co. reports that over the first weekend, Dec. 10-11, the film brought in the highest per-screen average for any film release in 2005.
And if that's not enough, "Brokeback Mountain" has already landed awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Associations and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Even some real-life cowboys applaud the flick. "I think it's something that's now just being more understood," seven-time world-champion cowboy Ty Murray, who is straight, recently told ABC's Good Morning America. "Hopefully, this movie helps people further understand it."
But as a gay man from a small town like the one in "Brokeback Mountain," I find that the beauty of this film lies in its navigating away from stereotypes to convey the power and randomness of love. A welcomed change, I'm sure, for many— especially gay Americans.
Two years ago, I published a column, "Queer TV: Advancing Tolerance or Fostering Stereotypes?" In it, I questioned whether such shows as "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and "Queer as Folk" were anything more than ratings ploys. And I wondered what viewers, once they found themselves uninterested, might come away with.
Would these programs help in showing the normality of being gay? Or would many viewers come away thinking that we were indeed "different"?
Hollywood has featured gay characters since the 1930s, usually as the effeminate best friend of the leading man. Their orientation was understood, though not discussed. This continued through the '50s, when gay characters were portrayed as emotionally troubled and often suicidal.
By the '70s, both cinema and television started to discuss real-life gay issues.
And during the '80s and '90s, gay characters and gay-themed programming moved to the forefront. Still, the way in which they were depicted — in most cases — cultivated dated stereotypes.
Now, through movies such as "Brokeback Mountain," Hollywood is shedding light on the fact that not all gay men are fashion gurus, hairdressers, interior designers, and superior in the arts, but that some might — God forbid — be cowboys, herding sheep in Wyoming. And, more important, capable of love-based relationships.
Not all of us gay folk are comfortable with the flamboyance of gay-pride parades. And many would rather sip a Killian's in an Irish pub than dance to techno in a noisy gay bar. "Gay" has nothing to do with lifestyle. And rather than coming out of the closet to make a declaration of individuality or identity, most of us "come out" so that we can share the gift of love openly with another individual.
So when the numbers are tallied and the awards dispersed, my hope is that "Brokeback Mountain" is seen not only as a monumental moment in cinema history but also as a daring and original attempt to prove that love is not bound by interpretation or stereotype.
Yea no kidding.
"Or it might have to do with Hollywood hunks Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and their huge female fan bases."
Correct me if I'm wrong, ladies, but wouldn't seeing your two "hunks" involved in a gay way be the opposite of sexy?
Oh puh_leeez. It so sterotypes conservatives. It shows a Mathew Shephard type lynching, as if this happens all the time. It casts religion and normal families in the worst possible light. It contains all the stereotypes that liberals hold. The movie just tries to break true 'stereotypes' about the evils of the gay lifestyle.
Yep. Same reason Hillary Skank/Swank got the title role in "Million Dollar Baby".
I happen to see it, made me sick
I don't understand all the fuss over this gay cowboy movie, the world survived the 1969 "Midnight Cowboy" gay cowboy movie.
How could one not come away from watching a program such as Queer Eye thinking gay men were different from straight men? Isn't that the whole point of Queer Eye? Most straight men don't go mincing about, incessantly worrying about moisturizer and "product."
If anything, shows like Queer Eye remind us that gay men are very different straight men. And that's cool: they're free to do their own thing, and we're free to do ours.
If there is one thing I can guarantee you, it is that this movie will be a commercial success. As far as you know.
The author's from Rutland.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179599,00.html
Stop I like her. She is not a skank. In fact she is very religious and has been in a long term marriage. She is one of a few Republicans in Hollywood. I would guess she is a RINO, but still even that is high standards for Hollywood.
(*Yeah, sheepherders, I know.)
That's running for Governor of Massachusetts next year.The polls show that it's leading its nearest opponent by 15 points.
Per screen. Duh.
That's easy, open a new fag movie in just three screens in Sodomite centers and watch it sell out.
Just look at how the "homo-effect" killed "Alexander the Great" once word got out about its homo-eroticism.
This thing is going to die once it moves out of Sodom, Gomorrah and Gotham.
I am sure it will be. It only cost 13 million. But what do you mean "as far as you know"?
Well said
What will kill the movie is the fact that it is a chick flick for Gay men, that starts the plot with a gay sex scene (as I read in a review, yesterday). Most men that I know would walk out at that point.
We know that director Clint Eastwood is a centrist (which qualifies as a "Republican" in Hollywood). What makes you so sure about Hillary Swank?
>>>Do you think that within a certain portion of the population of women, it will help to make it acceptable, or even desirable for three way sex the other way?>>>
I have no idea. What passes for acceptable to the youth of today would have been a horror when I was 20 or so (and I'm only 33) There is always a portion of society that is looser than the mainstream. In every generation it has been that way.
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