Brokeback Mountain

I've never seen it but it had 2 stars on Netflix so I had assumed it wasn't very good.

 

I honestly didn't like it much. I mean, I GET it. But my main thought wasn't how sad it was for these two gay guys. It was how sad it was for their wives.

Lex

 

Saw it when I was 15 or 16. Really helped me accept myself and realize that there was nothing wrong with me, but with the homophobic society in which I live in. The scene with Ennis holding Jack's shirt gets me every time.

---------- Post added 19th Aug 2013 at 08:21 PM ----------

The homophobes were probably bored.

 

DISCLAIMER: I've never seen the movie

What's really sad (at least IMO) is that the two gay guys were supposedly played by two straight guys. Surely they could find some gay actors, who face stigma every day, to play a gay role?

$0.02

 

Good point, since they got married after having this prolonged affair. But it also didn't answer many questions: had they experimented before, had they had those attractions before, how did the isolation affect this, and what prompted them to get married - societal expectations in that era, genuine love and affection, or the thought that what happened was a phase? Either way, the Ennis character was more likable than Jack - he ran deeper, it seemed. I've only seen it once. It was sort of slow, dreary, and all the settings and personalities were very different from anything and anyone I've known. I'd give it a B.

 

Sadly, very few actors have the balls to come out as gay (at least A-listers who actually have talent). This was a very ambitious movie, made by an Oscar nominated director (who ended up winning an Oscar for it), so the actors had to be top notch too.

 

A good part of the cast of Queer As Folks US was played by straight guys. I recall reading that only 2 of the male cast members (of the main characters) are gay. Still, that show was pretty gay

As far as Brokeback Mountain goes, the main cast is very good. Heath Ledger was a very talented actor.

 

It is no doubt a flawed movie, frustrating in its sparseness and not doing sufficient justice to the tragedy of the wives.

But for me it marks a significant event. It was the beginning of my long drawn-out path to coming out. It made me realize, in a visceral sense (as opposed to just intellectual), that there was an emotional facet to same-sex relationships that I had never appreciated before.

 

The movie takes place in the early '60s (a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the US) in the Midwest rural area, and the two protagonists are uneducated hicks. That should pretty much answer any questions regarding their actions (add to that the fact that Ennis was forced to witness the lyching of a gay man when he was young by his father, so he was traumatized).

---------- Post added 19th Aug 2013 at 08:43 PM ----------

The movie isn't about them though. It's a star-crossed lovers-type romance.

BTW, I totally agree with the underlined. It was the first time in my life that I saw that kind of intimacy between men.

 

Given the way Ledger died, I always wondered what he was running from: Perhaps he was gay/bi, but unable to admit it?

After all, he died with an amazing combination of drugs in his system: OxyContin, Vicodin, Valium, Xanax, and temazepam. That's a pretty serious line-up.

Very sad he died that young...

 

Ledger's death was not ruled a suicide, from what I remember.

 

True, it was 'accidental' though there was a history of using a good deal of prescription drugs...and these are the sorts that can blot out a lot of things.

That's the odd things about 'accidental' overdoses: How accidental are they, when you flirt with disaster that much? I mean, mixing 3 benzodiazepines with 2 opiates is pretty serious, and very dangerous. It's not like the kind of, 'Ooops! I slipped and stubbed my toe' kind of accident.

I sense he had to have been pretty troubled. About what, we can only speculate.

 

I remember reading something about him having trouble with his ex, Michelle Williams. Something about her acting bitchy regarding child custody.

---------- Post added 19th Aug 2013 at 09:10 PM ----------

Regarding the bolded, why does that seem unlikely to you?

Regarding the underlined, the movie actually makes a pretty interesting point about that, though some shoddy editing unfortunately confused many viewers about what was happening. Long story short: Ennis was his own jailer.

 

Right, it was something like 1963 in Wyoming at the opening scene. The education part doesn't matter, since educated people might do the same in 1993 or 2013. Yes, I recall that Ennis was traumatized by what he saw. Also, it's interesting that his father made him watch it, but why? Maybe we can infer something from that, or maybe we can't.

---------- Post added 19th Aug 2013 at 12:40 PM ----------

I was stunned by this when I heard it. It was attributed to personal problems attributed to his real life relationship, from what I recall. That is indeed a very serious line-up of medications. Again, the line between drug use and a result like that, possibly being deliberate, is kind of thin. He had a promising career ahead of him as an actor. He had established himself as being very capable.

 

Apparently I have seen it, just forgot I saw it.

 

I liked it alot...yes it was sad, but it was a realistic display of the how life was for many gay guys back then....We've came a long way since then...yes , we still don't have all the rights that's rightfully ours but we still came a long way since then. Imagine how much we can achieve in a few more years?

 

I'd say education is important, and it would especially be so back then. Most of the people who were openly gay at the time were bohemian intellectual types (think Gore Vidal, Capote). Also, more educated people have always been more likely to be unconventional, and recognize the difference between nature and culture, whereas less educated people, especially those that live in small rural areas, are less likely to challenge societal conventions, which they would view as akin to some sort of natural laws.

It's also pretty obvious why his father took him to see that. It's no different than the parents who would take their kids to watch public executions in the past. The whole "see what happens when you act wrong, son" thing.

---------- Post added 19th Aug 2013 at 11:08 PM ----------

Don't you live in Canada? Don't you guys already have all the rights? :S