Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)

[David Ehrenstein]

David, you're one bitter old queen. You're giving us a bad name. Thanks a lot

You're welcome, darling!

.. no wonder why we aren't moving ahead.

According to Andre once Bareback Molehill sweeps the Oscars everything will be perfect.

[Michael]

From MSNBC:

[quote]The straight dude's guide to ‘Brokeback'

Our intrepid gay columnist has sage advice for his straight brethren
By Dave White

You are a heterosexual man. And you have no personal beef with gay people. You're educated and fairly socially liberal and occasionally listen to NPR and you don't like to see anyone bashed or discriminated against. You're no homophobe. You're proud of yourself.

But your girlfriend/wife/common-law/female or whoever loves that adorable Jake Gyllenhaal has already stated her intentions. When it's her turn to pick the Saturday night date-movie, you're seeing “Brokeback Mountain.â€

[Andre Jurieu]

Andre's fealty to the Oscars (and their alleged power) is . . .amusing.

You make the mistake (shocking!) of thinking that I agree resoundingly with the decisions the Academy makes. In fact I have as much respect for the Academy as I have for the Bush administration - little to none. However, I do have a grip on the reality of the society we live in, which means that as much as I despise the decisions made by the Bush administration, I must acknowledge that they have a great deal of power and influence and just may be the most powerful government administration on the globe (though China and Saudi Arabia are giving them a run for the money). That is a reality, David, not some decision or opinion on my part.

The same goes for the Academy and their most recognized symbol, the Oscar. I have no allegiance to the Oscars or the Academy, but the reality (that is out of my hands) is that they are powerful and have influence over the mainstream, especially within the 2-3 months where the Oscar hype-machine gets started and the topic is discussed in dozens of media outlets in various forms. Admittedly, that power is probably not as forceful as it once may have been given the recent Red/Blue split over media.

Even if you deny that the Academy has influence and simply shut it out to concentrate on your own view of the world, the results of their influence are obvious. The winner (film and individual actors/actresses) usually obtains financial success and then influences the types of projects that are made in future years. Thus, they determine what types of films are distributed to mainstream America. You could make hundreds of films in the spirit of Mala Noche, Love is the Devil, Edward II, Happy Together, and Son Frere, (and I would probably watch them) but if very few people see them then these films lack the ability to change the collective mainstream conscience, which is required for most political and social change to occur. That's a reality. It's much like the reality that the Harry Potter films/books have more influence on the mainstream than your blog does, because they reach a greater audience.

This is not something I am alleging to be true, it's a reality based on basic evidence within the last 15 years of Hollywood filmmaking. I might not like it, but I do have to deal with it.

According to Andre once Bareback Molehill sweeps the Oscars everything will be perfect.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Is this the part where I tell you to go back and read what I wrote... slowly? Your efforts to twist, warp, and exaggerate my words to suit your own perceptions are concerning, especially since your profession as a film critic relies on your ability to interpret messages.

dvdane, move over - your nemesis has arrived.

He certainly could be Henrik's nemesis, considering Henrik bases himself in reality, while...

[David Ehrenstein]

Did Steve McQueen go around squawking about how straight-as-a-wall he was? No, he didn't.

Considering how he began his career that would have been most impolite.

[David Ehrenstein]

In fact I have as much respect for the Academy as I have for the Bush administration

Memo to the Academy: have George Bush give Ang Lee his Oscar.

[kieslowski_67]

WTF is this? How can this decent thread suddenly turned into a POS?

[GringoTex]

Here's an article I wrote a number of years back that elucidates my position on straights making films about gay life more fully.

This makes for an interesting counterpoint to Robin Wood's analysis of the film in his "Incoherent Text" article.

[David Ehrenstein]

Well Robin Wood's experience is quite different from mine. I came out in high school back in 1961 -- the year Todd Haynes and George Clooney were born.

Robin married, raised a family and then in early middle age came out. Read his Ingmar Bergman book -- particularly the passage where he talks about looking out the window at his children playing in the yard and realizing this could all be blown away in an instant. Contextually he was speaking of the impact of Bergman's Shame, but taking a closer look in retrospect it's clear that a bell had just gone off in his eminent head.

[GringoTex]

It's insistence that its lovers couldn't possibly have broken away from their circumstances and live together is belied by actual gay history, detailing countless instances proving otherwise.

History's written by the victors.

Having grown up on a ranch in rural Texas and ridden in the rodeo circuit, I knew plenty of gay cowboys -- real gay cowboys. Mostly they married, had kids, and lead unfulfilled(?) lives (some had the balls to join the Texas Gay Rodeo circuit, but they were distinctly in the minority). As far as I know, their history's never been recorded because they're the losers (even the Texas Gay Rodeo circuit has had a documentary made about it).

Although I mostly agree with your take on how this film is being marketed, I'm just excited that a big Hollywood movie is being made about a closet in my little universe. I haven't seen it yet, but I've never known McMurtry to write a false word. The fact that Gary Indiana doesn't understand why gay cowboys listen to Toby Keith too gives me high hopes as well.

Well Robin Wood's experience is quite different from mine. I came out in high school back in 1961 -- the year Todd Haynes and George Clooney were born.

That explains a lot. As politically active as Wood's writing has become in his later years, it never seemed to come from an historically-based gay activism.

[David Ehrenstein]

History's written by the victors.

SING OUT LOUISE! And that's precisely why, as Gay Politics continues to triumph -- even amidst constant struggle -- the "historical record" is being corrected.

Having grown up on a ranch in rural Texas and ridden in the rodeo circuit, I knew plenty of gay cowboys -- real gay cowboys. Mostly they married, had kids, and lead unfulfilled(?) lives (some had the balls to join the Texas Gay Rodeo circuit, but they were distinctly in the minority).

Ah but how many of them kicked over the traces, got the hell out of Dodge, and made a bee-line for "the territory"? That's the story Bareback Molehill doesn't want you to think about.

[GringoTex]

Ah but how many of them kicked over the traces, got the hell out of Dodge, and made a bee-line for "the territory"? That's the story Bareback Molehill doesn't want you to think about.

And here I was hoping Randy Quaid would show up in a fancy car to take them to a swimming pool full of naked men in Wichita Falls.

[David Ehrenstein]

Well I was hoping for that scene too -- in which case the film would have bounded to the top of my Ten Best list.

[Michael]

Here's where it all began.

[Carson Dyle]

Obviously you know nothing about same-sex love.

My boyfriend would probably disagree with you on that one.

Ruth Prawer Jhahbvala did not work on the script of Maurice. She opted out on the grounds that it concerned a subject she knew nothing about -- even though she lived in the same building with Merchant and Ivory for years.

My bad. If she had written Maurice, it probably would have been a better, more nuanced film.

And let's be honest, you've never fucked anyone outside your class.

I wasn't aware you were so intimately acquainted with my sex life.

Why the hostility?

Michael, thanks for catching the Cruz/Roth thing. That was a pretty good brain fart.

[David Ehrenstein]

Why the hostility?

Cowboys annoy me.

[godardslave]

Why the hostility?

Cowboys annoy me.

It seems like everything annoys you. So, why don't you just stop polluting this forum with your baseless personal attacks on many of its members, of which you know nothing about, thereby merely exposing your own prejudices. Your last comments, directed towards carson, are particuarly rude.

[David Ehrenstein]

So, why don't you just stop polluting this forum with your baseless personal attacks on many of its members, of which you know nothing about, thereby merely exposing your own prejudices.

I am the earth Mother and you're all flops!

(I'll bet Carson knows where that's from.)

Meanwhile, I trust everyone has seen the cover of the new "Entertainment Weekly."

A quick question for the film's admirers. How does Heath know how to fuck Jake?

He's never had sex with a man before, Jake pulls his arm tenderly around him and -- BANG he's a Top!

No foreplay, no oral, no "Boston Rub" -- just BANG!

Makes no sense whatsoever.

[The Invunche]

A quick question for the film's admirers. How does Heath know how to fuck Jake?

He's never had sex with a man before, Jake pulls his arm tenderly around him and -- BANG he's a Top!

No foreplay, no oral, no "Boston Rub" -- just BANG!

Makes no sense whatsoever.

Hollywood has been messing up straight sex for decades. Now it's your turn. How does equality taste?

[Grimfarrow]

Well, David, I guess your LAFCC vote won't be going to BROKEBACK then.... How about MYSTERIOUS SKIN instead!

[GringoTex]

So, why don't you just stop polluting this forum with your baseless personal attacks on many of its members, of which you know nothing about, thereby merely exposing your own prejudices.

To appreciate the Fabulous David E, you need to recognize his extensive knowledge and sound arguments without taking his smack personally. I'm voting him for Member of the Year AND the Richard Cranium Award.

[David Ehrenstein]

I'd love for LAFCA to honor Mysterious Skin in some way shape or form. It's a film whose knowledge of gay ,love and desire is light years beyond B.M.

[Michael]

Yeah, Mysterious Skin remains my pick for the best film of 2005. Nobody Knows, The Hand (from Eros) and Wild Side tail behind just a bit. The exposure and release of MSkin in the US was extremely disappointing and lackluster. MSkin is original and painfully beautiful.. the ending rips me apart especially when the Christmas carolers sing Silent Night as the boys rest together. Major kleenex moment.

Even without having seen BBM yet, I feel like I had seen the film already. Not to belittle it at all, the story is pretty basic and has been done tons of times before.

[GringoTex]

Speaking of gay subject matter by straight filmmakers, I'd love to hear a gay perspective on Wong Kar-wai's "Happy Together."

[David Ehrenstein]

It's a marvelous film about precisely why "breaking up is hard to do." Tony Leung Chi-wai and Leslie Cheung are trying their best to manage a can't-live-with-you-can't-live-without-you relationship while on a trip to Buenos Ares just when their native Hong Kong is being returnd to mainland China.

The sex scene at the start clearly indicates that the "bottom" (Cheung) is the agressor. Leung drifts and drifts, getting a job as a doorman in a tango bar -- thus leading into lovely tango sequences full of Astor Piazzola music. There's also much Frank Zappa on the soundtrack, and Caetono Veloso too. Cheung (a great star whose life tragicallyended in suicide) is really amazing here as a self-destructive, yet compelling, tease.

The climax is heartbreaking. Leung gets a job at a restuarant and a sous-chef, who's just coming out, falls in love with him. But he's too wrapped up in trying to deal with Cheung to realize it.

As usual word fail to describe the beauty of Chris Doyle's cinematography.

[Grimfarrow]

I'd love for LAFCA to honor Mysterious Skin in some way shape or form. It's a film whose knowledge of gay ,love and desire is light years beyond B.M.

As long as you guys don't award abortions like HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS this year - patooey!