BACKDOOR MOUNTIN' II:
HOMO ON THE RANGE
A COUPLE OF COWPOKES
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.
Rump Rangers pure and simple
I've never quite seen the hype for a gay movie in my life. Man alive, they want to cram this movie down our throat.
"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 starring two faggots.
Get upset.
Thorry, grrlfriend. It's a 'pervert shepherd story'. Happy?
So could a story about a man who loves his Black Lab so much, that he has sex with it. I wouldn't want to see that movie either.
Well tie me down and call me Sally, that is one humdinger, I mean hummerwanger, I mean rimreamer of a danglin'wrangler movie.
"I mean, 'cultural attache'? Sounds like old money to me."
I thought it was pretty cool how the filmmakers picked up on conservatives' distaste for old-money blue blood (KENNEDY! ROCKEFELLER!) types.
ping
I'm going to drown myself in vodka now to get the image that you just put in my head out of there.
Perfect venue for the late Hunter boys - Rock and Tab.
So how is this movie doing?? (in terms of making money)
I swear if I see anything else about this perverted movie I'm gonna hurl.
How about a picture of republican beauty Kathy Ireland.
Feel better now? :)
*Image Googles "Michelle Malkin"*
Ahh, much better. But I'm still getting drunk.
Of course the press is playing it up like this movie is a blockbuster, because it has done well in limited release. It is open in 69 strategic theaters nationwide (including 4 in heavily gay Greenwich Village) near me. The movie will make money because it is low budget, and it will, of course, win tons of awards, but it is not the cultural phnomenon that the propagandists would have you believe. The re-release in IMAX of Polar Express is in a similiar number of theatres and doing better.
You've got to be kidding.
The re-release in IMAX of Polar Express is in a similiar number of theatres and doing better.
I hope this movie is never shown in an IMAX theater. I really hope it isn't shown in 3D in an IMAX theater.
Yay drunkenness!
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