Letters to the Editor
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the real showdown
I find it quite funny that supporters of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" are rubbing their hands together waiting for the big showdown between this film and a much smaller film opening on a handfull of screens ("Brokeback Mountain"). The real showdown comes when "King Kong" anihilates "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
I saw Capote several weeks ago and loved seeing a deep, intelligent film with NO computer generated effects, NO booming sound effects, NO annoying intrusive music and NOT a slave to focus groups. I'll probably see "Brokeback Mountain." I'll definitely take a pass on "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
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American fixation
Self-appointed arbiters of morailty are rarely right, whether they are from a Red state or a Blue state or a state of confusion.
It's just so weird that only the American culture is so hung up about sex. Our nation was initially colonized by Puritans who seemed to have believed that touching anyone for any purpose other than to pay a debt was disgusting and immoral. As much as the Puritan founders have been diluted with immigrants from around the globe, that sense of "icky" still pervades our culture. I don't want to think that way, but it was inherent in how I was raised. As a kid, I even thought the Life magazine photo essay of a developing fetus (shot in situ with fiber optics) was "dirty." Not to mention all those National Geographic articles on tribal people from warm climates who wear very little clothing!
As a culture, America needs to get out more, meet new folks, get a life, get a sense of proportion.
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Gay, straight -- I don't care. I'm watching it for the story.
Brokeback Mountain looks interesting to me because it's got Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ang Lee as Director. I think all three are very good at their jobs, and I think the movie is worth a look because of it.
All the hoo-ha about them being gay is really beside the point. As Lee said, this is a love story, and the fact that they're gay in the script says more about the audience viewing it than the story itself. Like "Look Who's Coming to Dinner", it's only shocking if you think it is.
As for opening on the same weekend as Narnia? Uh, I think that's just coincidental. Besides, small independent films will do better when offered as they should be -- as alternatives to mainstream films like Narnia. Chances are, I'll see both, because they are both very different films, and because they both look interesting.
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That's hot...
No, SERIOUSLY. Men have for ages gotten all worked up about the idea of two women making out (I personally do not know a man who doesn't find that exciting), so why can't I enjoy the sight of two beautiful actors making out?
I'm looking forward to it in a way I am NOT looking forward to the Narnia movie. Yeah, I loved the books as a kid, but there's been so much hype I am completely turned off.
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Can we see the films without the audiences?
As a long-time fantasy fan and writer, I've been eagerly awaiting the new Narnia movie, having read the books and seen both the bad cartoon version and the BBC production with the good acting and the Doctor Who-level costuming and special effects. Busloads of fundamentalist Christians, however? Urk. About as appealing as the gay activists who have sworn to see Brokeback Mountain multiple times, whether or not it's any good. Having liked the actors turns in Donnie Darko and The Brothers Grimm, I might want to see that film as well, despite the chick flick quality, but I'd really like to be able to do it alongside people who are there to see the movie, not support the cause, whatever they perceive it to be.
Why not just buy a movie ticket because you want to see the film?
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Brokeback Mountain
Do we actually know how much sex and intimacy is shown in the film? Hollywood has been squeamish before in showing male intimacy; this movie may have nothing more than one or two scenes with them lying in bed (or in the haystack) with their shirts off. But Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are such babes, and I especially like Gyllenhaal's acting (and he seems to be a really terrific person), that I will definitely go see the movie.
Secondly, Robert Knight needs to come out of the closet.
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What's new about a gay western?
I thought the western was inherently a homoerotic genre. This one's probably a bit more explicit, is all.
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they don't know the story
They don't know the story yet, but when the wingnut dementalists find out that one of the cowboys get beat to death for being gay, they will be in full support of the movie...wages of sin and all that
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the draw
"Men have for ages gotten all worked up about the idea of two women making out (I personally do not know a man who doesn't find that exciting), so why can't I enjoy the sight of two beautiful actors making out?"
THANK you, oxymoron!
I personally will be seeing it because I am an emotional masochist and am due for a good cry.
(And not at ALL for the huge crush I have on both these actors. No, really!)
Yeah, I got issues.
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Don't read lesls1's letter if you haven't read Annie Proulx's story
lesls1, I think most people might want to have discovered that bit of the plot on their own.
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Broke? Back Mountain.
Did the promoters of Brokeback Mountain copy edit your review, or just sponsor it?
From paragraph 1:
"heavily marketed Christian overtones" should be "heavily marketed [blockbuster] with Christian overtones." Sure they advertise the overtones...because they're essential to the movie. C.S. Lewis was a theologian after all.
"a small love story about two cowboys" is conspicuous in its omission of "gay." It's not like they're two best buds in a tandem search for love, like the sentence insincerely implies.
I laughed out loud at the contradiction in paragraph 3:
Brokeback Mountain is "in no way political," but it's billboards announce "love is a force of nature." This is so willfully dumb. The "naturalness" of homosexuality is THE number one talking point for political, social and medical scientists, not to mention the average moviegoing American.
I could go on, but I stopped caring. You should really at least pretend to be objective though...the constant Brokeback Mountain advertisements don't help either.