David,
Your post was so well spoken. I haven't had the time yet to see
Brokeback Mountain. It is one I have wanted to see since I heard it was being
made and have heard mixed reviews from clients and friends that have already
seen it. I always consider the source when I hear reviews and never let that
make up my own mind about a film. I have heard, though, repeatedly that most
people couldn't get into the first half hour of the film. Obviously, the subject
matter is a very delicate issue in our country. I sensed when there was no real
"protest" over the film, the filmmakers hadn't dared go beyond the stereotypical
view many people have. I had a client say to me the other day, well you have to
start somewhere. I've been hearing that line for years.
Having worked in the film business for many years, I
worked with many gay writers and directors, many well known, who would
often say they were afraid to approach the subject more realistically for many
reasons. Fear of being "outed" to the general public, even though their
orientation was well known in the industry and even fear of being ostracized in
the industry. Face it, for the most part, the film industry is based on money.
It's cool if you approach the subject matter with comedy, Birdcage is one of my
favorite funny movies. I actually thought Mike Nichols, another very fine
director, finalized that movie on a positive note about a "gay" family. He
happened to use comedy to do it. Yes, the film was filled with stereotypes, but
the strong characters in the film were gay and were much smarter than their
heterosexual counterparts.
The bottom line for me is that I love all types of film.
We don't live in a perfect world and film definitely reflects that. As a woman,
I wish more films reflected women in a realistic light. Some do, most don't. But
would that sell tickets? Probably not, so here were go again. I hear people say
all the time, "they don't make them like they use to." Who knows, but with the
studio's being run by 30 year olds, what do you want? And that is the case
because it's 30 year olds and under who go to the movies and pay $10 for
tickets. So, you hire people to make movies and run studios that can relate to
that audience. To me the fact that a film like Brokeback Mountain even got made
is amazing. Of course, it's got a top director associated with it and two very
up and coming handsome actors. All top draws at the box office.
Sue
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 8:46
AM
Subject: [MOPO] Brokeback Mountain:
answering David Kusumoto's question
I finally saw Brokeback Mountain and although this topic seems
to have run
its course on the list, no one has stepped up to the plate to
answer David
Kusumoto's original question, which I thought was a legitimate
and
provocative request. No, not his first question: "How many people on
this
list are gay?" (that was awkward and silly--hey, how many of you are
fat? I
want to know what you thought of The Nutty Professor). I'm referring
to his
question whether Brokeback Mountain reflected reality or not. Hold
on, 'cuz
yer about to git a hol 'nuther take on this movie.
I
confess to not liking this film within the first 30 minutes, and although
I
was hopeful that it would grow on me under the direction of the
very
talented Ang Lee (his "Wedding Banquet" is a personal favorite), it
didn't.
For me, it never had the ring of truth and wasn't at all what I
expected.
The buzz was that this was a "great love story" and I had hoped
to see
something groundbreaking. I really wanted to like this movie and
have had to
fight conflicting feelings of pride and satisfaction that this
gay film was
being seen and praised by such a large, mainstream
audience.
What I came away with was this very minimalist portrait
filled with cliches
and cardboard characters which only reinforce the
popular notion that a gay
life is by definition alienating, unfulfilling
and tragic. I know that this
was most likely not the author's intent, but I
just wish a more worthy story
had garnered the attention and praise of the
mainstream movie audience.
Remember, this is a work of fiction, crafted in
the mind of a middle-aged,
white (and as far as I know, heterosexual) woman
who could have chosen to
paint from the much richer palette of universal
human emotion and
experiences instead of the narrow picture of repressed
homosexuality
represented here. I'm not denying that her story of these two
characters is
plausible, just that it didn't ring very true for me based on
my life
experiences and this wasn't a story that I particularly wanted or
needed to
see. And once I realized these characters and this story weren't
really
going anywhere, I grew bored. The original author, screenwriters
and
director made deliberate choices to tell this story using a long list
of
cliches and stereotypical scenarios--so I was very disappointed. It
wouldn't
matter to me as much if the movie weren't so darned popular. I
guess I
should feel better knowing that most of the audience probably feels
sympathy
for these characters, but I'm saddened that the mainstream public
has chosen
this film as a credible and momentous love story about Gay
America.
I've never known any gay men as one-dimensional as Jack or
Ennis, but I have
known many gay men--closeted or openly gay--who are
pretty much like most
anyone you'd typically run into. This is the world I
live in, where I don't
see much difference between the relationships of
couples gay or straight.
We're all human beings and as much as some would
like to emphasize our
differences, there's more sameness about us than
difference. So even in the
imagined world of Brokeback Mountain, I expected
to recognize a little more
familiar territory from the landscape of
intimate relationships.
I kept waiting for more revelations of what
cemented the bond between Ennis
and Jack as human beings beyond sexual
objects. Why were they drawn
together? What did they even LIKE about each
other? I didn't even really get
why they would be best friends, much less
lovers. So from my point of view,
I was really watching two heterosexual
men who happened to have occasional
homosexual sex together. I couldn't
help thinking this made it a little
easier for a straight audience to
digest. And the prurient lure of seeing a
couple of (presumably) straight
stars play gay no doubt is part of the draw
for some--and part of the
comfort factor for those who would normally shy
away from such a story
(after all, they're just actors pretending). Do you
think many people would
have gone to see Brokeback Mountain if it had
starred Harvey Fierstein and
Richard Simmons--no matter how fantastic the
acting or the direction was?
Face it, mainstream society is more comfortable
with the stereotype of the
tough, silent "straight-acting" male icon than it
is with a man capable of
sharing feelings, passion and--dare I say
it--romance with another man. I
get the tragedy part of this story, as
contrived as I felt it was, but if
this is a great love story, where was the
romance between them?
I
was uncomfortable during their first physical encounter as I'm sure
most
others in the audience probably were, not because of what they were
doing,
but because it wasn't playing out in a way that made sense to me.
The tired
device of getting the two characters drunk first wasn't
enough--by the logic
of this author's homophobic world, you could get
killed for barking up the
wrong tree. There was no seduction leading up to
this (or did I miss
something?)--it just started abruptly happening. In
retrospect, I guess it
was too much to expect a romantic seduction from
these one-dimensional
characters, but I did expect some hint, some testing
of the water earlier in
their relationship to clear the way for this to
begin happening between
them--if only so they would know the other wouldn't
kill them if they made
the first pass. The possibilities that come to mind
would be casual joking
around, teasing or a confession of a previous gay or
near-gay experience to
gauge the other's reaction.
Sure, I
understand that the authors were trying to depict Ennis and Jack's
lust for
each other in their first sexual encounter. I just wasn't buying
the way it
was set up, nor that this was enough to sustain a great love
affair over
the years. Obviously, there is a small percentage of the gay
population
that is into anonymous or impersonal sex (as there is in the
straight
population), but I didn't think that was what this movie was
supposed to be
about. I was embarrassed, knowing that thousands of straight
audience
members, after seeing the depiction of sex between men for perhaps
the
first time, would walk away with the idea that this was normal or
even
commonplace among gay men--much less between two men in a "great
love
story". And the love that supposedly existed between these two
thinly-drawn
characters didn't develop or deepen from my point of view. I
never felt
their physical relationship evolved into much of anything
else--no
tenderness, not even much comraderie or companionship beyond
simple grunts
and small talk. Oh right, that was the point. These were
tragic characters
trapped by their own repression of sexuality.
ZZZZzzzzzzzz.
What I really wanted to see was the story of the two men
that Ennis told
Jack about, the gay couple who had set up a ranch
together--and of course,
were brutally killed off by the author (can't have
too many tragic reminders
of the dangers of a gay "lifestyle" around here).
I'll bet theirs could've
been a great love story--even if you kept the
tragic ending. It certainly
would have been more interesting. These two men
made a commitment to each
other, to live, love and grow together. Like
people do in real life. Plenty
of gay couples survived throughout middle
America in the last century--I'm
sure some even in Wyoming--living
personally satisfying lives together even
if they couldn't be open about
the true nature of their relationships.
There's a good reason why the
conservative moral majority hasn't launched a
full-scale attack on this
movie. Why bother? The authors have done the work
for them by reinforcing
their beliefs that such a tragic "lifestyle" can
only result in
unhappiness, condemnation and death. Again, these comfortably
familiar
cliches were deliberately chosen by the authors to create their
fictional
world. There are other movies, based on real-life gay tragedies,
which are
more worthy of our sympathies and praise ("Boys Don't Cry").
If it's
true that some well-known scripts were originally written for two
gay
characters, then there's hope that someday a really great script won't
have
to be subjected to gender changes to make it commercially acceptable.
Just
to use a few examples of movies I've watched recently, imagine if the
two
lead characters in "Something's Gotta Give" were gay men, or the
lead
character in "Under the Tuscan Sun" was a lesbian. The gay characters
in
these stories would be far more interesting and rewarding to watch than
the
one-dimensional cowboys in the narrowly-defined universe of
Brokeback
Mountain.
There has been a long list of gay-themed movies
in recent years that are
truthful and meaningful stories of what it's like
to be gay in America. Some
are awkward and immature, hobbled by
poorly-written scripts, amateur acting
or low budgets. But most have a far
greater ring of truth than Brokeback
Mountain, partly because many of these
movie's writers, directors and actors
ARE gay. Some are based on real
people or drawn from real-life experiences.
Some are wonderful romantic
comedies and poignant love stories. But as good
as some of these movies
are, they haven't been seen by most of the
mainstream movie-going public.
I'm saddened that Brokeback Mountain will
probably leave them in the box
office dust. I continue to hold out hope that
someday, someone will craft a
truthful, romantic, inspiring gay love story
that is enormously successful
and really captures the heart and soul of the
nation. One that doesn't have
to rely on so many negative images long
associated with being gay. I ain't
seen that movie
yet.
--David
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