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marantzo
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:31 pm Reply with quote
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In other words, BBM seems to have become a 'sacred cow' to a large group.
Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:56 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
daffy wrote:
Thanks for that, joe. It's amazing that two people can watch the exact same movie and have such opposite reactions! I disagree with almost every single sentence in your review. Sorry about that, but there it is.


You're in very good company. Almost no one agreed with my review. I'm fine with that.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
marantzo wrote:
Joe, much more often than not, I agree with your take on movies. That's why I often say that your taste and peception of movies is very good. If I agree, of course they must be good. As you know, I haven't seen BBM, but what you said about it and the things I have heard about it from both sides, leads me to believe that what you wrote would have been very close to how I would have judged the movie.

There was an interesting take on the movie that I haven't read anyone comment on, that I heard from a woman a week or so ago. She really didn't like the movie and was particulary bothered by the annual adultery that the two main characters commit. You all should know how I feel about adultery treated in a sympathetic manner, so I'm sure I'd agree, but I don't remember anyone on here commenting on this part of the movie. Maybe I missed it because I haven't read all the comments.


I got a kick out of your first paragraph.

Yes, there was discussion about how the wives were treated here. Furthermore, among critics that seemed to be the real dividing line. Some thought the female characters were mistreated by both the male characters and the director. Others thought just the opposite. I've read Ang Lee addressing this issue in interviews.

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mo_flixx
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 2:43 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
marantzo wrote:
In other words, BBM seems to have become a 'sacred cow' to a large group.


Not to me. I've already written that I fully expect to come to the realization in a few years...and say incredulously to myself, "you liked THAT"? I did compare BBM to "Gentlemen's Agreement" in a previous post.

But right NOW, it was the right film, in the right place, for the right person (me).
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Syd
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:41 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Joe: I liked the movie better than you, but I thought you were right on the money about the first sex scene and Heath Ledger. (I thought Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams were just fine.) In fact, I'd go further on the first sex scene: the whole scene seemed like a contrivance to get the two characters in bed and it reminded me more of a juvenile sex fantasy than anything real. I also agree with you about the lack of eroticism through most of the film (although I liked the bit where they're chasing each other and their boss comes upon him). The most erotic scene for me was between Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, but that may because I'm straight.

My big probem was that I didn't like Ennis and I didn't care for Heath Ledger's performance. Since Ennis is (or should be) the emotional core of the movie, that's a big problem for me. I felt more sympathy for Jake, although he was the one who got married after he should have known better, because Jake was the one who actually wanted to be honest.

I also think it would have solved a hell of a lot of problems if they had hitchhiked to Greenwich Village.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:11 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
A friend of mine said, "Jack's driving through Texas to get to Mexico and never notices the gay communities in Houston, Austin, or Dallas? It's the late 60's-to-mid-70's." He was absolutely right. One of the details that rang so false to me.

Everyone says, "Well, it was the time period." Like the story takes place two hundred years ago. There were well established gay communities here by the early seventies, and probably before Stonewall. I know Mary's, a Houston bar and the oldest gay bar in Texas, predates that event.

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mo_flixx
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:07 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Joe Vitus wrote:
A friend of mine said, "Jack's driving through Texas to get to Mexico and never notices the gay communities in Houston, Austin, or Dallas? It's the late 60's-to-mid-70's." He was absolutely right. One of the details that rang so false to me.

Everyone says, "Well, it was the time period." Like the story takes place two hundred years ago. There were well established gay communities here by the early seventies, and probably before Stonewall. I know Mary's, a Houston bar and the oldest gay bar in Texas, predates that event.


Ennis tends bar at Mary's - great idea for a sequel!

Wink


Last edited by mo_flixx on Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:12 am; edited 1 time in total
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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:21 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Actually, it would be pretty good to see a follow-up where Ennis is a bartender in some gay joint. You know, the grizzled older guy who doesn't get involved with anyone but watches out for the kids. Why not?

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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:03 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Jeremy: EXACTLY.

A Brokeback sequel is unthinkable, nor imitators likely: A watershed moment can't be recreated. I think there's no danger of that, but there could be many elevated tele-technique films of quasi-Altman/Anderson ilk. Depends on how the fallout plays out, for starters. Stephen King has weighed in, so has Bill Maher, so has virtually everybody but Carrottop. Steve Lopez printed responses to his previous column, some detractors, more supporters. Annie Proulx dissed the situation in her inimitable way, Haggis in his. Lightning rod moment for the Industry.

Dear hearts, I don't care who loved what film I didn't, or vice-versa, or, indeed, how the outcome occurred (Because the various elements of salesavoidance -- nearly 1, 500 ballots didn't return this year -- meant that one than more person voted for Crash than Brokeback).) The only opinion finally that matters to anyone is their own. It's the unshaken local perception of Why It Occurred that has the global film village on its haunches and AMPAS besieged, and, again, there's Something Different Afoot. As previously noted, I found the victor impressively ambitious in its acting, overly schematic and often painfully ham-fisted in its narrative aethestic, twice; this forum got my untrammeled gut reaction to the defeated on opening day, and that response only deepened, thrice. I can say no more to the uproar than that, as I have to cover the annual S.T.A.G.E. AIDS benefit at Cal State LA.

Everyone's racist, love is a force of nature, life's too short and we should all have a Fallujan orphan's problems. Happy cinematizin'.

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Syd
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:11 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Never underestimate the power of the temptation of doing sequels. If someone can do a sequel to Terms of Endearment, someone can do one of Brokeback Mountain. Center it around Jack's and Ennis's kids and call it Brokeback Generation.

Having Ang Lee direct it is a different matter. The man hasn't done a sequel yet. But I'm sure there's a hack somewhere who thinks it's a good idea.

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mo_flixx
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:33 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
One of the most disappointing sequels I can think of is the 1990 "Texasville," sequel to "The Last Picture Show."
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Syd
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 5:06 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
And Terms of Endearment, The Evening Star, The Last Picture Show and Texasville were all written by Larry McMurtry, who wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. We're doomed!

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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mo_flixx
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:30 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Syd wrote:
And Terms of Endearment, The Evening Star, The Last Picture Show and Texasville were all written by Larry McMurtry, who wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. We're doomed!


Apt observation, but McMurtry will be laughing all the way to the bank!
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Nancy
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:38 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4607 Location: Norman, OK
Syd wrote:
Never underestimate the power of the temptation of doing sequels. If someone can do a sequel to Terms of Endearment, someone can do one of Brokeback Mountain. Center it around Jack's and Ennis's kids and call it Brokeback Generation.


Sounds like a gay version of the last part of Wuthering Heights. I assume the kids are out herding sheep on the moors.

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yambu
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:21 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area
Nancy, I thought you should know this immediately. From some website:

"Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire moors have taught themselves to roll 8ft (3m) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids - and raid villagers' valley gardens...."

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