DREADPUBLISHING: Brokeback Mountain Op-Ed - The Australian - John Heard - January 30, 2006 - Fear Not And Feel The Love

[UPDATE] Annie Proulx lets the world know what she intended. Guess what, she doesn't have much time for 'urban critics':

"Although they were not really cowboys (the word cowboy is often used derisively in the west by those who do ranch work), the urban critics dubbed it a tale of two gay cowboys. No."

Similarly, it doesn't fit to have commentators, like Mendelsohn below, try to couch what Proulx calls 'country gay' in the Manhattanite sexual nomenclature:

"One old sheep rancher, dead now, used to say he always sent up two men to tend the sheep "so's if they get lonesome they can poke each other"."

This is not 'gay' as homoactivists understand that term. Certainly homophobia is dealt with in the text, and obviously lamented, but this is no manifesto for 'gay marriage' or other examples of rights overreach.

[UPDATE] Daniel Mendelsohn in the NYRB misses the point, tries to drape Brokeback Mountain in the language of the rainbow flag. At least he tries to make it about things like 'the closet'. What's next? Complaints that the film is heterosexist because it's written by a heterosexual woman?

[UPDATE] Brokeback Mountain nominated for EIGHT Academy Awards. The film received gongs for Best Picture, Best Director, Actor in a Leading Role (Ledger), Actor in a Supporting Role (Gyllenhaal), Actress in a Supporting Role (Williams), Adapted Screenplay, Original Score and Cinematography.

[UPDATE] Heath Ledger continues to drive the politcally correct crowd nuts by being an upfront aussie male. He plays straight acting and they shun him, he plays gay acting and they hate him. Maybe it's all a little too close to the bone boys?

[UPDATE] Screen Actors Guild snubs Brokeback Mountain. The cowboys failed to take a prize despite being nominated for four SAG Awards.

:: Yee Haw ::

An op-ed piece by DREADNOUGHT on Brokeback Mountain was published on Monday January 30 in The Australian newspaper. READ THE PIECE HERE. For my US DREADNOUGHTERS, The Australian is one of this nation's two pre-eminent newspapers and the only national daily.

Brokeback Mountain, A Film by Ang Lee (After a Short Story by Annie Proulx - Screenplay by Larry McMurty & Diana Ossana)

The film only opened in Australia on January 26. DREADNOUGHT watched it first over a month ago in Chelsea, NYC.

:: Deafening Silence ::

In an interview published recently, Annie Proulx, author of Brokeback Mountain described the reaction from 'gay organizations':

"AP: Have you gotten any response from gay organizations?”

"Proulx: No. When the story was first published eight years ago, I did expect that. But there was a deafening silence. What I had instead were letters from individuals, gay people, some of them absolutely heartbreaking. And over the years, those letters have continued and certainly are continuing now. Some of them are extremely fine, people who write and say, 'This is my story. This is why I left Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa.' Perhaps the most touching ones are from fathers, who say, 'Now I understand the kind of hell my son went through.'"

Curious, no? Unless perhaps - as I suggest in the op-ed - some liberals don't get Brokeback because the characters are real men, real blokes, rather than the stereotypes more usually seen in Hollywood films and 'pride marches'.

:: A Man's Man ::

Another key point, straight men are going in their thousands to see this film about man-love in the saddle.

Australian Heath Ledger Plays Ennis Del Mar

Proulx has a very good explanation for the universal and somewhat surprising appeal of such a tale:

"AP: Do you think straight men will watch this movie?"

"Proulx: They are watching this movie. Of course, why wouldn't they watch it? Straight men fall in love. Not necessarily with each other or with a gay man. My son-in-law, who prides himself on being a Bud-drinking, NRA-member redneck, liked the movie so much he went to it twice. Straight men are seeing it and they're not having any problem with it. The only people who would have problems with it are people who are very insecure about themselves and their own sexuality and who would be putting up a defense, and that's usually young men who haven't figured things out yet. Jack and Ennis would probably have trouble with this movie."

While DREADNOUGHT acknowledges some people - not necessarily repressed homosexuals - might also balk at the rare sex scenes, they'd likely object to a sex scene of any kind.

:: The Upshot ::

As I've said before, 'Proulx's story first and now Ang Lee's film help to tear away the nonsense that paints all same sex attracted men as feminised, mincing, Stonewall-slogan-shouting homoactivists. Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist are the first real 'gay' characters in contemporary popular culture.'

The more filmgoers who see them, indeed the more filmgoers who see us, the better.

'Fear Not and Feel the Love' - John Heard, The Australian January 30, 2006