Posted on 12/23/2005 5:39:51 PM PST by presidio9
When word got around among gay people that Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, hunky Hollywood hotties du jour, were set to play ranch hands who fall in love in the idyllic mountains of Wyoming, there was a certain giddiness: Tight Levi's galore! The homoerotic Abercrombie & Fitch catalog writ large! A mainstream, romantic, holigay cowboy movie!
Then a herd mentality started to sink in, like a gay church praying at the altar of "Brokeback Mountain." There's a countdown on Gay.com ("It's finally here!"), E-vites are landing in in-boxes ("Let's watch it together!"), and blogs are keeping tabs on the film's awards, including seven Golden Globe nominations — the most of any film this year. The message is: If you're a self-respecting homosexual, you had better see this film, pronto.
Yet what's most surprising about "Brokeback" is that it's not a gay film. Not in the way gay films, especially those about gay men, usually are.
This is not a film about gay men and AIDS, à la "Philadelphia," which won Tom Hanks an Oscar, or "Love! Valour! Compassion!," the film version of the Terrence McNally play. It's neither comedic nor campy, nothing like "In & Out" or "The Birdcage." It's no "Kiss Me, Guido" or "Trick" or "The Broken Hearts Club," all set in big cities, with stereotypical gay characters — a thespian with the perfectly decorated Greenwich Village apartment, a West Hollywood muscle queen hooked on drugs — trapped in flamboyantly worn-out narratives.
Love repressed
Based on a spare short story by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Proulx and directed by Taiwanese American Ang Lee ("Sense and Sensibility," "The Ice Storm," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), it tells the story of Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Ledger), two vagabonds whose lifelong affair begins in Brokeback Mountain on a chilly night in 1963.
They part ways, marry women who don't know their secret and have children, only to reunite four years later with a deep, fiery, longing kiss that is arguably the most passionate man-on-man kiss to have been put on screen.
"Theirs is a story of a love that was repressed," Lee, who is married and has two kids, says in an interview. "That's really what drew me to the story."
Year after year, spanning two decades, Jack and Ennis reunite at Brokeback Mountain, frustrated, scared, still in love — and giving new meaning to "goin' fishin'," the excuse they tell their wives.
There is one sex scene in the movie, which Lee describes as "animalistic," "spontaneous" and "aggressive"; it stands in stark contrast to the kissing scene, which is meant to be "sexy." If you don't buy that kiss, Lee adds, then you won't buy the love affair.
"It's not about sex"
The film's old-fashioned romanticism wasn't what some early viewers had expected. "It doesn't fit into the current gay culture as we know it. It's not about sex; I was actually surprised that there wasn't that much sex in it," says Jonathan Rosales, 21, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California who saw "Brokeback" in Los Angeles.
Joseph Wiedman, a 31-year-old lawyer who saw the film in San Francisco, adds, "The big thing is: The movie is really well done and really accessible, for gays and straights. It's not preachy, as one of my friends pointed out, and not at all political. It's very personal."
"Brokeback" pushes the boundaries on two fronts: It's a Hollywood romance, but with gay men; it's a gay film, but with broader, more universal themes.
"They can call it whatever they want to call it; just don't call it a 'gay cowboy love story.' That's upsetting to me," says Paul Pecoriano, 35, an actor and waiter in Manhattan.
"It's a love story, period," says Pecoriano.
I don't think you can extrapolate anything from a successful movie other than people believed they were going to be entertained by it. Regardless of the homosexual content this movie just sounds boring. If it were a cowboy and a cowgirl it would sound just as boring. Absolutely no one can deny that the hype for this movie is based on the homosexual theme, otherwise no one would be paying attention. I predict that it will be a financial wash. It won't lose money, but it won't be a big money maker, either.
Different strokes for different folks I guess. I found it to be outstanding.
Naaah, at least your opinion is based on having seen it. The rest of us just want to criticize because of the theme.
The way the media is gushing over the movie, it sounds as if they think they can extrapolate whatever they want.
If that's all you've got, it doesn't help much. "Heat" is 12 years old and Pacino hardly carried it in any case.
Thanks. I really need to do a html study time. I'm sure I could learn at least a few basics!
"Slipped to number ten?" It's in the top ten in under 70 theaters and it's beating movies that are in ten times that many theaters. The article you provided the link to evidences no familiarity with the movie business at all.
Actually, you're the one who is lacking familiarity. The movie is doing well on a PER-THEATRE basis BECAUSE of the limited release. It only opened in theaters where it was expected to do well.
This movie was made for a small budget, so it will probably make the money back after a limited release in Europe, Japan, and oscar nomination buzz. I can't see the studios rushing to repeat unless they give it best picture. I don't think that will happen. Of course, it hasn't been a banner year.
Top ten in under a 100 theaters equals very big deal. Almost never happens. But of course it's all guesswork at this point--let's have this conversation in a month. What can I say? In the industry I work in there are a lot of gay people. That I'm not one of them is beside the point. I have a different perspective on it--it frankly just doesn't seem to be that big a deal at all, and when you're working and hanging out with gay people, particularly when my wife and I go out to dinner or see movies with gay couples, the issue completely disappears faster than you can imagine. Just part of the fabric of life. And Brokeback Mountain is a work of art that your grandchildren will be watching.
Big sigh is right.
Merry Christmas to you too.
No, but I hear it's very tastefully done.
You lost me there. Your open-mindedness is commendable. I agree that gay people are not intrinsically evil. However, if you fail to see and object to the dishonest political effort that the left has made to get homosexuality into the mainstream then you may have the wrong website here. The fact that you find yourself politically to the right of your neighbors in Hollywood doesn't help your case.
Apart from a predictably strong opening weekend, there is nothing remarkable about this film's success. The press loves to hype things like this specifically because people talk about it, but "Polar Express" is doing similiarly in a similiar number of theatres. And it is available on DVD.
Now, if they can make a movie about a cowboy's love for his horse, that might be worth seeing. It could be called "Bareback Mountain."
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