Irvine511
Blue Crack Supplier
it hasn't opened yet, but it looks like this film is both setting itself up to be a big-time Oscar contender, as well as a fascinating cultural moment.
consider two postings i came across this morning during my routine trip through the blogs ...
[q]XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 06, 2005 19:28:02 ET XXXXX
HOLLYWOOD ROCKED: 'GAY COWBOY' MOVIE BECOMES AN OSCAR FRONTRUNNER
Arriving with nudity and explicit gay sex scenes between two cowboys, UNIVERSAL/FOCUS FILMS's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has quietly become an award season frontrunner, interviews with Academy members reveal.
"It could very well be the last film standing at this year's Oscars," a top Hollywood producer not associated with the film explained from Hollywood.
"There was not a dry eye in the house at the screening at Telluride [Film Festival in Colorado]," says the producer, who asked not to be named out of respect for the cast and crew of the producer's own Oscar contender. "Watch it come out of the gate at the Golden Globes with super controversy."
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS critic Jack Mathews predicts the gay cowboy movie, which takes place in Wyoming, may be "too much for red-state audiences, but it gives the liberal-leaning Academy a great chance to stick its thumb in conservatives' eyes."
Director Ang Lee's movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival earlier this fall.
But will a movie even Madonna calls "shocking" sit with the heartland?
Playwright and lifelong Wyomingite tells the STAR-TRIBUNE of Casper this week that she has never encountered a gay cowboy, and doesn't think it's right for Hollywood to portray Wyoming as a state with gay cowboys.
Her message to the writers of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: “Don't try and take what we had, which was wonderful -- the cowboys that settled the state and made it what it was -- don't ruin that image... There's nothing better than plain old cowboys and the plain old history without embellishing it to suit everyone."
Meanwhile, Michell Howard of the state's Travel and Tourism Division says her agency is already hearing a buzz that people in other countries are expressing interest in visiting Wyoming because of the film.
“It's gotten rave reviews from the international community,” she said. “I don't know if they're more tolerant or something, but they're viewing it as a great Western movie.”
Developing...
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3bm.htm
[/q]
[q]END OF GAY CULTURE WATCH: The movie, "Brokeback Mountain," looks set to be a fascinating cultural moment. What's interesting to me is that it takes the question of same-sex love and places it firmly in the center of American folklore, especially the cowboy West. Now, of course gay cowboys existed and exist. But that two very hot Hollywood leading men would be prepared to take on these roles, that a director as accomplished as Ang Lee would direct the movie, and that a studio as mainstream as Universal would produce it strikes me as a significant development. A few years back, it would have been unthinkable for bankable, heterosexual stars like Ledger and Gyllenhaal to have embraced such a venture. But they are of the generation that is mercifully over the bigotries of old Hollywood. Think of the greatest actor of his generation, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Three of his most powerful, accomplished, career-making performances - in "Boogie Nights," "Flawless," and "Capote," - are of gay men, each very different, each very human, each poignantly and brilliantly brought to life. In his case, taking on homosexual roles has helped Hoffman reach the career heights he now commands. Ledger and Gyllenhal take this to a new level, because, unlike Hoffman, they are handsome beyond measure, and have played macho heterosexuals for years. Now they get to play macho homosexuals - itself an inversion and abolition of a certain stereotype. I have yet to see the movie, so I cannot judge it on its merits. But so far, its potential cultural impact looks riveting. If it wins a wide audience, it will be one more sign that the old cliches of "gay culture" are indeed dying fast. I think Red State America is less fearful of the truth than its political representatives. But we'll see, I guess.
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/
[/q]
[q]MADONNA HAILS 'BRAVE' GYLLENHAAL AND LEDGER
Also see:
MADONNA
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
HEATH LEDGER
Superstar MADONNA has hailed "brave" Hollywood hunks JAKE GYLLENHAAL and HEATH LEDGER for portraying gay cowboys in their forthcoming movie BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
Madonna was treated to an early screening of the ANG LEE-directed movie, by one of the movie's producers, and is delighted the actors have taken on such controversial roles.
The MATERIAL GIRL enthuses to British gay magazine Attitude, "I loved it. Shocking. Surprising. The guy who financed my movie did that too. He's a very mild mannered chap from Minnesota and we'd just screened the latest cut of my film and he asked if I wanted to see it.
"I was thinking, 'OK, this really square, straight guy,' and he showed me this movie. It's amazing.
"They're really good those boys and they did a great job. It's very brave of them."
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/madonna hails brave gyllenhaal and ledger
[/q]
and here are some early reviews: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brokeback_mountain/
what's going on here? is homophobia, the last legislated prejudice, finally going to die?
and, once again, can we credit Hollywood -- that oft-bashed by the Right community -- for leading the way with a provocative film? for all that it does wrong, Hollywood has produced movies that have sparked conversations and might be credited for forcing people to talk about things such as race (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), AIDS (Philadelphia), American genocide (Dances With Wolves), and rape (The Accused) long, long before Washington is able to do so.
consider two postings i came across this morning during my routine trip through the blogs ...
[q]XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 06, 2005 19:28:02 ET XXXXX
HOLLYWOOD ROCKED: 'GAY COWBOY' MOVIE BECOMES AN OSCAR FRONTRUNNER
Arriving with nudity and explicit gay sex scenes between two cowboys, UNIVERSAL/FOCUS FILMS's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has quietly become an award season frontrunner, interviews with Academy members reveal.
"It could very well be the last film standing at this year's Oscars," a top Hollywood producer not associated with the film explained from Hollywood.
"There was not a dry eye in the house at the screening at Telluride [Film Festival in Colorado]," says the producer, who asked not to be named out of respect for the cast and crew of the producer's own Oscar contender. "Watch it come out of the gate at the Golden Globes with super controversy."
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS critic Jack Mathews predicts the gay cowboy movie, which takes place in Wyoming, may be "too much for red-state audiences, but it gives the liberal-leaning Academy a great chance to stick its thumb in conservatives' eyes."
Director Ang Lee's movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival earlier this fall.
But will a movie even Madonna calls "shocking" sit with the heartland?
Playwright and lifelong Wyomingite tells the STAR-TRIBUNE of Casper this week that she has never encountered a gay cowboy, and doesn't think it's right for Hollywood to portray Wyoming as a state with gay cowboys.
Her message to the writers of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: “Don't try and take what we had, which was wonderful -- the cowboys that settled the state and made it what it was -- don't ruin that image... There's nothing better than plain old cowboys and the plain old history without embellishing it to suit everyone."
Meanwhile, Michell Howard of the state's Travel and Tourism Division says her agency is already hearing a buzz that people in other countries are expressing interest in visiting Wyoming because of the film.
“It's gotten rave reviews from the international community,” she said. “I don't know if they're more tolerant or something, but they're viewing it as a great Western movie.”
Developing...
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3bm.htm
[/q]
[q]END OF GAY CULTURE WATCH: The movie, "Brokeback Mountain," looks set to be a fascinating cultural moment. What's interesting to me is that it takes the question of same-sex love and places it firmly in the center of American folklore, especially the cowboy West. Now, of course gay cowboys existed and exist. But that two very hot Hollywood leading men would be prepared to take on these roles, that a director as accomplished as Ang Lee would direct the movie, and that a studio as mainstream as Universal would produce it strikes me as a significant development. A few years back, it would have been unthinkable for bankable, heterosexual stars like Ledger and Gyllenhaal to have embraced such a venture. But they are of the generation that is mercifully over the bigotries of old Hollywood. Think of the greatest actor of his generation, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Three of his most powerful, accomplished, career-making performances - in "Boogie Nights," "Flawless," and "Capote," - are of gay men, each very different, each very human, each poignantly and brilliantly brought to life. In his case, taking on homosexual roles has helped Hoffman reach the career heights he now commands. Ledger and Gyllenhal take this to a new level, because, unlike Hoffman, they are handsome beyond measure, and have played macho heterosexuals for years. Now they get to play macho homosexuals - itself an inversion and abolition of a certain stereotype. I have yet to see the movie, so I cannot judge it on its merits. But so far, its potential cultural impact looks riveting. If it wins a wide audience, it will be one more sign that the old cliches of "gay culture" are indeed dying fast. I think Red State America is less fearful of the truth than its political representatives. But we'll see, I guess.
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/
[/q]
[q]MADONNA HAILS 'BRAVE' GYLLENHAAL AND LEDGER
Also see:
MADONNA
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
HEATH LEDGER
Superstar MADONNA has hailed "brave" Hollywood hunks JAKE GYLLENHAAL and HEATH LEDGER for portraying gay cowboys in their forthcoming movie BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
Madonna was treated to an early screening of the ANG LEE-directed movie, by one of the movie's producers, and is delighted the actors have taken on such controversial roles.
The MATERIAL GIRL enthuses to British gay magazine Attitude, "I loved it. Shocking. Surprising. The guy who financed my movie did that too. He's a very mild mannered chap from Minnesota and we'd just screened the latest cut of my film and he asked if I wanted to see it.
"I was thinking, 'OK, this really square, straight guy,' and he showed me this movie. It's amazing.
"They're really good those boys and they did a great job. It's very brave of them."
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/madonna hails brave gyllenhaal and ledger
[/q]
and here are some early reviews: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brokeback_mountain/
what's going on here? is homophobia, the last legislated prejudice, finally going to die?
and, once again, can we credit Hollywood -- that oft-bashed by the Right community -- for leading the way with a provocative film? for all that it does wrong, Hollywood has produced movies that have sparked conversations and might be credited for forcing people to talk about things such as race (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), AIDS (Philadelphia), American genocide (Dances With Wolves), and rape (The Accused) long, long before Washington is able to do so.