Brokeback Mountain Stars on Oprah

A commentary on the stars of Brokeback Mountain appearing on Oprah last Friday (from AfterElton.com). I don't necessarily agree with his interpretation of Oprah's own feelings, but I do have to agree that this came through:

For Jake Gyllenhall, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway, the movie is clearly something they are passionate about and proud of. Jake was especially terrific, commenting on how he just doesn’t understand why people care about “how other people love.” Anne said the usual star-talk about how the awards are nice, but the real reward is seeing how much the movie means to people. More often than not that is just talk. But given the impact of Brokeback, perhaps it was more than just that.

The four actors truly seemed to appreciate the significance Brokeback Mountain has for so many people, most notably gay men. Indeed, at one point Jake said he wasn’t sure he could have done the movie had he known the effect it would have. His hesitation is understandable. Gay men placed a great deal of expectations on the movie’s shoulders. Our reaction has been powerful, likely even overwhelming for someone who probably thought he was in a movie few would ever see.

Then there is the fact that the movie has hit the cultural landscape like a bombshell, creating an impact not seen Ellen came out. It must be daunting to stand at the center of such a cultural hurricane. Everyone involved with Brokeback Mountain has had his or her character questioned and their motives impugned. That can’t be fun.

The other thing that struck me was how young these actors really are! After seeing them age in Brokeback Mountain, it's easy to forget that they were really really young when they filmed it (principal filming was May to August 2004 - Jake Gyllenhaal was only 23!).

S.A.G. disappointment

Well, Brokeback Mountain being completely shut out of the Screen Actors Guild awards was a disappointment. I hope this isn't a sign of a backlash (Hollywood folk do not like to feel like they're being railroaded into being part of a landslide).

On Gustavo Santaolalla

On composer-songwriter Gustavo Santaolalla and Brokeback Mountain, from a weekly column on Latin music in the Houston Chronicle.

(Photo by Alejandra Palacios)

Best. Gay. Week. Ever.

A fun summary of Brokeback's week in "A weekly column highlighting news about gay and bisexual men in pop culture" by Michael Jensen of AfterElton.com (dated today). A sample:

IT’S BROKEBACK’S WORLD. WE JUST LIVE IN IT
Okay, I’m going to try and nutshell all of this week’s news. As of
yesterday, Brokeback’s box office tally is just under $44 million dollars in the US and a little more than $10 million overseas. That means, even before the Oscar nominations have been
announced, the movie has officially turned a profit, so put that in your pipes and smoke it wingnuts! Towleroad has a great interview with Brokeback producer James Schamus. And today
brings us Oprah’s Brokeback Mountain show with the entire cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal, who flew in from location to make his first promotional appearance with Heath Ledger. No word which of them will be the one to jump up and down on the couch.

Wingnuts cannot be happy about today’s show, as the Oprah seal of approval is so powerful that if the Falwell-Dobson-Robertson Axis-of-Bigotry tried to boycott her, she would smite them with a snap of her fingers.

As for the week’s various awards, Brokeback took top honors at the Producer’s Guild Awards, and Ang Lee will likely win Saturday night when the Director’s Guild hands out its trophy....

For the complete column, follow the link...

And the cultural phenomenon continues

So, the president has been asked about Brokeback Mountain, and the Producers' Guild has named it Best Picture, and a "pet boutique" in L.A. has a window display called "Barkback Mountain" where "The window's canine mannequins — one in a hunter's parka, the other in a fisherman's sweater — huddle around a faux campfire, accompanied by squeaky squirrel toys, migrating geese and two clearly unused fishing rods."

And the Google search results count for the exact phrase "Brokeback Mountain" is now up to 31,900,000. Two weeks ago tomorrow it was only 12,800,000 (and that seemed like a lot at the time).

Brokeback Mountain and Samuel Alito

The always fabulous Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com sees signs of hope in the response to Brokeback Mountain:

The screech of the right's homophobes is being easily drowned out by the fact that this astonishing, pitch-perfect film is now considered a movie that, quite literally, changes minds. Shifts perceptions. That moves the human experiment forward and makes people truly think about sex and gender and love and not in the way that, say, "Pride & Prejudice" makes you think, because that kind of thinking is merely sweet and harmless, whereas "Brokeback" slaps bigotry and intolerance upside its knobby little head and induces heated discussions of the film's dynamics and politics and ideas of love over a bottle of wine and some deep, curious sighing.

I hope and pray he's right! Read his entire column at the link below.

Brokeback Mountain: A Telling Story

For me, this was one of the most telling stories about reactions to Brokeback Mountain (story by Sean Smith from Newsweek, Nov. 21, 2005 issue, link below):

Two weeks ago, Ang Lee showed his new film to an audience in Los Angeles, and afterward he stuck around to answer questions from the crowd. Director Q&As are pretty common in the movie industry, and Lee ... has done more than his share. But something strange happened this time—the same thing that happens almost every time Lee screens "Brokeback Mountain." "People don't have many questions," he says. "Most of the time, they just stand up and tell me how they feel." When they're still crying, he already knows.

When film industry types, as jaded as they're reputed to be, are crying in the presence of their colleagues at the end of a movie, that's certainly a sign that this is not just another movie. Not just another gay movie; not just another romance; but something special, something beyond the norm, something transcendent, something of depth, something transformative.

A Love that will never grow old ...

Brokeback Mountain soundtrack #1!

The Brokeback Mountain soundtrack is the #1 music seller on Amazon! I've been listening to it obsessively for weeks, and I didn't think anybody else had noticed it. I guess a Golden Globe Best Song win for the fabulous "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" made people pay attention.

"Brokeback Mountain challenges sexual norms"

Excellent opinion piece on Brokeback Mountain by Zach Zaragoza in the University of Nevada/Las Vegas' Rebel Yell. His conclusion:

"Brokeback Mountain" is about challenges. Not only the challenges that are evident between the two gay cowboys, but the challenges placed on the people sitting in the audience. Never before have contemporary attitudes about sexuality been challenged as effectively as they have in this movie. Challenge yourself to see this movie, not because of the Golden Globes that it has won or the larger societal issues it deals with, but because, in the end, after watching the film you focus less on the two gay
cowboys and instead on the heartbreaking love that they desperately wanted to share.

A Brokeback Mountain convert

The testimony of a self-described conservative Christian who almost-accidentally saw Brokeback Mountain and was changed by it. Originally posted on IMDB with the title “I’m a Conservative Christian and This Film Changed My Mind.”

Ang Lee, in accepting his Golden Globe, noted "the power of movies to change the way we're thinking". I think this testimony will not be the last one we see from former homophobes who began to see beneath the lies they've been taught and the violence that results from those lies.

My thanks to Shakespeare's Sister and my brother Tom for this story.

Ang Lee at Golden Globes

On accepting the Golden Globe for Best Director, Ang Lee said:

You can never categorise or stereotype a region or a place. People fall in love, period. This is a universal story.

Commendable sentiments, for sure.

Brokeback Mountain: 4 Golden Globes

Four Golden Globes for Brokeback Mountain and well earned too. I'm particularly happy that "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" from the soundtrack is finally getting the recognition it deserves. I'm sorry that Heath Ledger didn't win Best Actor/Drama, but I guess one can't have everything (he certainly deserved it in my book!).

12,800,000 results

Well, I just googled the phrase "Brokeback Mountain" and it came back with 12,800,000 results. Is this some cultural phenomenon or what?

Brokeback Mountain: a useful Guy's perspective

A very useful commentary by David Ortmann on why Brokeback Mountain speaks to all men, with some additional reasons why gay men especially identify. Some of what he says definitely applies to my identification with (obsession with?) the movie, for example:

Gay men are no strangers to rejection and, although society is changing, most of us grew up feeling rejected, fearful, and profoundly self-hating. This may be why we feel a kinship with the fear and isolation in Ennis del Mar, the fear that if he and Jack show their love for each other and build a life together they will be killed.

Brokeback Mountain postcard...

What we're all thinking....

BBM as chick flick

Another perceptive commentary on the cultural phenomenon, from a straight female's point of view.

The Soundtrack

The Soundtrack cd for Brokeback Mountain now seems to me to be essential to the BBM experience.  As minimalist as it is, and as unobtrusive in the movie, it expresses what we wish Ennis and Jack could have said to each other.  This is especially true of "A Love That Will Never Grow Old", which speaks the unspoken words underlying their love.  If you love the movie and haven't obtained the soundtrack, do so as soon as possible!  

Jack & Ennis

Like it says....

Fear of Brokeback Mountain?

A very interesting commentary by columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. on why Brokeback Mountain scares some straight folk.

I find myself wondering if this primeval revulsion [toward Brokeback Mountain] doesn't speak less to our antipathy toward homosexuality than to our fears about masculinity.... I think gay men threaten our very conception of masculinity.

Many of us have known this for a long time, but if the popularity of this movie raises questions in more people's minds about the traditional idea of masculinity, that's a great thing. And when we realize that it was the traditional American masculinity of their fathers that psychologically brutalized Ennis and Jack as children and kept them from being able to love freely, we can dream and pray that that masculinity is threatened, questioned, changed, healed and replaced by love.

Read the whole column at: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13581184.htm

Best Picture and Best Director

So the Broadcast Film Critics Association named Brokeback Mountain Best Picture, and Ang Lee Best Director! If I heard correctly, 4 of the last 5 movies who won this Best Picture award went on to win the Best Picture Oscar. We'll see....

Utah cancellation

Well, a Utah cineplex owned by a member of the LDS church cancelled Brokeback Mountain at the last minute. Dog bites man? I mean, no big surprise, right? Even while BBM in downtown Salt Lake City has among the highest per-screen grosses in the nation? And on the weekend that BBM broke into the top 10 grossing movies in the nation?

I just feel bad for the folks in Sandy, Utah who will have to travel that much further to see it.

Fifth time, and the screenplay

Well, I saw Brokeback Mountain for the fifth time this afternoon. Each crowd I see it with is a little different in their reactions: where and how much laughter, crying, exclaiming of surprise. I cried more than the third and fourth times; just a different day and theater than last Friday, I guess.

Finished reading the screenplay today. It does help in understanding the intentions of the screenwriters, and in understanding the transition from short story to finished film. I'd recommend Brokeback Mountain: Story To Screenplay to anyone who loves this film.

Sadly, I'll probably have to wait until next weekend to see the movie again. Sigh....

One escort's view...

A very interesting commentary on the effect Brokeback Mountain may have on closeted gay men, especially those in heterosexual marriages:

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=66b6e58760e0590cb7a6dba39c139f0d

The visceral reaction to Brokeback Mountain

What's up with the intense physical reactions many of us have to Brokeback Mountain? Of the first time she read the story, Diana Ossana writes in Brokeback Mountain: Story To Screenplay:

By the time I reached the last words of the story, I felt, to paraphrase Annie [Proulx]'s own words, as if my guts had been pulled out hand over hand a yard at a time.... I was weeping by the end, deep gut-wrenching sobs.

Drew Limsky, in a 12/30/05 op-ed piece in the Boston Globe writes of the first time he saw the movie:

My identification with Jack Twist was so complete that his heartbreaking optimism and bitter frustration made me almost physically ill, like I couldn't breathe.

When I think too much about the story of Jack and Ennis, I get these rushes of sensation that are somewhere between chills-up-my-spine and hot flashes. And I've seen others describe parallel experiences. (I'll include some additional quotes in future posts.)

Why does it hit us so hard?

The Big Day; the Bee Review

Well, the big day is finally here - the Sacramento area finally gets to see Brokeback Mountain! And two of the theaters it's opening in are very suburban cineplexes, so folks in the 'burbs will at least have access. I'm really curious about who shows up on opening day during the day - it's a work day (I'm taking vacation) so it will be pretty hardcore fans, I'd think. The big question for me will be whether I have the energy to sit through it twice in a row (I bought advance tix for the first two shows); the first two times I saw it I was so wiped out emotionally I don't think I could have seen it again immediately.

The Sacramento Bee review is finally out (4 stars of course); there's a front page above-the-masthead picture and reference to the review, and pictures on both the front page of the Ticket section and the front page of the Movies subsection. And they also printed that good LA Times article about Heath Ledger (coincidentally or not, Casanova also opens here today). The BBM review timing is ironic since Carla Meyer, the Bee's reviewer, already named Brokeback Mountain #1 on her top 10 movies of 2005!

Jack + Ennis 4 Ever

I have many reactions to the story of Jack and Ennis, but one is that I want to find wet cement and draw a big heart and write:

Jack

+

Ennis

4

Ever

I want to paint it on the sides of railroad trestles, and spell it out with white rocks on hillsides. Just another inexplicable, deep set of feelings raised by Brokeback Mountain.

BBM opening in Sacramento

It's sad that Brokeback Mountain isn't opening here in Sacramento, the capital of the most populous state in the Union and one of the 20 largest TV markets in the country, until this Friday. It's already opened in Nashville, Milwaukee and Buenos Aires, but not here. Being a non-driver, I had to take bus to Amtrak train to meet friend to drive to BART to see the movie in Berkeley the weekend it opened there. And I'm glad I did, but why?!?

A Dream Abandoned, Reclaimed

After seeing Brokeback Mountain, I realized one of the dreams I had abandoned long ago was the dream of expressing myself, of sharing my thoughts with others and connecting with others of like mind. So this is a beginning.

Sorry to be so brief, but it's off to cubicleland! More soon...