Letters to the Editor
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Brokeback in Red Country
Simple why Brokeback is doing so well out in the great unwashed redness of America. It's a story told so perfectly, so authentically, to absolutley correctly that everyone gets it! It's a freakin' miracle that this movie was made my a U.S. film crew. Americans generally make god awful movies with homosexual themes or homosexual characters. Most American movies with gay or homosexual themes are either outright dumb and insulting (Alexander The Great) or utterly silly (Julie Newmar). Usually what passes for a "gay movie" isn't a "gay movie" at all (The Philadelphia Story.) Hollywood is either wallowing in homophobia by presenting the worst stereotypes as the sole definition of "gay" or their preaching at us. In either case, the characters are completely removed from anything approximating social realities. Europeans, the Asians, Australians, Canadians, Latin Americans all do much better at presenting gay realities, homosexual characters and homosexual situations with much more integrity and authenticity because they don't divorce them from the real world in which the participate and help form. "Brokeback Mountain" breaks the American mold. One can only hope forever. Every single frame of this movie is right on target. There isn't a false note in it. It's organic and natural and powerful and overwhelming in the same way that the earth is, that the sky is, that love is. I only wish the freakin' media (gay and straight) would stop referring to it as the "gay cowboy movie." These characters are not "gay". Gay is a culture, a great deal of which a great many homosexuals don't like. Homosexual is a behavior. People choose to be gay. They don't choose to be homosexual. These characters had a love affair that lasted twenty years. They were also full of homophobia, Ennis at least is. Jack not so much. This is also completely accurate. This movie and Annie Poulux's story are amazing works of truthfulness and integrity, told with such keen sensitivity and awareness, without prejudice, about how many, many thousands of men live their lives, then and now. Everyone gets it 'cause it breaks our hearts. It just blows me away that it was made by a U.S. film crew.
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And where was The Fix?
Interesting article, but where was the actual The Fix? Isn't it called The Fix because it is the daily 'fix' for celebrity news? Please publish as many other entertainment articles as you wish, but don't preempt the usual Fix to do so. For the same reason, it is a real downer when you send The Fix on vacation. When visiting Salon it is a nice balance to very heavy content, and it is missed when absent. Thanks.
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good, but what about the other red states?
While this is a well-written, thoughtful piece, its premise relies on the Bill O'Loofah quote far too heavily, in that it focuses only on Montana. Given that Montana isn't such a solid-red state as one would assume, I wonder how "Brokeback Mountain" is playing in places that are *solidly* conservative. Is anyone seeing this film in, for example, Crawford, Texas? The Fix (or Salon in general) could follow up on this piece to see how the film is playing *all over* conservative America. That, I think, would be much more interesting.
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The end of civlization as we know it
Repent! Repent! The end is near. Hell, the end is queer.
If Montanans sink into the cesspool of vice that this movie represents, then clearly the whole country is headed for "homosexualization."
The horror! The horror! Straight men will be moisturizing and hitting the gym in record numbers. And one shudders to think what their wives and girlfriends will be getting up to meanwhile. But won't it be hot to watch, wow-- Hey, if that's the price we have to pay for--
Sorry, I got carried away.
How could Hollywood lead us into this moral dead end?
Montana is starting to sound like the setting for a novel by a Republican.
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Real People Versus Mind Police
Brokeback Mountain takes painfully real people confronting real-life situations turned into tragedy by societal rules that say those situations aren't supposed to exist.
Isn't it totally appropriate that the spokesman of the Establishment Media most active in preaching about what people are 'supposed' to think would be unable to comprehend what real people really think?
I'm a little surprised that Congress didn't attempt to intervene, as they did with Terri Schiavo. Who knows ... maybe they'll come up with a 'Defense of Marriage Resolution' before it's all over.
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The Wilma Theatre
It should be mentioned that the Wilma Theatre in Missoula is in the Wilma Building. The Wilma Building is a 80+ year old apartment building and theatre that was quite swanky in its day and is now (and please correct me if I am exaggerating) perhaps the greatest symbolic icon of gay culture in Montana. Missoula has a relatively thriving gay and lesbian culture (also as a tourist destination), and so the article accurately qualifies that there is Montana, and then there is Missoula. -A Missoulian in NYC
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The Wilma Building
It should be mentioned that the Wilma Theatre in Missoula is in the Wilma Building. The Wilma Building is a 80+ year old apartment building and theatre that was quite swanky in its day and is now (and please correct me if I am exaggerating) perhaps the greatest symbolic icon of gay culture in Montana. Missoula has a relatively thriving gay and lesbian culture (also as a tourist destination), and so the article accurately qualifies that there is Montana, and then there is Missoula. -A Missoulian in NYC
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Re: Happy Happy day! Homosexuals everywhere can breath easy. The constant gay cheerleading is such a drag guys!
I'll bet gays find it more than a little patronizing as well. I certainly hope their is more of the fix today.Life doesnt revolve around gay cowboy movies and the people that go to see them
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Not surprised
I didn't think much about how "Brokeback Mountain" would play once it had been released. Now, though, I am not surprised that it is doing well in Montana. There are some red states that are more libertarian than conservative; maybe we need a new color. Those are areas in which an attitude prevails in which, well, some things just aren't talked about. This is rank amateur sociology, I know, but I guess it's progress when the movie earns silence and shrugs rather than violence or revulsion.