It is a western film, but I guess I just think of gunslingers (no jokes ) when I think of western films. My fave is Unforgiven.

I dont even really consider Dances with Wolves a western, but it is.

Thank you for acknowledging my post. Ironically, a portion of the straight audience that is seeing Brokeback is attracted to the Western aspect of the film (from what I've read/heard in the media). Cowboy movies are actually quite popular.

It may be weak but Society judges people by who they are and a lot of gay men think that the only way to deal with being a Homosexual is to hide it.
I'm guessing you have never been in a situation where you have been looked down upon because of your sexuality? You have never hidden that information so you are treated like everyone else?

Not since I came out when I was 19. What's the point of coming out if it's half-assed?

Everyone at work knows (all 3 of my jobs). Everyone in my family knows. Every one of my friends know.

If you're going to live your life worried about how society (or anyone else, for that matter) judges you, you're not living at all.

Digi, I'm not trying to be a smart ass here. Have you ever personally been confronted by threatening people who disapprove of homosexuality? Have you ever had beer bottles town at you as you exit a gay bar and had "f*ggot" screamed out you? Have you ever been jumped in a parking lot of a gay bar by some idiots simply because you are gay? Again, I'm not trying to be an ass. I am serious with my questions. I could be wrong, but it seems quite easy for someone who lives in such a liberal city as NYC to take being openly gay for granted. You don't seem to have much patience for people who are not as fortunate as you. It's quite easy to say "fuck society" when you live where you do.

Yes it is. But I also wouldn't live somewhere where it's not an option.

No, none of that has ever happened to me. The amount of rage that I would feel would be incomprehensible. I'm livid even when I hear of it happening here in NYC.

Again, I'd probably be dead if I did.

Digi, to me, this is all my opinion, this boils down to you hating Brokeback Mountain because it's a tragic love story--which you made perfectly clear before you even saw it. You're blaming this movie for not being some *other* movie. You don't want any gay tragic love stories, whereas I think the world needs *all kinds* of gay stories.

Thank God this isn't a feelgood movie. A feelgood movie wouldn't make joe-and-jane-sixpack face up to anything. This movie says loud and clear that *without* respect for gay love we're *all* prone to misery: gays and straights alike. If you want to prevent Almas and Lureens, then don't raise gay boys to hate themselves, and don't prevent gay couples from having the dignity and shot at happiness they deserve. I think it's very *clearly* part of the solution.

And if the next gay tragedy stars Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp, I'll probably love it too.

While it may not be true, you really do speak as if you had no firsthand experience with oppression whatsoever.

On the other hand I've been nervous and paranoid about mowing my own front lawn because I'm gay for the past 25 years.

Like yourself, I'm completely out of the closet. But it ain't ever easy around here. Maybe that makes me one of your heroes. I doubt it.

Adam,

You're really NOT getting it.

I saw no love. Nothing. None. I saw nothing even remotely interesting nor attractive about either character. Thus, I saw no reason to care.

I don't want it to be happy though I am completely and totally fed up with gay characters dying of one reason or another. I should at least give a shit.

Please stop trying to pinpoint where my disdain for the movie is coming from. It's very simple. I judge BBM on the same scale as ANY OTHER movie I go to see. But if anything, I'm a bit more judgemental because people are so heavily equating it with the gay community.

I was ridiculed for the first 18 years of my life for being different. yeah, I was called gay or *** or whatever but it wasn't because people necessarily thought I was such. They were doing it just because I wasn't like everyone else.

I've never been ostracized because someone found out I was gay. To be honest, if the did then fuck them. I don't care if you're my mom, my best friend, my teacher or my boss. You have a problem with it, then that's on YOU. I'll move on elsewhere to where I'm accepted. That's called self-esteem where I come from.

Now, people don't assume that I'm gay. There's really nothing flamboyant about me. But even if there were, I'm not going to live my life in fear. To live in fear isn't living at all.

A bit? LOL.

But then again, I'm grounded enough in reality to realize that Brokeback is just another movie and CERTAINLY doesn't represent my life or any lifestyle I would ever contemplate living. As I said before, I would never allow myself to be that helpless.

At least now we see who's really the one with the insults, thanks.

Edit: that was in response to your calling me pathetic, which you then softened. Somewhat.

What insult? it's not like i called you ghetto or insulted your tastes. That happened once to me. So yeah...i guess i have felt ostracized because of who i am.

Anyway...how bout that little gay cowboy movie, eh?

I think you may have the key to why some are caustic when reviewing this film. Personally, I was nearly beaten by some teenagers when I was in my early twenties. Fortunately, friends were sitting in a parked car near where I was walking and their presence stopped the attack. Brokeback speaks to us of the awful anti-gay violence in our culture. It's a painful message and some will do anything to ignore it or deny its validity.

I just don't understand why disliking the movie somehow invalidates your experiences or existance. Apparently it does, in some sense. It's like you just can't comprehend how someone wouldn't like it. That's what I don't get.

If the people who loved BBM weren't so steadfast in their belief that the ones who don't have something wrong with them or they're missing something, I think this conversation would go MUCH smoother.

I hope you're not referring to me because I CERTAINLY never said or did either.

I sincerely believe your visceral reaction to Brokeback is evidence of an aversion to something in the movie. Not liking a movie and simply finding a film mediocre is one thing - you've gone far beyond this with your posts. Again, you are welcome here and most certainly entitled to your opinions.

I don't care that you dislike the movie. I care that you're the most tireless gay poster on this board and can't stop trashing it. You're the one on the crusade *against* the movie. You've made it clear you think it's anti-gay, that it's part of the problem, not the solution, that it's something you're ashamed to be associated with.

When in fact, it's doing incredibly good and important work in the culture.

Again (repeating myself) this movie says loud and clear that *without* respect for gay love we're *all* prone to misery: gays and straights alike. If you want to prevent Almas and Lureens, then don't raise gay boys to hate themselves, and don't prevent gay couples from having the dignity and shot at happiness they deserve.

I think it's very *clearly* part of the solution, and am very proud of it. All notions of art aside. And as far as art goes, yes, I think it's a damn fine peice of work.

And that has WHAT to do with me explaining to you what happened in the movie?

Part of what I like about posting in these forums are different opinions but I have to admit that digi's are one note. No shades of grey, just dark black!


Exactly. I feel he had it made up before hand too and has been working the crowd's emotions ever since.

Off-topic, but has anyone here ever seen Partners? It's the movie that *I* feel about the way our friend feels about BBM.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084477/combined

It's a mainstream Hollywood comedy circa 1982. Typically poorly written cop/buddy film. It's Turner & Hooch, except that the partner is (gasp!) gay instead of a dog. And of course, since he's gay he has to die at the end.

It's really worth watching today as an object lesson in just how misguided Hollywood can be while thinking it's being supportive. You'll love it. And by love it, I mean throwing your TV out the window.

Is this the movie where one of the cops, on the movie poster, is holding a hair dryer? If so, I absolutely agree with you. Brokeback shows how much Hollywood has changed in some ways.

The imdb link above has only the tiniest picture of the VHS box (), but probably.And yet how far we have to go. As I BBM fan, I still must note--and it's not coincidence-- that the most important gay-friendly film to date has 1) no characters who are openly gay or would define themselves so and 2) has no openly gay people in the creative team behind it. You can't be out of the closet in Wyoming in '63, or in Hollywood in '06, it would appear...

Whatever.

If you're going to insult me, then at least make it intelligent.

And adam, I was thinking about you on the subway ride home.

Come out to NYC for a week. I'd love to show you what it's like to not be afraid.