I haven't watched it yet, but I confess I'm already prejudiced against this movie. Is Brokeback Mountain a good film because it's a mainstream movie dealing with homosexuality? Or is it a good film, period? Are critics raving about it because it's politically correct to do so? Or because the movie is genuinely good? After the black sweep at the Oscars a couple of years back, will it be a gay sweep this time round? Capote and the cowboys could be the theme, for all you know.
Hmm.
I cannot remember where but I read a review of it which began with exactly what you are thinking about and then begins on the premise of not considering the homosexual part of it at all. It was a good review.
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents - forget all the hype and watch it. It is Ang Lee after all.
The very same thought did cross my mind as well. I think we should just wait, watch and then form a clear judgement. Prejudices never do any good. I usually end up feeling sheepish about them later :(
ReplyDeleteIt is Ang Lee after all.
ReplyDeleteHahaha.
If the black wave was anything to go by (Halle berry in Moster's Ball, Hotel Rwanda etc.), then these would be movies worth watching.
ReplyDeleteI guess well-made movies about subjects one tends to be prejudiced about really get their award winning edge only when they have been done sensitively enough to make one take notice and challenge one's views. This is true of movies coming out of the middle-east, palestine, movies with gay characters, black people and all others... even disabled.
Why should movies with gay characters be any different? Brokeback mountains is not a gay movie, its a love story that happens to be between two married men. Just like Mosters Ball wasn't a black movie, just a love story between a black woman and the man who sent her husband to death. Girl-interrupted wasn't about schizophrenia..
IMHO.
Was just talking about it yesterday. Is it already out on DVD?
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd get that response from someone :)
ReplyDeleteMy prejudice is not against the subject, it's against the wave of critical acclaim that the movie has got. I'm cynical enough to believe that at least a third of the critics gave rave reviews just to prevent being branded homo-phobes.
Not to my knowledge, though camera prints might exist.
ReplyDeleteYeah.
ReplyDeletehaven't seen a memorable love story for a while.. am hoping....
ReplyDeleteAng Lee may be good, but he is also pompous at times. This may or may not be a good movie, but I am going to watch it to find out.
ReplyDeleteI think it's worth watching just to see if Jake Gyllenhaal has grown beyond genius-tormented-teen roles. I'm not a big fan of Ang Lee, meself.
ReplyDeleteOne of the more palatable critics, Dave Edelstein, doesn't seem to be too errr...excited. A couple of quotes:
Cartman on South Park famously dismissed independent movies as "gay cowboys eating pudding." I have no idea where the pudding image came from, but I'm bound to say that Brokeback Mountain could use a little more of it—by which I mean more sweat and other bodily fluids. Ang Lee's formalism is so extreme that it's often laughable...
and
There were also moments in which Lee deconstructed the cowboy persona so completely that he made me wonder: Are a lot of cowboys, like, totally gay?
That's a hilarious icon, dude. Very cool.
ReplyDeletethe movie everyone loves to hate "crouching tiger hidden dragon"
ReplyDeleteus in poor vaterland have to wait a long time for it to get here
ReplyDeleteand then they say piracy in germany is a real big badass problem
his performance in Jarhead seems to have evoked rave reviews though the movie itself a friend tells me is a washout
ReplyDeleteYeah, I heard that as well. I've been looking for that movie. I haven't been able to find Jarhead to purchase (at a reasonable price), and the p2p networks turn up gay pr0n, and gay pr0n that isn't even directed by Ang Lee, at that.
ReplyDeleteDude, thanks for writing this: http://www.rediff.com/movies/2006/jan/20raja.htm
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Oldboy, but I agree with you 100%. As I suspect would most folks here.
Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteYours is obviously bloody good as well.
*groans* sorry. :P
:) thanks for reading. glad you endorse.
ReplyDeleteNow go watch Oldboy!
Followed link, read open letter. A-men. Someone like Tarantino finds in his influences the seeds of boundless invention; Bollywood directors like Gupta are bound only by someone else's imagination.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I kind of lost my head over that scene.
ReplyDeleteBWAHAHA. Revenge is mine!
*adds as friend*
ReplyDelete*adds back*
ReplyDeleteThis will not save you from retribution for no apparent cause, though. My favourite novel as a child was the Count of Monte Cristo, and I'd do anything for seafood. I would bite the head off an octopus if I had to.
*nods*
ReplyDelete>>I would bite the head off an octopus if I had to.
ReplyDelete>*nods*
You know, a lot of people don't believe me when I say that. Apparently, they don't have your personal experience with insanity.
Or hunger.
ReplyDeleteOr just insanely hungry. Or hungrily insane. Or insane and Hungarian.
ReplyDelete