Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:19 pm
I've just been given the go-ahead to detonate Brokeback Mountain in the L.A. Weekly.
See y'all in a few days.
Do you mean *detonate*?David Ehrenstein wrote:I've just been given the go-ahead to denotate Brokeback Mountain in the L.A. Weekly.
You're being completely ridiculous.
I was under the impression that Ledger's character always had same sex feelings, but that he kept those feelings tightly under wraps, along with every other feeling he ever had. Larry McMurtry was under the same impression when he spoke at the Q&A I attended a couple of weeks ago.People who have never had a same-sex experience by the time they reach adulthood (and we're never given any information that they have so we have to assume the negative) dont' go (in the immortal words of Cary Grant "gay all of a sudden" in this manner. Jake takes Heath's arm, puts it around himand bang he's a top!
Since Gyllenhal and Ledger argue about that very topic in the film, yes, I suppose you are supposed to believe that he kept it in his pants and was too afraid to anything about his desires. If he was out fucking around would that have made it a better, more gay movie?Adding to the stupidity is that we're supposed to expect that he's got the lowest sex drive in human history. He dutifully marries and is same-sex faithful to Jake for twenty years.
Always the gentleman, David.Well mother pin a rose on you. And stick that pin in hard.
When he wasn't bitching, he made some excellent films.Tell it to the shade of Francois Truffaut. He built an entire critical career on bitching.
I'm about to conduct the threadjack of all threadjacks, but I think it's no coincidence that the first critic to be banned from a film festival is also the same person to direct the most honest treatise of heterosexual marriage ever put on celluloid: Bed and Board.David Ehrenstein wrote:Tell it to the shade of Francois Truffaut. He built an entire critical career on bitching.
She continued in person with comments about slash fiction being popular with gay men as well as straight women, and since Bollywood is the largest film industry in the world, she ran off a list of the most famous Bollywood actors/actresses, and said why doesn't everyone know their names? In fact, she was venting all evening about it, but most further details have become hazy.The BRZA wrote:I really can't stand this style of writing---you can almost hearing him thinking to himself "I'm sooooooooo smart" as he was writing this article. One thing is that he makes reference to queers in popular culture, but he makes reference to relatively obscure ones. I have never heard of the actors that he mentioned and perhaps it's true that they have been relegated to the prison of indie cinema, but by doing so he completely ignores out actors like Rupert Everett, Stephen Fry, D.B. Wong, etc. He also seems to think that Hollywood actors aren't under the same pressure to stay in the closet as they were in the 40s and 50s but, hello!, Tom Cruise, Wentworth Miller, John Travolta!!! Grumble...It's so frustrating when people like this conveniently avoid certain details that would render their argument moot---you have to amp up your side to a degree but to completely ignore some things is just, well, ignorant.
His list of queer films was a little sparse as well...I think what is really missing in his assessment is that he doesn't recognize that "Brokeback Mountain" is one of the first movies about "gay love" that has received that much promotion and attention in the popular media and that is one of the reasons it is an important film. And I think the quote from Rick Moody that he included is spot-on---it's not a movie about queer culture, it's a story of two people who fall in love and who, due to their circumstances, cannot be together as they would like to be. It's not a story that sets out to criticize or analyse our culture and the inherent homophobia that is a part of our society.
They would have been miscast playing sheep-herders in Wyoming being British and Asian-American respectively.I have never heard of the actors that he mentioned and perhaps it's true that they have been relegated to the prison of indie cinema, but by doing so he completely ignores out actors like Rupert Everett, Stephen Fry, D.B. Wong, etc.
Of please! The nuttiness of Cruise and the closetedness of Miller is going out of style rather rapidly. David Hyde Pierce has always taken his boyfriend with him to premieres. Likewise Victor Garber and his boytoy du jour (Best Man and Best Man's Boyfriend at Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner's wedding.) And let's not forget Doogie, who while playing a heterosexual masher on the tube ( How I Met Your Mother ) spends his off hours with David Burtka, another musical comedy star, who most recently played "Tulsa" in the Bernadette Peters revival of Gypsy.He also seems to think that Hollywood actors aren't under the same pressure to stay in the closet as they were in the 40s and 50s but, hello!, Tom Cruise, Wentworth Miller, John Travolta!!!
I had to cut it for space. I could have gone on for pages!His list of queer films was a little sparse as well...
That's like saying Titanic is a greater love story than Romeo and Juliet because more teenage girls are familiar with it. By such standards Lindsay Lohan should be getting this year's Kennedy Center Honors.I think what is really missing in his assessment is that he doesn't recognize that "Brokeback Mountain" is one of the first movies about "gay love" that has received that much promotion and attention in the popular media and that is one of the reasons it is an important film.
Which is precisely why straight creeps like you love it so much. It lets you off the hook -- while flattering you with how "open-mided" you are for embracing such drivel.And I think the quote from Rick Moody that he included is spot-on---it's not a movie about queer culture, it's a story of two people who fall in love and who, due to their circumstances, cannot be together as they would like to be. It's not a story that sets out to criticize or analyse our culture and the inherent homophobia that is a part of our society.
Not really, considering Romeo and Juliet is well acknowledged within the mainstream as one of the most popular and "greatest love stories of all-time". Its representation within popular culture is strong enough to sustain the mildly financially successful Baz Luhrman film made just a few years ago. A specific measure of popularity is not what the BRZA finds significant - she is writing about of a hurdle being jumped over (which I'm sure you will disagree with, because apparently that hurdle was crossed a long time ago by a number of art films that very few people watched and that no one remembers within the mainstream). The BRZA is simply saying that having a film with homosexual subject matter acknowledged/embraced by popular culture is meaningful move within today's political climate. You can disagree if you want, but your whole Titanic vs Romeo & Juliet parallel doesn't work too well.David Ehrenstein wrote: That's like saying Titanic is a greater love story than Romeo and Juliet because more teenage girls are familiar with it.
Well, how much say does Ted Kennedy have in the outcome of the award?David E wrote:By such standards Lindsay Lohan should be getting this year's Kennedy Center Honors.
David E! wrote:Which is precisely why straight creeps like you love it so much.
I was referring to the person ben was quoting.Did you forget the part where ben says he hasn't watched the film, so he has no real opinion on the quality of the movie itself?
Responsibility to the well-being of one's fellow man.What hook exactly are we being let off?
So, now you're just insulting people who aren't even members of the forum and don't pay attention to what you post here unless their significant other notifies them of it.David E! True Hollywood wrote:I was referring to the person ben was quoting.
Well ben, the BRZA's efforts were all for nothing. Since she likes Brokeback Mountain, she is therefore a homophobe.ben wrote:I'd just like to clarify that my "straight creep" girlfriend (The BRZA in question) has spent nearly half her life volunteering for the AIDS Walk, volunteered for the local gay film festival, organizes and promotes dance parties with a group of gay, lesbian, drag queen friends, and a substantial chunk of her friend base is gay and lesbian. I guess any remaining debt to the homosexual community she was on the hook for was covered by enjoying a film with cowboys in love and didn't extend to agreeing with every utterance of a gay film critic.
I thought that case had been closed after you said you liked Showgirls, you Aryan creep.ben wrote:Who's up for discussing that I'm a racist because I have blond hair and blue (well green, but accuracy counts for shit in these debates) eyes?