Brokeback Mountain

[sethsez]

Going into this, I had plenty of worries. Would it be preachy? Would it play the victim card too heavily? Would Heath's character (Ennis) be given a free ride despite cheating on his wife? Would Jake Gyllenhaal be convincing at all as a rodeo cowboy?

Thankfully, no, no, no, and kinda. Just to be safe I'll spoiler my explanation, though it's all vague and most of it is already obvious to anybody who's ever seen a romantic drama.

The movie doesn't have much of an agenda. It assumes gay relationships are fine at the outset and then gets along with the plot, never stopping for a condescending "they're people too" moment. This was my main concern, and thankfully it turned out to be a movie about a gay romance rather than being a GAY MOVIE.

The victim thing... well, it comes up a couple times, both brief and totally relevant to the plot and the characters. "Woe is me" is a character's motivation here, not a message to the audience, and in all honesty the relationship troubles don't have much to do with being oppressed.

I've seen a few people complain that Ennis is given a free ride for cheating on his wife because he's gay and that's who he is. The people who say this obviously haven't seen the movie. Ennis is portrayed as a weak and pathetic person, and there's no attempt to glorify or gloss over the effect his affair has on his wife and kids. What sympathy the audience has for him stems from pity more than anything, and I was pleased to see a movie finally portray the "husband and father who's hopelessly in love with someone else" character as the pathetic loser that he is.

Jake as a cowboy? Okay, that doesn't work too well at first, but you do get used to it after a short period. I still think he's at his most convincing when Ennis is pounding his ass, but his acting is so good that it's easy to overlook the fact that little mister rodeo is actually pretty boy Donnie Darko.

As for the rest, the direction was fantastic and the editing quite clever at points. The acting was extremely good across the board and just about all of the movie felt convincing, with a couple exceptions (the first sex scene with Jack (Jake's character) and Ennis basically comes out of nowhere, and a subplot involving Jack near the end felt a bit needless).

I must say, I'm pretty surprised. I went in expecting a generic romance EXCEPT GAY, but I really should have expected more from Ang Lee than that. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes good romance movies and can stand 15 seconds of homosex.

[Josh]

I wish I knew how to quit yew.

[sethsez]

I was dreading that line, and it did make me chuckle a bit, but it wasn't nearly as hokey as it was in the trailer.

It's also the worst line in the film, so I have no idea why it was used in the ads.

[Revoltor]

Came across this today:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ovies_eo/18098

For the most part, the critics agree that Brokeback Mountain is one of the year's most commendable films.

Then there's Gene Shalit's point of view.

The veteran Today show critic has been taken to task by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation over his negative review of the gay cowboy western, in which he referred to Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack, as a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts."

The group claimed that Shalit's statements, delivered during his "Critic's Choice" segment on Thursday's Today show, promoted "defamatory anti-gay prejudice to a national audience," and criticized NBC News for providing the eccentric critic with a platform from which to air his views.

"Shalit's bizarre characterization of Jack as a 'predator' and Ennis (Heath Ledger) as a victim reflects a fundamental lack of understanding about the central relationship in the film and about gay relationships in general," GLAAD said in a statement. "It seems highly doubtful that Shalit would similarly claim that Titanic's Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) was a 'sexual predator' because he was pursuing a romantic relationship with Rose (Kate Winslet)."

GLAAD demanded an apology from both Shalit and NBC News and urged supporters to contact the network and complain.

In addition to offering his searing analysis of the romantic relationship between the lead characters, Shalit commended Ledger's performance in Brokeback and allowed that the film had a "few dramatic peaks." He concluded that Ang Lee's much-nominated oeuvre was "wildly overpraised, but not by me."

"Shalit has every right as a film critic to criticize Brokeback Mountain," GLAAD retorted. "But his baseless branding of Jack as a 'sexual predator' merely because he is romantically interested in someone of the same sex is defamatory, ignorant and irresponsible."

The group reported on its Website that GLAAD representatives had spoken with a Today show producer, who promised to bring their concerns to Shalit's attention.

While Shalit may not be a Brokeback fan, his colleagues in critique have clamored to commend the cowboy drama.

To date, the film has been named Best Picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle and deemed one of the year's 10 best films by the American Film Institute and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

The kudos don't stop there--Brokeback is up for eight Critic's Choice Awards, seven Golden Globes, a Writers Guild Award, a Producers Guild Award, a Directors Guild Award and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, to name a few. And that's before nominations for the Academy Awards are announced on Jan. 31.

Also: I always thought Gene Shalit was gay?

[sethsez]

GLAAD is overracting, as usual, but that's a pretty... unique interpretation of Jack. And by unique, I mean amazingly stupid. I mean, yeah, he definitely tries harder to keep the relationship going than Ennis does (and hardly against Ennis's will or anything), but it's a gigantic leap from that to "sexual predator."

[kevincal]

The name of this movie is just asking to be made into a joke. BrokeBUTT mountain...man...lol

[sethsez]

That was painfully dumb, and the two accepted joke titles are Bareback Mountain and Fudgepack Mountain.

[Joust Williams]

I don't even like straight romance movies (hell, I don't know many that do either, TBH)

[g0zen]

That was painfully dumb, and the two accepted joke titles are Bareback Mountain and Fudgepack Mountain.

The real joke here, though, is kevincal.

[sethsez]

I don't even like straight romance movies (hell, I don't know many that do either, TBH)

Yeah, I'm not going to tell everyone to see it and claim it's life changing and whatever other bullshit people online are saying. At the end of the day it's still a typical Ang Lee movie (Crouching Tiger and The Hulk aside), so if something like The Ice Storm didn't turn your crank then this isn't going to either, no matter how controversial it may be.

I do think it's funny that for all the hand-wringing I've seen about the gay content, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway's tits have more screen time than Heath and Jake's man-bits (which still isn't much).

The real joke here, though, is kevincal.