MIGUELGOMEZ said:

my ex sent me a copy for Xmas i should get in the mail today!!!

ehuffnsd said:

nice ex!

cborgman said:

I still love Troy as does he me, but we both know that right now it's just not going to work.

Okay....I clicked on here with curiousity...I'm FINALLY going to see it next week with this gay youth group I volunteer with. OMG...we went to the theater about 3 weeks ago, everybody else saw RENT, and I saw Aeon Flux, and when we got back in the car those bitches were STILL wiping their eyes. And I'm like "Bitches please. I payed $10 to see the last 30 minutes of Aeon Flux, and I'm not even gonna wipe my ass so ya'll can cut this cryin shit OUT. Save it for Bareback Mountain."

nick, me, and two of his friends went and saw it last night again.

it is much better the second time, when you notice all the tiny details.

i am also now without a doubt that jack was killed, and that the father-in-law had something to do with it, and that jack's wife was too

I know I need to see this movie, I just don't think I can. I don't like sad movies y'all.

CynthiasSocks said:

trust me when i say it is very much worth it. this is probably the best movie this year.

I won't get into a whole critical analysis of the movie, but I think it was one of the best of the year. Really stunning work as usual from Ang Lee. He's a lot like the late, great Robert Wise in that he excels in any genre he sets his mind to. A straight man from Hong Kong has now made two classics of gay cinema (The Wedding Banquet being the other one).

Most movies I can tell right off how I feel about them, but there are a few that I need to digest for a few days to really work out my feelings on them. Throughout most of the movie I thought to myself that it was good. The ending was wrenching and really well-paced. Of course, I cried, and I cannot fathom anyone who's not moved to tears easily not crying at this film regardless of their feelings on the subject matter. After I left the theatre and into the next day, I thought about the film a lot and got what it was building up to. It's not about their relationship per se, but the impact it had on each other's lives. The more I thought about it, the better a film it became.

There were two standout performances in the film for me - Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams. Michelle Williams has proven a few times that she has the ability to do well in films, but she usually prefers lower budget, smaller release films. In this film, she's great at expressing from the inside out the effects of her own relationship with Ennis as well as the effect of Jack's relationship with Ennis. I hope to see more good things from her in the future. Up until I saw this, Philip Seymour Hoffman was without a doubt the performance of the year for me. After seeing Ledger's performance, I just don't know. They were both superb, and I'd be happy to see either of them walk away with an Oscar this year.

I'm sure there are plenty who'd disagree with me, but I think the one drawback to the film is Jake Gyllenhaal. I know he's cute as a button and that his character is fleshed out very well in the script and short story, but I think his performance was drowned out by Ledger, particularly in their last blowout by the lake.

That one thing aside, it's a really outstanding film, and I'm glad to see it playing in cineplexes as well as arthaus theatres. It's essential viewing.

RipHer2Shreds said:

i agree about jake. he was adequate at best when compared to heath's genius performance, and i also agree about philip seymour hoffman, but i still think phillip will win, simply because he is owed one at this point for all the stuff he didn't win or get nominated for.

truth be told, i think heath's war a better performance

Dammit...just cuz I take forever to write about stuff...kickin' me off...

Anyway, the gist of my response was that I think everyone in the film did a helluva job, and I wouldn't know where to begin to start comparing them to each other. But I don't have the attention span for movies (though I made an exception for BBM), so maybe it's just a lack of exposure to these things.

Also, I liked the book better (don't they all?), but that's because Proulx did such an awesome job writing it. I guess I feel the way about the book to movie translation as most people feel about Heath to Jake: Jake was Amazing!, but Heath was AMAZING!!!!. Like, if there had been no book/Heath, then the movie/Jake would be the pinnacle. Does that make any sense?

On a final note, the only thing I really didn't care for was the guitar melody that kept being repeated. Gah.


Squeak
Read book. Watch movie. Tell others.
www.brokebackmountainmovie.com
http://ennislovedjack.blogspot.com/ <----(complete book online)

the scene where his exwife confronts him in the kitchen and they fight and he leaves... was incredibly intense and well done... dayem.... that was strong.

ufoclub said:

Squeakity said:

That really surprises me. Maybe my emotions are easily manipulated by music or something, but that melody really got me. Especially when it started to swell up in Jack's house toward the end...

cborgman said:

I'm taking my mother to see it this weekend. I can't wait to see it again.

I loved this movie. I was tearing up at the end as well. I don't think Jack's own father had anything to do with his death. I find that a bit hard to believe. The father-in-law theory is more plausible.

sextonseven said:

There was just something creepy and almost cryptic about the things the father said. When he said something like, "I'll tell you what, I know where Brokeback Mountain is. And he's gonna be buried in the family plot." It sounded to me like "Tell you what, I know about this homo shit. And if my son chose damnation in life, he'll get some salvation in death." Or some shit like that. Plus that line about all Jack's ideas becoming the past. He was so emotionless on the surface but seemed to convey something sinister under the surface, if you catch my drift.

Really good movie.

I keep calling it "Gay Schindler's List," in that, if you're gay, it's a bit critic-proof, but I too was surprised how much I liked it. I mean, I knew there was no way I was come out of a movie where Jake and Heath make out and ask for my money back, but still...

We saw it with a mostly straight audience in Brooklyn, and the whole theater was pretty much weep city.
[Edited 1/3/06 9:01am]

FunkMistress said:

I just interpreted that as meaning he knew all about his son's secret life and that he didn't like it and it isn't so bad that he's dead. But to actually have a hand in his death would have been over the top. I mean to kill your own son is some crazy, Marvin Gaye Sr.-type shit. Jake's dad didn't come across that way to me.

sextonseven said:

I agree that it's a crazy, unfathomable idea. But the whole mindset of some people is crazy and unfathomable to me. There are plenty of people in Middle America who would rather see their son dead than see him "dishonor" the family by being an abomination.

Sad but true.

MendesCity said:

That's how I walked in. I was really suprised by how much it genuinely touched me.



Same here in Boston. I felt like less of a sissy when I heard all the nose-blowing and sniffling going on all over the theater.

FunkMistress said:

And what was great that the weepiness felt earned, and not just like some cheap fake feel-good ending (c.f., the god-awful Family Stone, where the folks get over death a year later like it was just some missed TV show)

FunkMistress said:

Maybe if both Jake's parents felt that way I'd believe it more, but you could see genuine sorrow in Jake's mother. If his father did have something to do with his death, no way would the mom know anything about it.

MendesCity said:

I agree. I went with a friend who was disappointed in the ending. She kept hoping for some type of happy ending, like Ennis getting the ashes, going and finding the other man Jack was involved with, making peace with him, and scattering the ashes together on Brokeback. (Yes, she actually said that. I love her anyway.) I was so glad they didn't go for anything as bullshit as that. The ending was realistic. Like I said above, the characters stayed who they were and life basically went on.

sextonseven said:

See, again, I think this has a lot to do with the culture and mindset of that particular time and place. Wives were expected to look the other way when it came to "men's business."

I hear you, though. And I love that enough was left to the imagination that we can have these debates and there could still be yet another answer that we hadn't even thought of.

Squeakity said:

I also liked the book a little better. And you're right the books are usually much better than the movies. It's funny how they chose two really good looking stars for the movie because, as I recall, Jack is described as being really goofy and kinda ugly looking.


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Books and movies alwasy get compared - buthey are two entirely differnt mediums for telling a story. Books are always more in depth and can inlcude far more detail than a film does - although some film adaptations of books can be very good - but can't really convey every detail that a book can.

I actually like the casting of BBM because these guys are two up and coming leading men who are breaking the stereotypes of that Hollywood device. The acting and thie direction here were superb. I LOVE Ang Lee - he has got to be one of the most versatile directors working today - look at his filmography already: Wedding Banquet - Eat Drink Man Woman - Sense and Sensibility - Crouching Tiger - The Ice Storm -- no matter what the time period or genre - he is simply a master story teller!

DiminutiveRocker said:

Hey Barb, I just realized I've seen all of his movies. Except...er....um....THE HULK.


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

I liked Hulk. Maybe Ang Lee wasn't the right director for the film, but I think he did a very good job. It was a very deep film. Unfortunately, the audience that the movie was geared towards wasn't looking for depth.

sextonseven said:

You know what. I never thought of it that way. Maybe I should see it in the perspective. I haven't seen it at all.

M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

I went to see Hulk with friends who aren't movie snobs like I am and they hated it because there was too much time spent on character development. And it also was very different from the comic book, but if you never read the book, how would you know?