Posted on 12/31/2005 7:16:50 PM PST by Pokey78
Jim-Bob Zimmerschied is not a happy cowboy. "They've gone and killed John Wayne with this movie," he says angrily, beer in hand. "I've been doing this job all my life and I ain't never met no gay cowboy. It wouldn't be right."
The target of Mr Zimmerschied's outburst is Brokeback Mountain, the Hollywood Western-with-a-twist that opens in London this week and is already being tipped for Oscar success.
The "gay cowboy flick", as it has been dubbed in America, is directed by Ang Lee and stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two young ranch hands who begin a long-term love affair in 1963 against the stunning backdrop of Wyoming's mountains and prairies.
American critics have enthused about the film, which has topped box office takings per cinema since its limited release in large cities last month.
But the subject matter has earned condemnation from the religious Right - and caused considerable distress in rural Wyoming, bastion of the cowboy culture of unadulterated machismo.
In Sheridan, in the heart of Marlboro Country, where ranchers and cowboys still walk the streets, the Western flavour remains authentic.
Buffalo Bill used to hold auditions for his Wild West Show on the porch of the Sheridan Inn and Custer's Last Stand was fought at the nearby Little Bighorn.
On Sheridan's Main Street, the Mint Bar is a rough and ready institution with a large neon sign of a cowboy riding a bucking bull outside and the heads of stuffed moose, elk and buffalo lining the wooden walls within.
It was here that the writer Annie Proulx had the inspiration for the short story on which the film is based. It was "generated by years and years of subliminal observation," she said in a recent interview. "But the incident that actually made me start writing it was one night when I was the Mint Bar. There was a ranch hand I used to see. This guy was back leaning against the wall by the pool tables. The bar was packed with good-looking women, and he wasn't looking at them - he was watching the guys. He was about 60, and he watched them with a kind of subdued hunger that made me wonder if he was country gay." The film has yet to play in Sheridan and the cinema manager says only that he "might" screen it. If he does, the audience is likely to be limited.
Flushed by Bud Lite, Mr Zimmerschied, a squat walrus-moustachioed man in a hat and check shirt, was in full flow. "John Wayne and Will Rogers, they made real cowboy movies. They portrayed us like we are. There ain't no queer in cowboy and I don't care for anyone suggesting there is."
When he was distracted by one of the two bar-room brawls - both apparently unrelated to the Brokeback Mountain issue - an even drunker young man stepped up to the plate. "If you gave me the choice between watching that movie and being hung by the neck, I'd tie the noose myself," he slurred.
But away from the bellicose posturing, a more subtle view emerged. Dave Miller, 48, a rancher in regulation black cowboy hat, leather waistcoat, blue jeans and boots, said: "It's not the sort of movie that I'd go to see, but this is America and people can watch whatever they want." Nonetheless, he repeated the common refrain that he had never encountered a gay cowboy. "Well, not that I knew," he added. "I just don't think our way of life is conducive to them." And like many others, his concern was that the film would give the wrong impression of life in the West.
Samantha Foster, who moved to Sheridan from cosmopolitan Seattle after marrying a local, was one of the few who said she would go to see the film. "I think it's an age thing and a sex thing," she said. "The older generation don't accept this sort of thing and it makes a lot of men uneasy.
Her husband, Jeremy, seemed less sure. "I wouldn't want to be seen going to see that film. I don't want people to get the wrong impression. I might watch it on DVD, I guess," he said.
One woman quietly disclosed that one of the area's biggest ranchers had a lesbian daughter. "It's just that nobody talks about it," she whispered.
While the patrons in the Mint Bar may be convinced that they have never met a homosexual cowboy, the popularity of the gay rodeo circuit in America is proof that they exist. "I was born gay and I was born a cowboy," said Mike Yocum, a rodeo enthusiast from Oklahoma.
"I grew up in a saddle. It's horsesh*t to say there's no such thing as a gay cowboy, but it's a very touchy subject."
Few want to go public in Wyoming. An exception is Derek Glover, 33, a rancher's son who lives in the small town of Lusk. "Folks round here just don't believe that cowboys can be gay," he said. "I wish people could be a little more open-minded, but I don't see that happening for a long time. It makes me mad that they don't approve of me, but what can I do? I'm just one person. This is smalltown America. I don't think this movie's going to make any difference."
Just north of Sheridan, Padlock Ranch is one of the 10 biggest cattle farms in America and stretches out beneath the snow-capped Bighorn mountain range.
Lee Hagel, 47, who was herding cattle there last week, had his own objections to the film. "They aren't even cowboys - they're sheep herders," he said witheringly. "You can't just put a hat on someone and say they're a cowboy."
And for pragmatic reasons, he is also troubled by plans to market Wyoming to gay holidaymakers. "We got a big influx of tourists after the Urban Cowboy film came out and all that happened was prices for boots and hats doubled as they were buying them all up. Let's hope that doesn't happen again."
Meanwhile, one Mint Bar regular offered a suggestion for another film about same-sex romance on the range. "A movie about two women would be different," he said. "I wouldn't mind that at all."
He has missed the whole thing.
This is NOT a gay cowboy movie.
It is (hee hee) a film about gay SHEEP herders.
Just TOO FUNNY!
I'm going to see it when it comes out here in the UK. I think next weekend is when it starts.
Well then you need schooling. Classical liberalism is a political school of thought that upholds the rights of individual autonomy and private property and maintains that governments should serve solely to defend those rights. ......which is not even close to the position of today's liberals, obviously. Sounds awfully like conservatism, in fact.
When John Wayne said "But this so-called new Liberal group .... they never listen to your point of view..." he was talking about leftists/modern liberals, not classical liberals.
Yeah, there are a trillion movies that are heterosexual themed, and make women into sex objects, so the fact that this movie is no surprise, other than the fact that it took this long. More power to them, gays need porn to I reckon, but do you know what steams me? The fact that they try to equate their nonsense with Rosa parks, you know? Or freeing the slaves- some kind of holy thing. Like the first black person to eat in an all white restaurant, is the same as having a movie about gay cowboys. First gay kiss, first man butt on screen, first this or gay that. They think they're pioneers, but it just makes the rest of us queasy. I wouldn't expect a gay man to like Barbarella, either. Come to think of it, bad example.
Considering the state of Hollyweird, I am sure it will be best picture....but then again, they wish to make their political statements, rather than money.
I don't think a few liberal Dimorat anti-American smuck penis suckers will ever kill the Duke.
Happy friggin New Year.
Iworked with cattlemen for more than a decade. Very often I would be the only woman in a room of them discussing regulations or cattle health. Usually, their wives would gather separately. They were VERY traditional in their view of women and there was a definite separation of roles. Part of this was because the physical demands of being a cattleman are something that most women just can't do. (Or wouldn't want to.)
I do not like the likely possibility that Hollywood is trying to undermine and slight the values and traditions that are associated with the Western male archetype (hero). It is clear that most of the Hollywood types join the extreme environmentalists in demonizing ranching. This slight is probably just another PC irreverance to them. Personaly, I find it disturbing.
Now that would be interesting! And you know the usual suspects would denounce the film as being "intolerant" and "homophobic," etc.
Actually they aren't cowboys, they're sheep herders. Real cowboys always figured there was somethin' funny with those sheep men.
My understanding of it is a bit different. The ranch owners were unaware of what was happening. Apparently their employee was surreptitiously taking gay men to the ranch to be on the receiving end of sex with horses. He filmed the encounters and sold the video on the internet.
They turn my stomach.
Geeze, they are disgusting to look at.
Are there any straight interior decorator guys living in the Castro district of San Franciso?? >>>>>>>>>>
Are there any polar bears living in Death Valley?
I like John wayne he was like a big cowboy
Im gonna laugh now and i dont know why....lol
Hey I live in Oklahoma.
ooops shouldnt have revealed that....lol
The ArcLight in Hollywood was even having an "over 21 screening" of it, where patrons may "enjoy beer or their favorite coctails" during the film.
So said their emailing.
I was in Arizona when the story broke and read about it in the papers down there. It said that there were all different types of animals being used, and harnesses set up for the specific purpose of man/animal sex. They also said that the ranch drew guests from all over the country, like a dude ranch.
Yeah, movies went from the Duke to puke.
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