Ang Lee's (now) celebrated film Brokeback Mountain is a rather expedient treatment of a series of complex topics.
The movies explores (and to a degree, exploits) themes of love, friendship, social criticism and most conspicuously but likely not most importantly- homosexuality.
The most prominent feature of the film to many viewers is the "hook" that it features a relationship between two gay men in the 1960's prior to a (slightly) higher degree of acceptance for alternative lifestyles in the U.S. Depicting the characters as cowboys seems to contrast their lifestyle in even greater relief from the more frequent perception of cowboys as an icon of heterosexuality.
The movie is sad. It is about loss, repression, prejudice, intolerance, infidelity and disappointment. None of the themes are pleasant.
Each viewer will take a different impression away from the film, likely tied to their perception and opinion of the gay lifestyle. But to say this is a film about gay cowboys is to take too superficial a view of it. Unfortunately, most people we see it that way.
I thought Brokeback Mountain was a fairly well made film with good acting and characters. Masterful and tricky story writing. audiences will have a wide spectrum of reactions. It is not a "feel good" film whether you are a gay person or a straight person. If I left the theater with the impression that ignorance and intolerance are terrible things (duh...) and that the gay lifestyle is a very difficult one.
I would stop short of saying I "liked" the movie. It made me sad. I felt terrible for the characters and everyone surrounding them. The movie is well made, but it is somewhat bracing and disturbing. While this may make me as guilty of intolerance as the awful characters who torment the gay men in Brokeback Mountain, I doubt I would see it again- it was looking at a bad car accident.
Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com
The movies explores (and to a degree, exploits) themes of love, friendship, social criticism and most conspicuously but likely not most importantly- homosexuality.
The most prominent feature of the film to many viewers is the "hook" that it features a relationship between two gay men in the 1960's prior to a (slightly) higher degree of acceptance for alternative lifestyles in the U.S. Depicting the characters as cowboys seems to contrast their lifestyle in even greater relief from the more frequent perception of cowboys as an icon of heterosexuality.
The movie is sad. It is about loss, repression, prejudice, intolerance, infidelity and disappointment. None of the themes are pleasant.
Each viewer will take a different impression away from the film, likely tied to their perception and opinion of the gay lifestyle. But to say this is a film about gay cowboys is to take too superficial a view of it. Unfortunately, most people we see it that way.
I thought Brokeback Mountain was a fairly well made film with good acting and characters. Masterful and tricky story writing. audiences will have a wide spectrum of reactions. It is not a "feel good" film whether you are a gay person or a straight person. If I left the theater with the impression that ignorance and intolerance are terrible things (duh...) and that the gay lifestyle is a very difficult one.
I would stop short of saying I "liked" the movie. It made me sad. I felt terrible for the characters and everyone surrounding them. The movie is well made, but it is somewhat bracing and disturbing. While this may make me as guilty of intolerance as the awful characters who torment the gay men in Brokeback Mountain, I doubt I would see it again- it was looking at a bad car accident.
Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com
