Brokeback Mountain

[Irvine511]

Let's just cut to the chase:

Do Heath & Jake's characters say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"????

the question answers itself.

if they truly loved Jesus enough to battle against the satanic forces of secular humanism by saying "Merry Christmas" then they wouldn't be gay now would they?

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

By Ty Burr, Globe Staff | December 16, 2005

Yes, it's the gay cowboy movie. Get over it.

The reason to see Ang Lee's ''Brokeback Mountain," and see it you should, isn't its hot-button topicality or its cultural cachet but simply that it's a very good movie, with a staggeringly fine performance by Heath Ledger.

At the same time, ''Brokeback" has already become the default ''best picture" in a weak year -- the one film that critics' groups and awards organizations can come to consensus on -- and that's overselling it a little. It's an Ang Lee movie: a chamber drama about inarticulate desires from one of the cooler and smarter customers currently working. The intimacy just happens to unfold against an epic Marlboro Man landscape (breathtakingly shot by Rodrigo Prieto), in ways that bring tragedy to the surface while keeping the audience at a certain remove.

''Brokeback Mountain" is based on the 1996 short story by Annie Proulx, and the script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana honorably expands on the writer's weathered prose. In the summer of 1963, two hard-luck young ranch hands named Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) sign up to work a flock of sheep in the high country of Wyoming; one is assigned to stay at base camp while the other baby-sits the sheep higher up -- it's Forest Service land, but rancher Randy Quaid is tired of having his stock picked off by coyotes.

Jack is a rodeo wannabe, just shy of a clown; Ennis is a taciturn piece of work engaged to a small-town girl named Alma (Michelle Williams). What happens between the two men builds slowly, then explodes, after which they retire to opposite corners. Their rough, impulsive coupling could have been a fight. It almost is. Lee films it with the studied frankness of a boxing match or a nature documentary.

The two share a blissful summer -- again, never speaking of what's happening between them because, as Ennis insists, ''I ain't no queer" -- and then return to ''normal" lives. Ennis marries Alma and has a couple of kids, while Jack hooks up with a rodeo-riding daddy's girl (Anne Hathaway, defiantly kicking over the traces of ''The Princess Diaries"). That retreating idyll looms larger and larger for both men -- the one true moment of human connection that neither can fully grasp or let go. They begin to take biannual ''fishing trips" up in the mountains.

''Brokeback" proceeds to edge forward over the course of two decades: children grow, wrinkles appear, the gulf between husbands and wives widens. The film quietly acknowledges an entire subculture of men who keep their sexuality (gay, bi, whatever) tucked carefully away while toeing a straight line. The perils of straying off that line are manifestly clear, even without Ennis's anecdote about the fate of a ranching ''couple" he knew in his childhood.

The film asks a lot of an audience -- not that cowboys might have physical feelings for each other but the more prosaic business of watching young actors age with the aid of make-up. Gyllenhaal and Hathaway get the short end of the stick; you're painfully aware they're 20-something stars wearing middle-aged hair. Gyllenhaal also plays the more callow of the two men, and, coincidentally or not, his performance doesn't dig as deep as you want it to.

But maybe anyone would look thin next to Ledger's Ennis Del Mar. The actor hunches over and pulls his emotions under his canvas coat; he doesn't age so much as slowly cave in. That's fitting: Ennis is both ennobled and shamed by feelings he doesn't possess words to describe. ''This thing we have" is the closest he comes, and yet it's the only real part of his life, despite the damage left in its wake. Ledger turns the classic iconography of the Western male -- a cowboy hat pulled low, a measured drawl that says no more than it absolutely has to -- into protective coloring. The genius of the performance is in how little he shows and how much he suggests.

The third sharp point of the movie's triangle is Williams as Alma, whose youth and spiritedness slowly drain away in the face of an infidelity she can't encompass. There's a beautiful low-rent weariness to the performance -- like something out of an Edward Hopper painting -- and with any justice this long-underrated actress will finally get some mainstream recognition.

''Brokeback" may be too polished for some people, too elegantly dispassionate in its study of choked passion. Its final image insists rather bluntly on the closets we build for ourselves. The movie sticks with you, though, as does its belief that love is more important than gender or culture or anything -- that it's important enough to be treasured in secret if necessary. Lee stays true to the cowboy stoicism of Proulx's final lines: ''Nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it." That's the tragedy here, and the strength.

 

[Irvine511]

here are some *fascinating* reviews of the film from Christian magazines ... i've excerpted the parts that deal explicitly with homosexuality, and not the plot summaries themselves, while leaving in each critic's summation on the film:

[q]"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus), the much publicized "gay cowboy love story" adapted from a New Yorker magazine piece by Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx, arrives at last, and the film itself -- a serious contemplation of loneliness and connection -- belies the glib description.

[...]

As the Catholic Church makes a distinction between homosexual orientation and activity, Ennis and Jack's continuing physical relationship is morally problematic.

The adulterous nature of their affair is another hot-button issue. But the pain Jack and Ennis cause their families is not whitewashed. (The women are played with tremendous sympathy, not as shrill harridans.) It's the emotional honesty of the story overall, and the portrayal of an unresolved relationship -- which, by the way, ends in tragedy -- that seems paramount

[...]

Looked at from the point of view of the need for love which everyone feels but few people can articulate, the plight of these guys is easy to understand while their way of dealing with it is likely to surprise and shock an audience.

Except for the initial sex scene, and brief bedroom encounters between the men and their (bare breasted) wives, there's no sexually related nudity. Some outdoor shots of the men washing themselves and skinny-dipping are side-view, long-shot or out-of-focus images.

While the actions taken by Ennis and Jack cannot be endorsed, the universal themes of love and loss ring true.

The film contains tacit approval of same-sex relationships, adultery, two brief sex scenes without nudity, partial and shadowy brief nudity elsewhere, other implied sexual situations, profanity, rough and crude expressions, alcohol and brief drug use, brief violent images, a gruesome description of a murder, and some domestic violence.

Originally rated L (limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling), "Brokeback Mountain" has been reclassified O -- morally offensive -- by the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting. This has been done because the serious weight of the L rating -- which restricts films in that category to those who can assess, from a Catholic perspective, the moral issues raised by a movie -- is, unfortunately, misunderstood by many. Because there are some in this instance who are using the L rating to make it appear the church's -- or the USCCB's -- position on homosexuality is ambiguous, the classification has been revised specifically to address its moral content. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/05mv682.htm

[/q]



and then there's this one:

[q]Editor's note: This film depicts a homosexual relationship, and includes a graphic sex scene between the two men. After much discussion, Christianity Today Movies has decided to review the film despite its controversial subject matter. It has been nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and will certainly be an Oscar contender. The film is a hot topic of conversation around the nation, and we'd be remiss to simply ignore it. Part of our mission statement is "to inform and equip Christian moviegoers to make discerning choices" about what films you'll watch—or won't watch. And this review, just like all of our reviews, certainly accomplishes that. As for the 3-star rating, that is only in reference to the quality of the filmmaking, the acting, the cinematography, etc. It is not a "recommendation" to see the film, nor is it a rating of the "moral acceptability" of the subject matter.

[...]

But despite the intimacy these two want to share, there's a certain formalism between Jack and Ennis that stems from their seeming inability to admit, even to each other, who each of them is. A conversation late in the movie includes Jack referencing an affair he's supposedly having with a ranch foreman's wife when the audience knows that the affair is actually with the foreman himself. Ennis, in return, goes into a homophobic rage when Jack lets on that he goes down to Mexico for gay sex. It's likely the result of a number of factors, but both men are deeply unsettled by their homosexuality.

[...]

But for all the potential messiness of a story about two married men who carry on an affair with each other, the movie maintains an emotional distance from its subject by focusing almost exclusively on the men involved, both of whom are characters trying to stuff their emotions to one extent or another. Brokeback Mountain creates vast plains of space for the audience to interpret Jack and Ennis' actions and the hopes and fears that motivate them. It's quite possible that no matter what the viewer believes about homosexuality, he or she will be able to read their own stance on the issue into this story.

The film has already earned seven nominations for the Golden Globes, and multiple Oscar nominations are all but certain to follow. Ledger and Williams—who both earned Globes noms—especially stand out, both conveying reams of emotion with dialogue that probably only covers a few pages. But as much as Brokeback Mountain is being touted as a groundbreaking movie for its depictions of homosexuality, it is populated with people with conventional attitudes about homosexuality. And though it's presented as a story of thwarted love—of ache and longing and regrets—it's also ultimately a story about the relationships that shape us … for better and for worse.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/brokebackmountain.html#talk

[/q]



the same site has the following discussion questions:

[q]1. The tagline for Brokeback Mountain is, "Love is a force of nature." Do you agree? Do we get to choose whom we fall in love with? Do we get to choose our sexual orientation? Why or why not?

2. Scripture says homosexual sex is sinful (Lev. 18:22, 20:13; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). How should the church engage those who hold different beliefs about homosexuality? Should Christians expect all people to be heterosexuals? Why or why not? What does this mean for how Christians should treat gays?

3. Ennis' parents died when he was young. Do you think the loneliness he experienced as a child played into his attraction to Jack? If yes, how so? When he got married, why didn't Alma's love satisfy his need for companionship?

4. Do Ennis and Jack love each other because they're gay, or are they gay because they love each other? Explain. Had they never met, do you think one or both of them would have happily lived a heterosexual life? Why or why not? What does that say about the nature of sexual orientation?

5. Ennis and Jack determine that their bond is no one else's business. Can love—gay or straight—stay secret and be and/or remain healthy? Why or why not?

6. How should Christians approach films that depict gay relationships? What, if anything, can we learn from such movies? About the gay culture? About ourselves?
[/q]

 

[martha]

I'm sorry, and some here may get pissed, but I'm just so tired of Christians "discussing" homosexuality. It's as if gays and lesbians are from a different planet and they need to decide whether to let them integrate into humanity. It's just so fucking tiresome to see people's lives discussed and debated.

Get over it.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I'm sorry, and some here may get pissed, but I'm just so tired of Christians "discussing" homosexuality. It's as if gays and lesbians are from a different planet and they need to decide whether to let them integrate into humanity. It's just so fucking tiresome to see people's lives discussed and debated.

Get over it.

. Hear, hear.

Angela

 

[blueeyedgirl]

^

 

[Irvine511]

seeing it tonight after work

with the BF



at the Dupont cinemas, it's been playing every hour, on the hour, and every single show was sold out yesterday. i'm hoping demand on a Monday night won't be as strong, however there's a good chance we won't even be able to get tickets. but we've resolved to see it only with each other -- see? gay couples are capable of committing to *some* things -- so if we can't fit it in tonight, it will have to be in the new year.

which would make me

but i'm willing to wait, for Heath, the BF, and Jake.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Hope you guys can get tickets, Irvine-enjoy the show if you do get a chance to go .

Angela

 

[Irvine511]

irvine really needs to talk.

it's very late and i don't have time for a long post, but it's gorgeous, entrancing, and starts out slowly but then builds to such an absorbing, devastating ending, that i can't think of too much that i've seen in recent cinema that matches the film's cumulative power. yes, of course i'm the ideal audience, but it's such a subtle, almost sublime experience that anyone can and will be taken in my it's themes of love, loss, and loneliness.

heath ledger, in particular, is amazing.

there's much to say, but not right now.

 

[deep]

glad you enjoyed it

i plan on seeing the film this week

 

[Kieran McConville]

Contractually I am obliged to always refer to him as 'Australia's Heath Ledger'... didn't care for him in Ned Kelly, but this other movie should be interesting, maybe I'll see it on tv one of these decades.

 

[joyfulgirl]

Contractually I am obliged to always refer to him as 'Australia's Heath Ledger'...

^

Awaiting more from Irvine...

And I don't understand why it hasn't opened yet in my city, you know, the one with the largest gay and lesbian population per capita in the country next to San Francisco.

 

[Irvine511]

folks, i don't totally know what to say.

after i posted last night, i sat in the dark and listened to an REM mix i had made for the BF, the final songs being "nightswimming," "find the river," and then "electrolyte."

i don't want to give anything away, as some of the film does turn on some surprises, but it's not like there's a twist ending. there's so much space and silence in the movie, the first 30 minutes are a bit odd, a bit slow, lots of silence, and the rapturous Wyoming/Canadian Rockies scenery. yes, there is a sex scene, but it's probably about as tasteful as one could imagine without sacraficing lust, and the other love scenes are about intimacy, not lust.

"Australia's Heath Ledger" (who's name, when i speak it in real life, i can only pronounce with a poorly affected Aussie accent) says so much with so little, he inhabits the character and disappears completely, in the way Sean Penn might once have before he became really showy. i'd also say that this was a better performance than Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote," and i was blown away by PSH. what's amazing is how much is said through gesture and expression as opposed to dialogue. these are two hardened, masculine men, humbled by a lack of education and real opportunity, and have been taught that self expression is better achieved through action rather than dialogue. both are verbally inequipped to understand what's happening to them, and so it's the body language that speaks volumes, as well as Ang Lee's subtle but effective direction, setting up a million-and-one little shifts of camera that elucidate the silent dynamic of unspoken messages sent, either consciously or unconsciously, between the two characters.

pretty much, it all sneaks up on you. you don't see it coming until it kicks you in the gut, but it's all earned, there's nothing cheap or manipulative about anything that happens, and there's no stupid surprise twist, it's that events unfold in an utterly natural way and afterwards you realize that you didn't quite see it coming but that it couldn't have ended in any other way.

i also have to add that, aside from Jake and "Australia's Heath Ledger," the two women -- Michelle Williams and whatserface -- are equally good.

it's interesting ... the film is about homosexuality, but it uses homosexuality as a means of exploring universal truths about the choices we make, the situations we find ourselves in, how we do the best with what we have -- there's a line that sums up much of the film which is, "if you can't fix it, you've got to sand it" -- how no one is ever entirely at fault for anything, and it ultimately reaffirms the human need to love and to be loved. it's not a gay film in that it's about gay characters, gay life, the "gay condition" we might call it; in fact, the word "gay" wasn't part of the vernacular in the early 1960s; rather, it views homosexuality as another means by which human beings can love one another and forge meaningful, intimate connections that become our only defense and shelter against the big, bad, wide, amoral world (symbolized by the beauty of Brokeback Mountain), and when love -- any kind of love -- is thwarted and destroyed by circumstance beyond anyone's control, it's a tragedy, whether it's the Montagues and the Capulets, an Israeli and a Palestinian, or two beautiful cowboys.

i do have a complaint or two, but i'll get to that in a little while.

need coffee.

 

[LadyRhia]

I cant wait to watch this movie

 

[Irvine511]

i should add that the movie doesn't exactly cure cancer or solve the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

it is still a movie.

but i had a very powerful reaction to it, and even if not everyone feels it as viscerally as i did, i do think there's so much quality filmmaking and acting on display that anyone can understand it as a "film of quality."

 

[darbyZ]

I'm already intrigued by your posts to see it when comes across Europe.And can't wait reactions! The only thing that bothers me is that people might will tend to get hooked with its thematic rather than with its artistic merit.And the latter is the only thing I'm interested in a film. There is absolutely nothing about any particular film that can shock me if its outcome conveys an universal message. I think it's not worth mentioning that I watch everything from blockbusters to alternative films and documentaries. What I simply cannot understand is why are some afraid that films like this can influence people to reconsider their sexual orientation;nonsense..............As heterosexual female I can say that sometimes homosexual lovemaking has greater emotional impact on me than some stereotypical heterosexual scenes not being well incorporated in a film..........and unable to create the expected empathy.Exactly is the same with my boyfriend.....................PS Some may consider me some Euro-decadent but if Brokeback Mountain sent my boyfriend and me right to bed after seeing it I'd consider it great without previously sorted out the complete picture in my head;which I'll certainly do after lovemaking.

 

[Irvine511]

PS Some may consider me some Euro-decadent but if Brokeback Mountain sent my boyfriend and me right to bed after seeing it I'd consider it great without previously sorted out the complete picture in my head;which I'll certainly do after lovemaking.

i don't consider you Euro-decadant at all -- i had the same thought, that it would inspire something really hot apres-film sex. but what was so amazing about the film was that it simultaneously left me emotionally devastated (and in no condition to respond to anyone sexually) yet fully affirmed in the power and necessity and worth of human love.

it was a night to just lie there, with each other, and let the silence say everything.



(though it was a monday night and i didn't get home until almost 1am so he just dropped me off in front of my house and went home

 

[darbyZ]

i don't consider you Euro-decadant at all -- i had the same thought, that it would inspire something really hot apres-film sex. but what was so amazing about the film was that it simultaneously left me emotionally devastated (and in no condition to respond to anyone sexually) yet fully affirmed in the power and necessity and worth of human love.

it was a night to just lie there, with each other, and let the silence say everything.



(though it was a monday night and i didn't get home until almost 1am so he just dropped me off in front of my house and went home

Well,if so,the reason more to see the film..................I really like how you put it......................

 

[Anthony]

I can't wait to watch the movie - it only starts opening here in London on the 30th. Will definitely see it then.

Ant.

 

[darbyZ]

I can't wait to watch the movie - it only starts opening here in London on the 30th. Will definitely see it then.

Ant.

Oh,that's great..............

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Very much looking forward to this one.

For Australians - opens here Jan 26.

 

[A_Wanderer]

It should have some harsh competition this upcoming Oscar season

Incident at Amity: Steven Spielberg directs this cerebral remake of Jaws slated for summer release. Insiders say the 31-year update will feature "additional points of view" and "be less judgmental to sharks." Starring Willam H. Macy as the anti-shark fundamentalist, and Tom Hanks as the Great White.

Silenced Wood: George Clooney stars and directs in this drama about the climate of fear among ventriloquists during radio's notorious Charlie McCarthy era.

Hershey Highway: Based on the Tony Kushner play, a candy factory worker (Phillip Sousa Huffnagel) and Amish teen (Joaquin Seymour Gyllenhall) find forbidden pleasure in this poignant love tale set against the gritty backdrop of Pennsylvania's chocolate belt.

Me Billy: Based on the inspirational true story of a learning disabled man (Sean Penn) who rescues New Orleans from racist flood with a magical red cup.

Baby Doc: Jamie Foxx stars in this biopic about Haitian civil rights activist wrongly accused of despotism by LA police.

Reservoir Puppies: Director Quentin Tarantino teams with Pixar in this animated children's holiday tale about six lost whelps and a botched burglary. Starring the voices of Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, and Mike Meyers as Mister Pinky.

Zaftig Pi: The Eigenvectress. Plus-size video game superheroine comes to life, as Oscar winner Kathy Bates battles Christian fundamentalist aliens with kung fu cartwheels.

The Vespa Diaries: Romantic revolutionary scooterist Pol Pot (Lysol Phoenix) and US intellectual Noam Chomsky (Matt Affleck) find gay rainforest love in this Cambodian remake of 'Roman Holiday' that had Sundance audiences cheering.

Fearful Silence: Courageous What's My Line? contestant (Leonardo DiCaprio) refuses to answer panelist questions in this gameshow drama set against the McCarthy-blacklist era. With William H. Macy as Bennett Cerf and Kevin Spacey as Kitty Carlisle.

Angel Soft This: In a shocking and sometimes humorous indictment of the toilet paper industry, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock documents the ravages he suffers after 30 straight days of non-stop buttwiping.

Mugabe: Will Smith stars in this biopic about Zimbawean civil rights activist wrongly accused of mass starvation program by LA police.

Lunch Lady: poignant story of school cook-turned-playground strangler has generated advanced Oscar buzz for star Jennifer Lopez, who reportedly gained 400 pounds, facial tatoos and gum disease for the role

Fearful Deadly Fear: Blacklisted 1950's screenwriter Damon Runyan (Tim Robbins) writes a secret screenplay about the the McCarthy-era blacklists, in this 1950's blacklist drama set against the background of the McCarthy era blacklists.

Cold Humpcrack Creekwater: Two retarded Gay cowgirl sisters (Rene Zellweger, Jenna Jameson) defy a fundamentalist sherriff (Hovercraft Phoenix) and discover love in this 1930's period piece set in the Appalachian outback of Nebraskansaw.

Redemption: the Idi Amin Story: Gary Coleman stars in this biopic about Ugandan civil rights activist wrongly accused of cannibalism by LA police.

Snow Fuji Mountain: Mothra (Toby Damon) and Gamera (Orlando Law) discover forbidden love while destroying Tokyo, in this story of nuclear-triggered sexual awakening.

The Girl is Fabulous: Totally straight New Yorker Ted (Tom Cruise) falls head over heels in hetero love with Marcy (Katie Holmes) in this completely ungay romantic comedy set against the backdrop of New York's glamorous West Village.

Silence 1984: Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris interviews the survivors of Hollywood's notorious Reagan era 'Year of Fear,' when only three McCarthy-themed movies were released.

link

 

[financeguy]

^ On a similar note, a few years ago Martin Amis wrote a fairly amusing short story about an alternate universe where homosexuality was the norm and the 'straight' world was a sidelined counter-culture.

 

[deep]

i don't want to give anything away, as some of the film does turn on some surprises, but it's not like there's a twist ending. there's so much space and silence in the movie, the first 30 minutes are a bit odd, a bit slow, lots of silence, and the rapturous Wyoming/Canadian Rockies scenery. yes, there is a sex scene, but it's probably about as tasteful as one could imagine without sacraficing lust, and the other love scenes are about intimacy, not lust.

i agree that the first 30 minutes took its time

i guess you might call it 'background' to establish the characters, time and setting

slingblade, began slow also

and heath, snorts and mumbles abit too



of the two characters, jack is more of a risk taker, wants more out of life than the pieces that some might settle for,

one wonders if the heath character would have ever acted on his same sex attraction if he had not met jack


one could say there is a (jack) twist ending


the film is on most top 10 lists

and it belongs there

 

[YellowKite]

Ok so late on the bandwagon, but Brokeback Mountain isn't playing anywhere within 200 miles of around here. I had to drive to Atlanta today for a funeral and so I stopped on the way home to see this movie. I was already pretty emotional but I have only one word to say: heartwrenching.

I debated between heartbreaking and heartwrenching but decided that this is truly a story of real things. Real people, real moments, real love and real friendship. So at first it was more heartbreaking, but as I thought it over on the three hour drive back home, I decided that the better word is heartwrenching. The story could break your heart [if you are looking for the happily ever after] but I actually feel like it did such a poignant job of telling a real story of love and the beauty it added to these men's lives that it doesn't do it justice to say it simply breaks your heart. The end could leave you saddened for the enormity of the losses suffered, but upon reflection I think it makes Ennis a better person to have really felt this relationship in all its glory and heartache from beginning to end.

There are a few moments in that movie that just hung in the air with the power of emotion. Moments I can still hold in my mind and look at hours later. Too bad it is playing so far away. I think I might want to see this one again on the bigscreen.

A must see movie - the cinematography, the script, the acting and the way it stays with you and sinks into your heart and mind.

 

[Doozer61]

 

[doctorwho]

i agree.

can you think of an example where you thought a reasonably graphic sex scene was artistically appropriate?

I can.

In "Leaving Las Vegas", Elisabeth Shue's character is ultimately raped by her "clients" (she plays a prostitute). She has a series of clients and as a result, sex is part of her life. To not show ANY sex in this film would make the movie analogous to "Pretty Woman" - something that's cute and cuddly and all fun, but not based on reality in any fashion. Even though she's a prostitute, Shue's character has her limits and that rape scene was a very powerful scene in the film.

Another exampe, IMO, is in "Fatal Attraction". There's a quick scene when Michael Douglas' character is having intercourse with Glenn Close's character. The scene works in the movie, because it shows the passion, lust and powerful sexual connection those two characters have. This gives a basis for why Close's character ultimately stalks and then threatens the lives of Douglas's character's family. Without that brief yet powerful scene, her actions might seem odd. So they had a one night stand - what's the big deal? But by seeing it, one realizes why she becomes so attached and why she refuses to let go.

But I have to ask, when people think of "graphic sex" in a movies, what exactly do you mean? This isn't pornography - there are no close-ups of genetalia (for better or worse). Usually, it's just the motion of sex and is on screen for a few token seconds.

Another person wrote how the "vast majority" of Hollywood films have sex. IMO, that says more about the person's choice of movies than it does about Hollywood, because I've seen tons of films without any sex. Even a token look at this year's big blockbuster films proves this. No sex in "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter" or "King Kong" or "Batman Forever" or "Chronicles of Narnia" or "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" or "War of the Worlds". There are all sorts of movies - something like "Wedding Crashers" or "40-Year Old Virgin" or "Brokeback Mountain" will have sex scenes. If that's such a horrible turn-off for someone, then there are tons of films that don't have sex. It seems odd to chastise Hollywood for portaying something that is a huge part of most people's lives.

 

[foray]

Nice post, doctorwho. May I add that the love scene in Don't Look Now (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) gives the film definition; without that one scene we would not understand their grief upon losing a child and their relationship.

There was a poll conducted with two groups of people; those who watched The Accused (Jodie Foster) with the graphic rape scene and those who did not. Most of the ones who did not see the rape scene agreed that Foster's character was "asking for it".

What do you think of Ireversible, though? That was a waste of time for me.

foray

 

[diamond]

i was concerned w the gay on gay violence i witnessed in the trailer.
the cowboys were having a quarrel that erupted in fist da cuffs.
i witnessesed this in the trailer.

there is too much violence in movies and gay on gay violence is an under reported crime.

and please don't tell me that cowboys will be cowboys or i will have to report
you
to moderators for steretyping cowboys.

thank u

db9

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I haven't seen the movie diamond but I don't think the "violence" has anything to do with "gay on gay violence" and I don't quite know what you mean by that-as far as I know the vast majority of violence perpetrated against gay people is by straight people.

From what I've read about the movie, any "violence" might have to do with both of them being in some sort of denial about their attraction for each other, thus it is integral to the story and not violence just for the sake of it. Someone who has seen it can explain it much better than I can.