Posted on 01/13/2006 3:04:40 AM PST by Aussie Dasher
IT'S cowboy country all right, but parts of north and central Queensland won't be seeing the controversial cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain.
The film - banned in two cinemas in the US because of its tale of gay cowboy love - won't be seen in Townsville - home of NRL grand finalists the Cowboys. Nor, also due to its "limited release" status, will it be hitting the screens further south in Rockhampton.
But the snub of two major Queensland cities has angered gay activists, who say much of its community could relate to the gay character played by Australian actor Heath Ledger.
"We have a strong western influence up this way in our gay community," Townsville-based Colin Edwards told the Ten Network.
"We have gay property owners, jackaroos, jillaroos. They really do exist and they really do fall in love."
Federal MP Bob Katter, whose Kennedy electorate in north Queensland takes in industries such as sugar cane, cattle, sheep and dairy farming, was unconcerned.
"Maybe there are some (gay cowboys) out there but I've never heard of `em," he said.
"I mean, it's not a profession that attracts those sort of people."
However, other regional centres such as Cairns and Mackay have managed to secure screenings of the film, which premiered in Australia on Tuesday.
Set in Wyoming and Texas, Brokeback Mountain is the story of a range-hand and a rodeo cowboy who meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly fall in love.
*** They just happen to be cowboys who are watching sheep for a summer. They mainly work on ranches, and both of them have done a fair amount of rodeo.***
I might pay good money to watch one of them "ride" a mad bramma bull! Probably the only "cowboy" who would grinn when the bull runs a horn up his, er, ah, Well, you know what I mean!
"Re-ride, judge! I need a re-ride! OH do it again!"
According to the Sydney Morning News, the film will be shown there:
"The film will be releasing in both Townsville and Rockhampton in the coming weeks."
www.smh.com.au/news/film/no-brokeback-blackout/2006/01/13/1136956330948.html
I've been chuckling over this. There are plenty of Western Americans who know the difference -- but not in gay bastions like Hollywood, New York, San Francisco, L.A., etc.
We call "shepherds" sheepherders and yes, they run lots of sheep in Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and adjacent states. Many of the owners and herders are Basque. I've known lots of Basques but never a gay one. In fact some are downright surly! I've been giving my Kiwi son-in-law a seriously bad time over the film. Jolly jumbucks!
Yes, and since that post, I should have included Ronald Reagan, who also was viewed as a cowboy.
These insidious hollywood perverts seem out to destroy the image of the American cowboy and indirectly two of our finest and strongest Presidents.
I thought it was gay sheepherder love?
Maybe gay New Zealanders are only attracted to male sheep?
Set in Wyoming and Texas, Brokeback Mountain is the story of a range-hand and a rodeo cowboy who meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly fall in love....That's real special...I was listenting to the Beach Boys in 63....
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