Tony Curtis Blasts 'Brokeback Mountain'

Newsmax.com ^ | Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006 | James Hirsen

[AmericaUnite]

The current batch of Oscar nominations underscores the notion that now more than ever Hollywood is out of touch with America.

The simple fact that twice as many people have seen the documentary "March of the Penguins" than have seen any of the five nominations for Best Picture ("Brokeback Mountain," "Crash," "Capote," "Munich" and "Good Night, and Good Luck") drives the point home.

The combined audience total for all of the Best Picture nominations is less than the number of moviegoers who flocked to see "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

Another indication of the growing chasm between Hollywood and the rest of the universe is the scarcity of bona fide movie stars; those who enjoy that special combination of box office success and larger-than-life personas.

Long associated with the term "movie star" is the name of Jamie Lee Curtis's dad, Tony Curtis. Tony recently told Fox News's Bill McCuddy that he hadn't yet seen "Brokeback Mountain" and had no intention of doing so. He claims that other Academy members feel similarly.

"This picture is not as important as we make it. It's nothing unique. The only thing unique about it is they put it on the screen. And they make 'em [gay] cowboys."

Curtis reminded folks that his contemporaries wouldn't have cared for the highly acclaimed Best Picture nominee. "Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn't like it," Curtis said.

Curtis's favorite flick of 2005 is one that, judging by the box office take, a lot of Americans would place on their list as well: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

The Left Coast Report points out that while Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon may have donned women's clothing for their film roles, at least they shaved their legs for the part.

[MarkL]

She was great, too, in What a Way to Go!, an excellent comedy, and the Hitchcock comedy/thriller The Trouble With Harry; not bad, either, in The Apartment, with Jack Lemmon. If you havn't seen them, and get a chance, it'd be worthwhile.

She's a terrific actress, there's no doubt about that. It seems to run in the family for her. I just loved the way her character tormented Nicholas Cage's character in "Guarding Tess."

Mark

[ABN 505]

They can't even portray it as a gay movie. In all the trailers, it's about a "love story," but they won't show the two homos kissing. They fool you into going. You are correct, if you went by the trailor you would think it was a love story between a man and woman, Not a couple of hat wearing twinkies.

[muir_redwoods]

If you took the gay element out of the story and made the two leads male and female, it wouldn't have made it to film.

The only "appeal" this story has is the supposed shock value of the gay element. Well, I'm not shocked and I'm not even offended. I'm bored.

Here's a clue for the folks in Hollywood, stories about gay cowboys are probably most interesting to the gay audience, 1-2% of the total population.

[jocon307]

"The simple fact that twice as many people have seen the documentary "March of the Penguins" than have seen any of the five nominations for Best Picture ("Brokeback Mountain," "Crash," "Capote," "Munich" and "Good Night, and Good Luck") drives the point home."

Wow, if that statistic is accurate, that's pretty amazing. But it is clear three of these movies were nominated out of political reasons, although BBM might be somewhat deserving on its own merits, as even those who have codemned it have said it is quite well made, if rather simplistic.

[landerwy]

"By billing this as a cowboy movie or western, the left is just trying to screw up the image of another American icon"

And taint the image of a conservative state, Wyoming.

[finnigan2]

"She sees every 'art' film that comes out. She liked Capote too."

- I just saw Capote yesterday and had hopes that it might be a winner, based on the hype. Although the Capote character was well acted, the film was a little too low key and lacked dramatic tension to be an Oscar winner. I would classify it as a well meaning but interesting failure.
Maybe we'll look back as the 20th. century as being the golden age of Hollywood cinema - until hubris took over and the industry became overly politicized and lost touch with it's market base. As it stands now, Hollywood is relying on feature length cartoons, remakes of old movie classics and movies drawn from "BritLit" sources. Without these three, Hollywood as a money making movie mecca, is a dying institution.
I just read that the Grammy's drew the lowest viewing audience of all time, down from a high in the 1980's of about 53 million to about 17 million this year. With Fudgepack Mountain getting all the raves, I think the Oscar's are headed in the same direction this year.
Do you think the moguls will see the danger and steer clear of the rocks, or will they plow ahead with their agenda driven blindness?

[Guenevere]

Major correction here....

..some churches may have bought large blocks of tickets....

..but it's because many in their congregations wanted to see the movie.

The theaters were jammed pack, even in our little burg.

Big difference in padding the ticket sales when no one is attending...Brokeback.

..and buying blocks of tickets because everyone wants to go see it!--Passion of the Christ.

[Liz]

Christian-hating Hollywarped is engaged in a full-scale vendetta against Christians---the Christian-hating moguls have declared all-out war on believers.

It's like the moguls met in secret and compiled a TO-DO LIST OF CHRISTIAN BELIEFS HOLLYWOOD MUST DESTROY.

What's next--a film extolling the benefits of child nolesting?

Clearly, they consider every moral tenent believers cherish as fair game for the Hollywood "treatment."

I tell you what, a film needs to be made about the worst serial murderers in history who were all gay----Juan Corona, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Herb Baumeister (killed a hundred gays)---to name a few of the most notorious.

[Bear_Slayer]

i must hear commercials for hump back mountain every minute

I watched Dateline's show on Internet sexual predators last week.

The commercials were for BBM. "How hypocritical of NBC" I thought, "NBC is picking and choose which perversions are acceptable."

[Recovering Hermit]

For anyone who hasn't seen DYL, I don't want to ruin it, but it was a hoot!

Lena Foster: What did you finally invest in, Mr. Miller, do you remember?

Daniel Miller: [under his breath] Um, uh... cattle.

Lena Foster: And what happened to the cattle?

Daniel Miller: I don't know; I never got a straight answer. All I know is that their teeth fell out.

[MizSterious]

We get a lot of the Broke whatever Mountain commercials too. They keep saying it's a blockbuster, maybe they're trying to convince us.

[veronica]

To be fair, art is not meant to per se represent the masses. Many the artist was misunderstood in his time, only to be recognized as a genius many years later. That said, the Oscars are industry back-slapping, a box-office boosting mechanism, though certainly some films become iconic of their time, and we all love to watch our favorite movies. But this year in particular, I think Hollywood is unconsciously rewarding films that are an outgrowth of the frustration of Hollywood leftwingnuts, such as George Clooney. These idiots wake up every day and George W. Bush is still President. So they can give each other awards and feel righteous. But I just can't bring myself to see these politically motivated films, such as Clooney's and Spielberg's, just as I know that watching the Oscars is likely to be a very annoying experience for me, because I expect lots of Bush-bashing.

I am glad I saw Crash. It was brilliant IMO, beautifully written, acted and directed. It's enough for me that I saw one near-perfect film this year. And I liked Capote. Great performance by Hoffman, and an interesting exploration of Truman Capote's writing process. Worth seeing.

[Bear_Slayer]

And taint the image of a conservative state, Wyoming

Cheney's from Wyoming.

Isn't Wyoming where that homosexual was brutally beat and hung on a fence?

This must be Hollywood's payback. (?)

[TN4Liberty]

By billing this as a cowboy movie or western, the left is just trying to screw up the image of another American icon.

It's a movie. If they wanted to "screw up the image" of cowboys as opposed to sheep herders, they could have just as easily written cows in for the sheep. Then the reference in the conversation about it wouldn't have been necessary.

[Bear_Slayer]

Christian-hating Hollywarped is engaged in a full-scale vendetta against Christians

Is this why they call it "Brokeback" Mountain?

It's an attempt to break the back of Christian morals and influence in this country.

[k omalley]

"They keep saying it's a blockbuster, maybe they're trying to convince us."

Has anyone noticed the movie ratings section of the newspaper? Broken Mountain has a whole row of stars from the different newspapers(meaning don't miss it) and not one black circle or white circle(meaning don't bother and mixed bag). Please tell me how often any movie, no matter how good it is, gets a whole row of stars? Something tells me there is definitely an agenda here.

[Ashamed Canadian]

To the Motion picture acadamy:

[IronJack]

This year's Academy Awards are Hollywood fighting for its life. They send the signal to the unwashed masses that "We have no intention of abandoning our subversive agenda, and if that means we go down, we at least go down with our bunny slippers on."

It now falls to us, the consuming public, to demonstrate whether we have the financial clout to call their bluff.

[WashingtonSource]

It is not a love story. It's a story of a sexual predator (Jake Gyllenhall) who ruins the life of everyone he sedudes, man or woman, but most especially a young virgin male alone in a remote mountain area, Heath Ledger.

Heath could have forgotten about the summer when he was sodmozing Gillenhall and would have been happy if he never saw Jake again. But Jake keeps coming back -- all the way from El Paso, Texas, to keep Heathon the hook. In the end the affair He destroys Heath Ledger, who ends up celibate and lonely.

Gyllenhall is killed, presumably by queer bashers, but at the time he was having an affair with the husband of his wife's good friend and the man was going to leave his wife to live with Jake. I don't see any love story here. It was a typical tale of homosexual self-destruction heavily larded with gay propaganda, that's all.