We Can't Ignore the Subject Much Longer.... BROKEBACK MOUNTA

[joequinn]

USA TODAY reported today that ALL FIVE of the BEST PICTURE nominees TOGETHER have had the lowest box-office gross in twenty years!

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/new ... ysis_x.htm

It's not just that Amerika doesn't like gay cowboys. It doesn't like gay authors creating a great work of art either. Nor deeply conflicted Israelis hunting down terrorists. Nor a 71-character ensemble movie detailing the chaos in a major American city. And of course, not a brave journalist facing down naked fascism at the heart of the Amerikan Empire.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN took nine weeks to make $60 million dollars domestically. By contrast, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, a tepid remark of a 1979 horror film that was not too hot to begin with, made over $22 million last week. That's more than one-third of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN's entire domestic gross --- in the course of one week!

And don't get me started about HOSTEL, a shameless cinematic excuse for a whole string of non-stop, in-your-face, high-decibel torture scenes! And they scream about 60 to 90 seconds of discretely shot gay sex within the context of a loving relationship!!! After watching these horrors, they have the nerve to scream about THAT!!!

I don't care. I haven't been so wound up about a film since THE LORD OF THE RINGS --- a film that I was prepared to detest because of its presumption to translate my beloved Tolkien onto the screen! --- took hold of me from top to toe and then stole everything that wasn't nailed down at the Academy Awards in March of 2004!!!

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is a great American film; I'd rather spend my time singing its praises than go on at length about the latest atrocities of that giggling murderer in the Oval Office (who hates, absolutely hates, this film --- which, by itself, is an EXCELLENT reason for you to go see it!); and I am not going to pull down this thread until the Academy Awards, a month from today...

I have so little power in this world, and my voice is so small. But I will use whatever I have to support this film, for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is worth it. Not sure that I am right about this? Well, you know what you can do to call my bluff. Go ahead, call me a liar on the basis of an informed opinion. I dare you!!!

[joequinn]

Check out this February 2nd piece in the SEATTLE TIMES on the homoerotic history of the American Western:

http://www.sltrib.com/themix/ci_3470610

Now it's official! Stemming the rose is as American as mom, the flag, and apple pie!

[joequinn]

While you're waiting to be homosexualized by the film...

[joequinn]

10. "Your saddle is Versace"

9. "Instead of 'Home On The Range', you sing 'It's Raining Men'"

8. "You enjoy ridin', ropin', and redecoratin'"

7. "Sold your livestock to buy tickets to 'Mamma Mia'"

6. "After watching reruns of 'Gunsmoke', you have to take a cold shower"

5. "Native Americans refer to you as 'Dances With Men'"

4. "You've been lassoed more times than most steers"

3. "You're wearing chaps, yet your 'ranch' is in Chelsea"

2. "Instead of a saloon you prefer a salon"

1. "You love riding, but you don't have a horse"

--- 13 December 2005

And, oh, by the way, have any more of you seen the film? If so, please share. It's lonely out here on the prairie...

[joequinn]

This is what "trixey," one of my contacts on another salon, had to say about the film:

"wow. i'm surprised, really.

"i saw brokeback yesterday and i was absolutely shattered. i thought it was one of the more subtlely moving films i've seen in as long as i can remember. the love affair sneaks up on you. at first, i didn't really see it as love but as convenience, lonliness, horniness. but over time, i started to see that that passion was just something unmatched in their lives in any other way, and i could see how affecting that is, especially when you are unable to have the thing you want most. i think it makes you long for it more. i've felt love like this and it is powerful and painful.

"i never thought of it as a gay story -- and in fact, i don't think ennis was gay -- except for the nods to the mores of society and why they couldn't be together, which just weren't the most compelling parts of the film.

"i was a little bothered by the sort of violent physicality, but given the time and context and the machismo and the naivete, and i thought, this is their expression. this is all they know in their limited worlds. the frustration and inarticulation of something they have no way of reckoning with is palpable.

"heath ledger gave as amazing and heartbreaking performance as i've ever seen. i completely believed him in every frame. and jake gyllenhaal was great, too, but heath ledger blew me away.

"i understand how a moment and place in time can affect you this way, so you don't ever forget and it's emblazoned on your memory. i get it. and the scenery and the raw, stark beauty only made it that much more haunting and indelible for me.

"i was shattered by this film, and still can't stop thinking about it.

.......

"i will say this -- this film is the visual art of ang lee, but it has larry mcmurtry all over it. achingly, beautifully, perversely. i have loved mcmurtry since college when i read moving on, and i feel his mark in every frame. these are mcmurtry characters, even if the story is annie proulx. the character development -- the violence, the inarticulation, the sudden passion and tenderness -- is a classic representation of the elan and anima of mcmurtry's cowboys. he gets inside these men in such an invasive and provocative and painful and intimate and funny and sexy way. the humor wasn't as obvious in this story -- it was a tragic story, after all -- but read moving on (if you dare, it's 700+ pages) or cadillac jack and you see how he knows these characters.

"and this is a weird thing to say, but i ached so much for ennis that he was almost real and palpable for me. i felt that he was a living breathing person, and i fell a little bit in love with him. that's how good heath ledger is.

"the moment in the final frame when he folds his daughter's sweater so clumsily yet so lovingly, then goes to the closet...is one of the most powerful film moments i've ever experienced."

[joequinn]

The movie poster for the next film in the explosive series!!!



Coming soon to a courthouse near you!!!

[joequinn]

Yes, as an extra-special gift to the BILLIONS of people who are flooding this thread, I am happy to unveil the movie trailer for the THIRD film in the series, BROKEBACK TO THE FUTURE!!!

Check it out, pardner!!!

http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/ ... 01422.html

(But you might want to mute the background music --- anecdotal reports indicate that it has been known to turn people gay!)

[Linnea]

Went to see Brokeback Mountain this afternoon....

One word: McMurtry

[joequinn]

Linnea, I am second to none in my profound admiration for Larry McMurtry, and as I said in my inaugural post on this thread, McMurtry’s unmistakable smell is all over this film. But McMurtry had ENORMOUS help, not merely from his partner Diana Ossana, but also from Ang Lee and that superb quartet of actors. They could not have made it without McMurtry, but then again, he could not have made it without them either. Each gave their best to what he or she knew was a beautifully understated call for universal human rights above and beyond a great work of cinematic art, and the result is what we see on the screen. As I said earlier, “a thing of beauty is a joy forever”; this movie is a thing of beauty; and its sad and haunted joy is forever.

I am glad that you saw the movie, Linnea, and then let us know that you did. I was starting to get a little depressed. As you can see for yourself if you reread all the posts in this thread, I have used every tool at my disposal --- from throbbing emotion through sarcasm and guilt to low-class humor --- to try to sell this film to my brothers and sisters on THE FANTASTIC FORUM. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has struck a nerve in me that no film has done since THE LORD OF THE RINGS two years ago, and I wanted everybody to have the same intense aesthetic experience that I had almost two weeks ago now. But I did not get the impression that anybody was buying what I had to sell, and that bothered me a great deal. You, at least, have seen the movie, as it ought to be seen --- on the big screen, in glowing, throbbing color --- and the laconic nature of your reply indicates that you are still sorting out your emotional impressions of your viewing of that film.

When your heart-mind settles a little, I would appreciate hearing more (a lot more, frankly) of those impressions concerning the film. I really want to know what the film made you feel, and why it did what it did. I also would be interested in finding out what kind of audience was in the theater when you saw the film, and how it responded to what was going on up on the screen. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN will be a cultural memory a month from now, but I do want to know what people have thought about it now, when it is still a cultural phenomenon. So gather yourself together, Linnea, and let us know what the film did to you when you finally got a chance to see it.

And needless to say, if any of the rest of you have seen BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, we would like the same things from you. It’s important to share one’s intense experiences, aesthetic and otherwise: indeed, such sharing is the only way in which we can learn and grow.

And thanks once again, Linnea, for giving me the thread-space to host this discussion and to share with other people something really powerful that coursed through my heart during the winter of 2006. Without your space there would be no room for me to speak, and I appreciate it greatly.

[Linnea]

Joe - I got called away from my posting with the ring of the phone. Just wanted to get that first thought out there.

There would be no Brokeback Mountain without McMurtry. Whatever excellent director, actors, cinematographers, etc.. coalesced around his vision and energy - I am sure he inspired it. Period. Lonesome Dove is one of the three greatest novels - life altering experiences - I have read. And, I forgot the other two.

I am with Joolz in my impressions of Brokeback Mountain. It is an exhiliarating story of love and relationship, and - as always with McMurtry, the ineffable poignancy of the pacing and revelation of our lives, from the banal to the heroic. Always presented so intimately with nature, our mortality and the triumph of the human spirit.

I was profoundly moved by this two hours of film. Captivated by it. Deeply drawn into it. In fact, blown away by it!

I can, will, and have been analyzing various themes, revelations and reactions to this experience. But, as with any intense experience, it has to work in me awhile... It has to eddy, flood, pool - and continue to blaze across the inner spaces of my mind and heart - like that shining full moon sailing in the indigo skies at Brokeback Mountain.

[Linnea]

Just for comic relief, Joe - when that scene - at the wardrobe with the shirts, the photograph, the window and sky - opened - It was revealed to me - 'that's Joe Quinn's avatar!'. So, Joe - you became part of the experience in that theatre. I will never be able to separate thoughts of you, this forum, and this thread from the experience.


Amazing!


In a very personal way, that was entirely appropriate for me...

And thank you, Joe - for this thread - and for getting me out there to the theatre. I rarely go to the theatre ...

[joequinn]

Linnea, I don't think that most people who post here realize just how powerful that avatar really is or how deeply it pierces right down to the heart's core. The scenes in which the shirts appear are some of the most powerful that I have ever seen in a theater, and I rejoice that the emotions that they express are registered on our collective memory, once and for all, through the mediumship of this film.

You say, Linnea, that you will always remember me in connection with those shirts. I am grateful, since that means you will always remember me at my best. God knows, of course, that you already have so much to remember me at my worst...

You people out there who do not take movies seriously except as a momentary form of sensory diversion and who do not believe that this particular movie has anything to say to you, how sadly lacking your lives are in depth and resonance! I pity you deeply.

[Waverider]

"Lonesome Dove'
If this movie, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN' is anything close to the emotions 'Lonesome Dove' brought out in that story...

Well, I guess it's a must see...

[Live365]

Just for comic relief, Joe - when that scene - at the wardrobe with the shirts, the photograph, the window and sky - opened - It was revealed to me - 'that's Joe Quinn's avatar!'. So, Joe - you became part of the experience in that theatre. I will never be able to separate thoughts of you, this forum, and this thread from the experience.


In a very personal way, that was entirely appropriate for me...

[joequinn]

Waverider, you have known me for a while. Would I waste my valuable time and energy --- which I value more the older that I get --- would I waste my valuable time and energy trying to get you to see sentimental slop? Surely, Waverider, you know that I have good taste. (Of course, I may not always show it, but THAT is another story... ).

Waverider, you trust me on other things. Well then, trust me on this one! Within a month, one way or the other, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is going to be little more than a cultural memory, and if you ever do manage to see it on DVD, you will kick yourself for not having seen it up on the big screen, where all the great Westerns belong.

Waverider, there is nothing to think about. Just go see the movie! Just do it! You will thank me for having pushed you...

And, hey, Live365, what about you? You too --- just do it!

Those of who have seen the film and who know whereof I speak, help me out here! I need the help!

(Yes, Waverider, the bitter-sweet intensity of emotion in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is just as powerful as that in LONESOME DOVE! And believe me, McMurtry-lover that I am, I would NEVER say such a thing unless it were absolutely true. Even if you had no idea that Larry McMurtry was associated with the film, you would know within a mere half hour that the person who wrote the screenplay was somebody who was deeply influenced by his work. Yes, Waverider, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN will do to you what LONESOME DOVE did! So what are you waiting for? )