Flashback Mountain

[muckefuck]

Many thanks to mollpeartree, who braved the cold we should've been having for months now to make the long trek from her gang-groups-of-individuals-infested neighbourhood on the South Side to join me in Yuppie Central for Brokeback Mountain. I tried to keep my expectations modest, as I always do when seeing highly-touted Oscar-fodder, but this one really lived up to the hype. When it was over, I said to myself, Now that was a well-made film, which is also what went through my head after Gegen die Wand. But whenever I call Brokeback to mind, a delicate ache goes through my chest of the type I haven't felt in a long time, at least not from a film; something about it is adhering.

I studiously avoided most reviews, critiques, commentaries, and the like having to do with the movie due to fear of spoilers, so if there's anything out there you think I should've read about Brokeback Mountain, please post a link or citation. (Nuphy already sent me Proulx' short story, which I haven't gotten around to reading yet.)

Comments

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

Which short story was that, by the way? I've read a couple of Proulx's story collections and don't remember anything about gay cowboys (not seen the film yet, hope that's a fair précis..)

[shdwpoet.livejournal.com]

I really hate to say it, because I feel the movie was well made as well, but I really disliked it. I realize that's a strictly personal opinion, but... damn, couldn't they have shared SOME tenderness without it turning into a fist fight or angry wrestling match? Also. I'm all for sad endings to movies, but to have every single character in the movie end up completely miserable? (except, perhaps, for the daughter) ... And the bloody shirt stowed *in the closet* for the rest of the guy's life just strikes me as a depressing commentary on gay guilt. The message of the movie to me was less about enduring love than it was about the certainty of being smacked down by life for daring to be unconventional.

:) That being said, I do think it's due a few oscars, though I was a MUCH bigger fan of Capote from a cinematic standpoint.

[lifeandstuff.livejournal.com]

Just had to say I love the "groups-of-individuals" comments. :)

As far as Brokeback, I haven't seen it, in part because I figure it can't possible live up to the hype and in part because I so rarely see movies these days that when I do I want to see one with a lot more random property damage.

Although, I am glad they appear to have finally made a movie about a same-sex relationship that appears to all accounts I've heard to be pretty good.