I saw the movie yesterday. Classic story and exceptional acting. I understand why it has been nominated for several awards and highly recommend it.
ROFL-- When I opened up the Pub, the thread on Brokeback Mountain was followed immediately by Doggy Ambivalence !!
That’s actually appropriate, since ambivalence sums up my feelings on the movie. I went in really expecting and wanting to love it, but it really left me sort of cold. By the end of the movie I had very little feeling for how these two guys really felt about each other other than a strong, unexplainable sexual attraction. They never really talked about those feelings at all. There were subtle hints, but that’s about it. As a result, I found it hard to get worked up over their tragic tale.
I found the acting and filming first rate, and I applaud all involved in tackling this challenging subject matter.
BTW-- the short story upon which the movie was based is equally sparse in the same details that I found lacking. You can read it here:
http://leftbehinds.blogspot.com/2005/12/text-of-story-brokeback-mountain.html
I just read in the local paper that BM was pulled just before opening at a local theater–a decision apparently made by theater owner Larry Miller (who also owns the Utah Jazz). It’ll backfire, encouraging more people to see the movie elsewhere.
Susan
By the end of the movie I had very little feeling for how these two guys really felt about each other other than a strong, unexplainable sexual attraction. They never really talked about those feelings at all.
These guys didn’t talk about much of anything, Paul. They were brief and plain-spoken roughnecks, and I think that if they opened up and poured out their feeling like one might think a couple of sensitive eastern gay guys might, the movie would not have been as honest. I cannot see the two sitting around the campfire and talking about their feelings any more than I can see them dressing in drag.
I didn’t care much for the short story, as it read just a bit too much like a story in a newspaper to my mind. I’d like to see the movie, though…I’ve heard good things about it.
Redwolf
Oh, I agree with that. The actors were both very effective at conveying that-- sometimes Heath Ledger almost swallowed the brief words that he did say as if it were difficult to spit them out. Still, I felt the lack of SOME conveyed feelings. I found it difficult to imagine their week long trysts over the years as consisting of nothing more than rough and tumble, often violent sex. Jeez-- judging from the brief scenes that the movie tastefully showed, that would have killed them!
Come to think of it, a couple of cowpokes sitting around the campfire with lattes, dressed in drag could have been interesting…
We just saw the movie tonight. I could hardly quit crying—it was embarrassing walking out.
I thought about brewerpaul’s comments as I watched it because I had read them before. I think there are lots of people who can’t talk about how they feel or don’t want to or feel like there just isn’t much to say about things—they just sort of are the way they are. Both these fellows came from pretty repressive environments, so they are even less likely to talk, and then they are in a situation that, at least for Ennis, is pretty scary. I don’t think either one probably talked much in his relationships with anyone else, certainly Ennis didn’t in his. So that all rang pretty true to me.
When Ennis said he couldn’t come again until November, both men came out and said how they felt and what their lives were like at that point. Ennis said his whole life had ended up being nothing because of their sitiuation. And think of Ennis at the beginning when the job on the mountain ended early and how upset he was and then what he did after he had walked down the road aways after they got paid. Jack could have, and did, get sex closer to home, but think of how far and how often he drove up to the mountain. They really loved each other very deeply I think.
For me the barrenness (sp) of the town contrasted with the beauty of the mountains was so piercing and was showing the utter barrenness of Ennis’ and Jack’s lives because their hearts weren’t in their real lives—or the lives people thought they were living. They just had a few days a year of actually being alive. And their wives lives were little different. It was a love story, but for me it was more a story about lives not lived, of people just going through the motions, of the total absence of joy and waste of life. But then I think about Jack’s parents, and really, Ennis and Jack had more joy in their few times together, I bet, than Jack’s parents did in their entire lifetimes. So I am sad no matter how I look at it. I guess it is a barrenness that we can all experience at times and that is why it is so rough seeing it portrayed. It isn’t some strange exotic situation.
Well put Cynth-- your comments do bring it together for me a bit more.
Thank you. I should have added, though, that I wasn’t really trying to debate your remarks or change how you felt, but that your comments had made me think more about what I was seeing. Something that might ring true for me could very reasonably seem strange to someone else because our life experiences will have been so different.