So, Brokeback Mountain is a good movie. I wouldn’t go back to see it a second time and I’m not sure how I feel about seeing it the first time. Okay, so, let’s review. We have some guys who fall into one another’s arms over a summer job, all the time denying that it will ever mean anything. The one who is getting married is reluctant to leave the mountain, and they end up fighting to the point of bloodshed and black eyes. They spend years pursuing people who aren’t really who they want. They’re kept apart by the fear of violence one of them feels. They waste their own lives, lie to and cheat on their spouses, breaking at least one of their wives’ hearts. They receive absolutely nothing but disapproval from anyone for their love. And one of them dies violently, hurt and lonely. The other is unable to form another functional relationship. This is a small step away from Boys Don’t Cry in terms of “Do I ever want to watch this movie again?”. It bothers me because it is so real to me. It also bothers me because this is a pattern I shied away from in my life. I’ve bled a bit that way. I’ve bled more to make sure I never hurt people the way those characters do.
To those who said this is a great date movie, I have to wonder what’s going on in your head. One of the lovers dies drowning in his own blood, alone. Probably killed by his neighbors. You see another guy whose dick gets pulled off left dead and broken in a ditch, for being gay. And of course, there’s the infidelity, violence, and denial. This is the making of a good date movie? Eww.
Right after I got out of the show, I got a voicemail from dad, asking me to confirm that I wanted to go back to middle-of-nowhere Southern Illinois to spend some time with the extended family. If there was worse timing to get that voicemail, I have no idea what it would be.
That movie had me in tears…
I haven’t watched the movie yet, but it kinda makes you wanna tell people how much you care about them before you regret it.
Funny. Am in a similar position. Will be returning to central Illinois for the holidays.
you are recognizing what a political film the movie is, i think – to me the romance aspects were secondary at best. it’s a message film.
I don’t think it’s a message film or a political film. : ) It’s just about the dysfunctional relationships that people can have with one another. The homosexuality in the film is just the setting used in this case.
It reminded me more of Harold Pinter than anything else — everything communicated through silences, through chitchat, and through unfinished sentences. I didn’t think that the movie intended for me to think about whether being gay was all right or whether coming out was the right thing to do; I thought the movie intended for me to think about whether I should (in a more general sense) try harder to communicate what’s in my heart to other people.
Reading what everyone has been writing, it’s obvious to me that people took away very different things from the film, so perhaps we are all correct. But I’m not seeing the political take — maybe you could write a little bit about what you are thinking?
I respectfully disagree. Set the film 20 years earlier, make Ennis a black man, Jack a white woman, and you’ve got a substantially similar film. Set it in 18th century Ireland and make one a protestant and the other Catholic.
There have always been taboo relationships. The fact that a relationship can also be a political statement doesn’t mean the relationship is necessarily secondary. I found the premise and acting both quite believable.
As much as this stirred things in me that I’d rather leave untouched, I have to say this had a strike or realism in male-male relationships that I hadn’t seen in many other media.
I agree that this would be an atrocious date movie. It may, however, be something good to take one’s husband to.