Hollywood Rocked: 'Gay Cowboy' Movie Becomes an Oscar Frontrunner

Drudge Report ^ | November 6, 2005

[RWR8189]

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 06, 2005 19:28:02 ET XXXXX

HOLLYWOOD ROCKED: 'GAY COWBOY' MOVIE BECOMES AN OSCAR FRONTRUNNER

Arriving with nudity and explicit gay sex scenes between two cowboys, UNIVERSAL/FOCUS FILMS's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has quietly become an award season frontrunner, interviews with Academy members reveal.

"It could very well be the last film standing at this year's Oscars," a top Hollywood producer not associated with the film explained from Hollywood.

"There was not a dry eye in the house at the screening at Telluride [Film Festival in Colorado]," says the producer, who asked not to be named out of respect for the cast and crew of the producer's own Oscar contender. "Watch it come out of the gate at the Golden Globes with super controversy."

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS critic Jack Mathews predicts the gay cowboy movie, which takes place in Wyoming, may be "too much for red-state audiences, but it gives the liberal-leaning Academy a great chance to stick its thumb in conservatives' eyes."

Director Ang Lee's movie staring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival earlier this fall.

But will a movie even Madonna calls "shocking" sit with the heartland?

Playwright and lifelong Wyomingite tells the STAR-TRIBUNE of Casper this week that she has never encountered a gay cowboy, and doesn't think it's right for Hollywood to portray Wyoming as a state with gay cowboys.

Her message to the writers of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: “Don't try and take what we had, which was wonderful -- the cowboys that settled the state and made it what it was -- don't ruin that image... There's nothing better than plain old cowboys and the plain old history without embellishing it to suit everyone."

Meanwhile, Michell Howard of the state's Travel and Tourism Division says her agency is already hearing a buzz that people in other countries are expressing interest in visiting Wyoming because of the film.

“It's gotten rave reviews from the international community,” she said. “I don't know if they're more tolerant or something, but they're viewing it as a great Western movie.”

Developing...

[dagoofyfoot]

It's a south park refernce.


Sounds gnarrly, (gays eating pudding)...thanks for the insight though.

[Seizure]

"That's because they are cow-pokes."

So, how would you explain cow patties? What about horse apples, for that matter?

[MonaMars]

"Reminds me of the Kinsey bio "starring" Liam Neeson (another actor I will never clap my eyes on). I don't remember reading if it was a flop or not, I certainly hope so - hope it lost money big time."

Estimated budget: 11 million
Box office: 10.2 million

[Petronski]

Boycott Hollywood.


It sucks. All of it sucks.

[U S Army EOD]

Uh oh

[Lancey Howard]

The Republicans have to use this movie to (again) define Hollywood for the toilet that it is and at the same time reinforce the conventional wisdom that Hollywood IS the Democrat Party and the Democrat Party IS Hollywood.

[B Knotts]

More and more normal Americans have no interest in the vile sewage being pumped out of Hollyweird.

I haven't seen a movie at a theater since "Passion of the Christ," and that was only one besides the LOTR movies I had seen in years.

The sickos down there would obviously rather preach their religion of mental illness than make money. Let them wallow in their filth; I have disengaged from the diseased pop culture.

[Sofa King]

There was an episode of South Park a while back where an indie film festival came to the town, and all of the movies were about gay cowboys eating pudding.

[xroadie]

And how about "Rump Rangers?" Explain please.

[little jeremiah]

Well, at least it lost some money. I was all prepared to picket the movie theaters in town if it came here, but I don't think it did.

Small town, red county in a blue state, and all that.

[durasell]

No, they'd rather make money. But the American audience is less and less important to them.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

I haven't seen the movie, and may not, since I suspect Hollywood has tarted it up and used it as a vehicle to say "up yours" to the red states. However, I read the original short story that it is taken from (in The New Yorker magazine) and I have to say it was an excellent short story. Very well written, not sentimental, an interesting portrait of two friends who got too friendly and how it affected the rest of their lives. I suspect the movie does not live up to it.

[Deadshot Drifter]

I've heard that cowboys sometimes kiss their horse on the nose. But this...? ughh

[B Knotts]

I don't know that there's all that much money in any country selling this kind of filth.

One of the ironies of leftist kookery is that they constantly make excuses for the Islamic terrorists by claiming that their grievances against America and/or Israel are legitimate, but would never even consider that they might not appreciate their kids being exposed to the toxic waste being spread worldwide by the sickos in Hollywierd.

[durasell]

I don't know that much about the movie, but it will probably do well in Western Europe.

Also, I'd remind you of two fairly interesting facts:

A)Movies, video games, music -- pop culture -- remain one of America's strongest exports. And about the only thing that can't be completely outsourced to China.

B)The movie industry is largely a blue collar industry. You just don't see the blue collars at the premiers and Academy Awards.

[B Knotts]

If it does well in Western Europe, that does not speak well of Western Europe. Although I wonder if this kind of perverted crap can even do well in Europe.

I don't care if it's blue-collar, white-collar, or red-collar; they're not getting a dime from me, or a growing number of other Americans.

I'm tired of the constant assault against Christianity, traditional values and the family.

[durasell]

It's not an assault. It's simply a product that some people will buy and others won't buy. Some will find it offensive and others will no doubt flock to it.

Personally, I'm going to take a pass because I don't particularly like the author and because I believe that the cowboy genre is pretty much dead. Like jazz, it was an original American artform, but it's pretty much reached its end.

[B Knotts]

Believe whatever you want.

I think it's obvious that it is an assault.

They know how to make money, and it does not involve making filth like this.

Look at how much Mel Gibson made...ask yourself why no one else would make a movie like TPOTC.

They could make a traditional Western and bring in a ton of money. But that doesn't further their sick agenda.

[durasell]

TPOTC was a huge gamble. It also succeeded for the very reason you state -- nobody else was willing to take that gamble.

I think westerns reached their high point in the late 40s and early 1960s with movies like High Noon, Shane, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, etc. After that you get movies that kinda play on the western theme like True Grit, Two Mules for Sister Sarah, etc. And some anomalies, like The Shootist and Louie Lamour's The Quick and the Dead. But they're just kinda echos.

[durasell]

p.s.

now we just get dumb stuff, like Maverick and Wild, Wild West.