Brokeback Mountain

[Pozer]

I share not one of your reasons for why I love this film

[Gamblour.]

admin edit: spoils

This movie was great. Heath Ledger's performance is in fact really great, kinda like Pacino to Gyllenhaal's Caan. Gyllenhaal is great, but he has the burden of talking so damn much. I thought the women were all great, and Hathaway was good, but I agree with mod's complaints about the aging process. It's almost absurd, but what the hell, I still bought it. Gyllenhaal's scene with his father-in-law was fucking great, he's at his best when he's pissed off. The ending was the kicker, it totally did it for me. I didn't find myself crying, but I really wanted to. The idea of this long-forgotten, past summer that never happened again. That idea always gets me.

There was a strange aggression to their sexuality that made it very unique. In fact, the first sex scene might be hard to take if it weren't so violent, in a sense. Man, those shots with the sheep were absolutely incredible. Damn good movie. I don't know if it's one of my favorites from this year, but still really great. At least now, I'll understand why it'll win all these awards.

[pete]

spoilers I guess

wow, I didn't elaborate much on why I liked it last night because 1) I was caught off-guard by all of my American crushes in one film and 2) I thought everyone talked about it already.  Now I realized more than half of this thread was just kinda empty jokes, and I myself was a big contributor.
I thought Heath Ledger was an amazing actor, that guy had a good face.  It wasn't one of those "soulful cowboy with a lotta stories to tell" faces (like the lebowski cowboy), it was more focused, just one guy haunted by one memory, and I really liked what he said to Jake in their last scene together.  He thought he was mutilated by their love and at that moment it hit me that he was behaving like a mutilated man, unable to cope with life after the tragedy.  That scene was not very well-written or put together (the music was just too much) but it had a strong core and I reacted to it viscerally.  Whatever Lee was lacking in his technical knowledge he definitely made up in directing those performances, all of them felt very precise their emotions connected the scenes together.  Maybe it was because I'd read Ang Lee's memoir (which taught me so much about directing actors) I was more aware, or those performances were just that genuine.  I liked how the movie focused mostly on the reactions of the men as they went through their lives: Jack was more normal and Ennis evaded everything for some reason.  I didn't think the ending was a copout, 'cause I thought Ledger's face and that very last shot was so haunting.  It was one of those movies in which the plot didn't lead the characters anywhere and there weren't that many "arcs" and nothing really "developed", it was trying to get to the core of a melancholic, regreful longing, and trying to devastate you with it, and the movie ended as soon as you felt it.  Ennis was such a repressed character it took 30 years/ two hours of screentime to capture that one moment in which he showed his true emotion unabashedly.

That, I feel, is more of an Eastern way of filmmaking--instead of linear story telling and arcs, it has one core message/ emotion and leads the audience into the core through the scenes.  Ironically, Ang Lee's only attempted at this type of storytelling in his American period films like Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm.

[Pozer]

I share every one of your reasons for why I love this film

[Thrindle]

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad you guys liked this too.   
Every guy I've talked to about seeing this film has gotten all macho about it.  I'm so happy that you guys let yourselves realise how great it was, because it was great.

[Pozer]

This was a great date movie actually. 

[Gamblour.]

This was a great date movie actually. 

Yeah, the girl I was with didn't even cry (but I almost did....)

[ono]

So for various reasons, I haven't actually seen a movie in a theatre since summer with The Wedding Crashers.  Ended that streak tonight with what was supposed to be a quadruple feature (Narnia, Syriana, Harry Potter, this).  Got short-changed into a triple feature because, surprisesurprise, both remaining showings of this flick were sold out.  Streams of guys, well-groomed, fit (okay, maybe a few wine-cooler bellies), strolling out with smiles on their faces.  Good to see even here in the Bible belt, our homersexuals are fuh-laming.  Or they just really love cowboys.

[abuck1220]

saw it tonight...very good.

question...includes spoilers...

did anybody else have an audience that laughed when ledger's wife caught them making out? i thought that was a very odd reaction to a very not funny moment.

[w/o horse]

The way my theater was laughing I thought perhaps the film had been billed as 'feel good comedy of the year.'

[Gamblour.]

In reply to laughing....Spoilers

Luckily, the closest theater is in between suburbia and the city, so the crowd had the maturity to not laugh all the time. There was a lot of "ohh errr" like when they did get caught and had sex, but that was the same reaction I had, just typical "whoa what's going on here" kinda reaction. I was actually proud of the audience.

[MacGuffin]

Utah Theater Cancels 'Brokeback Mountain'

A movie theater owned by Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller abruptly changed its screening plans and decided not to show the film "Brokeback Mountain." The film, an R-rated Western gay romance story, was supposed to open Friday at the Megaplex at Jordan Commons in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Instead it was pulled from the schedule.

A message posted at the ticket window read: "There has been a change in booking and we will not be showing 'Brokeback Mountain.' We apologize for any inconvenience."

Cal Gunderson, manager of the Jordan Commons Megaplex, declined to comment.

The film, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, is about two cowboys who discover feelings for one another. The two eventually marry women but rekindle their relationship over the years.

The movie's distributor, Focus Features, said that hours before opening, the theater management "reneged on their licensing agreement," and refused to open the film.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said not showing the film set an example for the people of Utah.

"I just think (pulling the show) tells the young people especially that maybe there is something wrong with this show," she said.

Mike Thompson, executive director of the gay rights advocacy group Equality Utah, called it disappointing.

"It's just a shame that such a beautiful and award-winning film with so much buzz about it is not being made available to a broad Utah audience because of personal bias," he said.

[modage]

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said not showing the film set an example for the people of Utah.
"I just think (pulling the show) tells the young people especially that maybe there is something wrong with this show," she said.

they are, however, showing Hostel.

[Thrindle]

saw it tonight...very good.

question...includes spoilers...

did anybody else have an audience that laughed when ledger's wife caught them making out? i thought that was a very odd reaction to a very not funny moment.

I saw the film for the first time on Boxing day... so it was all the people who wanted to see it before Christmas but never had time... there was no laughing and there were tons of tears.
The next time I saw it, there was a ton of snickering...  The audience must have been feeling a little childish that day.  Not gonna lie, I couldn't help but think that everyone must be some sort of an asshole.  But that's just me being judgmental...

[Gamblour.]

No, you're right.