Brokeback Mountain

[©brad]

the AFA makes me sick. and i really wouldn't mind shoving a hydrogen bomb up randy sharp's ass.

[godardian]

Members of the online forum also ran an ad in the Mar. 10 edition of Daily Variety, hailing Brokeback as a work that's "transforming people's lives."

I really wish I could believe that it's "transforming people's lives" in the way that some people think it is.  My mother, for example... she said her boyfriend's eyes were opened to racism because of... you know... The Film Whose Name We Dare Not Speak, but all she could say coming out of Brokeback was, "It wasn't so good.  If it was a man and a woman, it wouldn't be interesting at all."  Despite my trying to explain to her that a man and a woman wouldn't have the same problems, even if they were married to other people, and that she - regardless of her homophobic tendencies - should have been affected by the universal themes of love and loss, she still wouldn't get it.  It's not that she can't get it, she just won't get it.  She doesn't see it as a similar type of discrimination as racism.  Frustrating. 

So whenever I hear someone say, "It's so important," "It's changing the way people think," etc., I feel bad because I get this feeling that the only people getting it are the ones who already got it to begin with. 

I share your concern, here. However--and I hate to say this, because I think massive popularity has zilch to do with a film's commendability or achievement--the fact that SO many people saw THIS film, and not Jeffrey or Trick or any of the more insular films marketed to the gay community whose message is "gay=happy, sophisticated, and clever" or "come out of the closet!" instead of Brokeback's implications that "gay=human" and "homophobia has ruined lives, and not just gay people's lives" makes me feel somewhat better. I'm sure that a lot of the heterosexual people who saw the film weren't as personally devastated by it as I was, but I think that even if it's to a lesser degree (or at least a less PERSONAL degree), a lot of them were moved. I also think there is a generational difference, so that if you have someone under 30 (I'm assuming your mom is older than that), it's more likely they'll understand--or be willing to understand--the film.

As for the AFA, they never understand anything about anything, and it's sometimes difficult to tell whether it comes from unwillingness to understand or actual reactionary stupidity. They are clearly exploiting uneducated, suspicious Mississippians and their ilk around the country, which may be the most sickening thing about them.

I've been reading the essays accompanying the script, and in her essay "Getting Movied," that irascible Annie Proulx wrote something that is clarifying: "The urban critics dubbed it a tale of two gay cowboys. No. It is a story of destructive rural homophobia." It's such an essential part of the film--more so, I think, than in the story--that Alma is so confused and hurt by what she knows but can't understand about Ennis; and the way Williams captures that quality has, I think, earned her all the acclaim she's received.

[MacGuffin]

Prison official punished over 'Brokeback' screening

A Massachusetts correctional officer is being disciplined for showing the gay cowboy movie "Brokeback Mountain" to inmates at the state's largest prison because his boss determined that the film includes content inappropriate for a prison setting.

Massachusetts Department of Correction spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said Saturday that the action was not related to the critically acclaimed film's plot involving a gay love affair.

"It was not the subject matter. It was the graphic nature of sexually explicit scenes," Wiffin said.

She said the officer, whom she declined to identify, failed to follow prison guidelines that require staff who schedule films to review them in advance for excessive violence, nudity or sex, as well as scenes involving assaults on correctional staff.

The officer showed the film on Thursday afternoon, two days after its American release on DVD, to inmates at a prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts, about 25 miles southwest of Boston.

Wiffin declined to discuss his punishment.

Based on Annie Proulx's short story, "Brokeback Mountain" is about two men who meet and fall in love while wrangling sheep in Wyoming in 1963. It won raves from critics and garnered three Oscars last month, including one for director Ang Lee.

[©brad]

bullshit.

so they'll let the inmates do eachother in the showers but they won't let them watch an R-rated movie w/ one sex scene that isn't even really that explicit?

[pete]

addtional info
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=134137

[godardian]

As far as the bannings, it seems so odd to me about the Bahamas; not so surprising about China.

I haven't watched Oz in a very long time, but I'm not sure I agree with the idea of showing nothing with sexual content in a prison. I guess my question is, "What difference does it make?" Unless they're dancing around the issue of prison rape, which is a completely different issue than prison sex. Do they think Brokeback Mountain is going to inspire more prison rape? Or is it meant to be part of the punishment, the prisoners being denied sexual gratification or anything that might instigate it?

Along those lines, it has often seemed to me that Deliverance and, to a lesser extent, Pulp Fiction encapsulates our culture's basic feeling about sexual practices between two males: it's rape; a way for one male to humiliate, hurt, and defeat another. Obviously, it is rape in both Deliverance and Pulp Fiction; but since it's never really been shown in larger-scale cinema as having the possibility of being anything else (i.e., as desirable to some as vaginal intercourse is to the majority), I think most people cannot imagine that it could be anything but rape or unpleasant. I actually think repulsion and/or confusion about this subject--along with an unwillingness to contemplate it or discuss it, since understanding might "make you gay" even if it doesn't remotely turn you on--is what underlies a great deal of homophobia in our culture.

[grand theft sparrow]

I don't think it's just male gay sex usually portrayed as rape, godardian.  I think it's any explicit sex that involves men - regardless of whether it's gay or straight. 

Most sex scenes in the American mainstream are dimly lit montages of romantic gyrations, breasts, and buttocks, ending with a dissolve to the next morning.  But how many films, in the mainstream, graphically depict sex with a man as anything but humiliating on the part of the person being penetrated (and I'm not even taking any sex comedies into account here)?  Besides Brokeback Mountain, I can't think of any films depicting explicit sex with a man involved that wasn't either rape or other violent practices, exploitative, fetishistic, or any other type of deviant sex.  Or even just plain unsatisfying.  I'm sure there might be a few in there somewhere but not many, and none that are easily called to mind.

Brokeback is not just a big deal for gay men, it's a big deal for all men.  It's about time the male member wasn't shown as a weapon.

[godardian]

I don't think it's just male gay sex usually portrayed as rape, godardian.  I think it's any explicit sex that involves men - regardless of whether it's gay or straight. 

Most sex scenes in the American mainstream are dimly lit montages of romantic gyrations, breasts, and buttocks, ending with a dissolve to the next morning.  But how many films, in the mainstream, graphically depict sex with a man as anything but humiliating on the part of the person being penetrated (and I'm not even taking any sex comedies into account here)?  Besides Brokeback Mountain, I can't think of any films depicting explicit sex with a man involved that wasn't either rape or other violent practices, exploitative, fetishistic, or any other type of deviant sex.  Or even just plain unsatisfying.  I'm sure there might be a few in there somewhere but not many, and none that are easily called to mind.

Brokeback is not just a big deal for gay men, it's a big deal for all men.  It's about time the male member wasn't shown as a weapon.

I think that makes a lot of sense. I can think of lots of movies that you would call "sex-positive" (both same-sex sex and opposite-sex sex)--but none of them could be considered mainstream, nor have they been seen by as many people as Brokeback Mountain has.

Of course, the important thing is that both characters are enjoying it; Secretary certainly depicts a relatively unusual type of sex--a type the majority of us would consider too violent for our tastes--in a positive light, which I think is a good thing.

[Thrindle]

Hacksparrow is totally on to something here.  It's the underlying "rape culture" that we, as a society, subscribe to.  I agree that graphic sex in movies is hugely depicting the male as an aggressor... and that is wrong.

At the same time, 1 in 4 women have been raped, so maybe movies are just telling the truth.  By the way, that's 1 in 4 REPORTED.  And don't get me started on porn.  Gay or straight, one person is always subordinate to the other.  Brokeback was brilliant because sex and love were mutually exclusive.

[picolas]

Brokeback was brilliant because sex and love were mutually exclusive.

how?

[godardian]

Brokeback was brilliant because sex and love were mutually exclusive.

how?

Maybe she meant mutually inclusive...? 

[pete]

I'm mutually excluded from sex and love.

[MacGuffin]

Quaid Drops Brokeback Suit -- But He Totally Won. Really.

Remember a few weeks ago, when Randy Quaid filed suit against Focus Features, trying to get paid $10 million more for his clearly brilliant, pivotal performance in Brokeback Mountain? He alleged that the studio fed him a sob story about how little money they had, and so he generously agreed to appear in the movie for $12.24 (an approximate figure) -- but evil Focus knew they were going to make boatloads of money on the movie, and were deliberately ripping him off! At least, that's what Randy thinks. Yesterday, though, he dropped his suit, proclaiming that the studio had seen the light, and generously agreed to pay him a bonus. That's sweet, right? Sure, except Focus says they didn't do it. According to their statement, "Focus Features never negotiated, offered or agreed to any settlement agreement with Mr. Quaid or his attorneys." Oh reeeeeally?

[Alexandro]

I try and i try but I just don't remember randy quaid in brokeback mountain. i just don't.


What you all've been saying about sex in movies is something that for years I've been trying to put my finger on. Is this idea that a person having a dick up that person's ass is automatically humiliating. Even enjoying it is humiliating. And that of course, is not necesarilly the case. But this is a deep macho thing that may come from thousands of years...There's a mexican book by one of the country's most respected authors called "The labirynth of solitude / el laberinto de la soledad"; which is a kind of sociological study on mexican character, and its a great read wether you are mexican or not. Anyway it has a hole chapter called "La Chingada". Mexican use the word "chingada" mostly, as americans use the word fuck, fuck you and all those other derivates. "Chingada", which is in feminine, refers to a woman who was fucked (chingada), and it's of course always used as an insult. The author is Octavio Paz, and then he goes on about how to be "chingado" means to be opened, and therefore he talks about a mexican fear of being open (which could also be a masculine fear in general). Well it is pretty interesting and i think it says a lot of things on how in a male dominated world (ughh that sounds like some feminism panflet but i guess its true) we have  view on sex as some sort of tragic/humiliating thing...only for the pasive person. However there's a notable difference between english and spanish languages, cause in the US you call someone a dick and you're insulting him, in mexico when you say someone is a dick (verga), it's an r.rated compliment.

[godardian]

Anyway it has a hole chapter called "La Chingada". Mexican use the word "chingada" mostly, as americans use the word fuck, fuck you and all those other derivates. "Chingada", which is in feminine, refers to a woman who was fucked (chingada), and it's of course always used as an insult.

I'm admiring the thoughtfulness of the post at the same time I'm laughing because of the most fortuitous (or not, depending on how funny you think it is) misspelling. It would normally have to be "'whole' (entire) chapter," but hole chapter works just as well here. 

Anyway, with films like Y Tu Mama Tambien and filmmakers like Inarritu coming out of Mexico (in fact, on Brokeback, Lee borrowed at least two main technical professionals--the cinematographer and the composer--from Inarritu), I don't see the culture as quite so outrageously masculinist as I once did. I'll have to read some Octavio Paz at some point. He's always seemed interesting to me, even more so now.