Brokeback Mountain is a great new movie is coming to theaters next Friday, December 9th. While I'm typically not a fan of romantic movies, and almost never go to a theater to see one, Darren and I are making a point to see this one in the theater on opening weekend. Why?
1) The short story this movie is based on won a Pulitzer Prize
2) It has won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival
3) Movies are valued on their opening-weekend box office proceeds
4) This is a touching story of love - between two men
I have excerpted part of a Newsweek article about this movie. The full article can be found here. I encourage you all to read about it and help support Brokeback Mountain next weekend. Narnia also comes to theaters next weekend, so it will be a tough battle! Narnia is sure to be around for at least 3 weeks - why not see it when the theater is less crowded? :)
"Based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx ("The Shipping News"), "Brokeback" is the tale of Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), two ranch hands who, in the summer of 1963, are hired to herd sheep on Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain. There, separated from the rest of the world, their laconic friendship develops, almost by accident, into a sexual relationship. As the summer ends, the two men are forced to separate, and they discover that their feelings for each other are stronger than they imagined. Jack dreams of buying a ranch together. Ennis thinks they'll be killed if anyone suspects their relationship. And so they marry women and have children, and for 20 years live apart, seeing each other only on rare camping trips, trying to hold on to the innocence and beauty of that first summer on the mountain. Inevitably, the longing and frustration, the years of repression, lead to a devastating conclusion.
Its raw masculinity, spare dialogue and lonely imagery subverted the myth of the American cowboy and obliterated gay stereotypes. It has already earned the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and is almost certain to be an Oscar contender. More than that, though, "Brokeback" feels like a landmark film. No American film before has portrayed love between two men as something this pure and sacred. As such, it has the potential to change the national conversation and to challenge people's ideas about the value and validity of same-sex relationships.
The day Jake Gyllenhaal was cast in "Brokeback," the chatter around the industry was not about what a wise choice he'd made. "It's the most stupid move he could make," said one top producer over lunch that afternoon. "It'll alienate his teen-girl fan base and could kill his career. What a waste." Gyllenhaal and Ledger don't dodge it. The kissing and the sex scenes are fierce and full-blooded.
After seeing the movie, Gyllenhaal says, male reporters will enter a room to interview him and almost always follow the same routine. "They come in and they're all, like, 'I just want you to know I'm straight'," he says, and laughs. If they've been moved by the film, he says, they often rationalize it by saying things like "Well, it's really more of a friendship." No, it isn't. "It's a love story," Gyllenhaal says. "They're two men having sex. There's nothing hidden there." Ledger has a theory about why the movie makes some men uncomfortable. "I suspect it's a fear that they are going to enjoy it," he says. "They don't understand that you are not going to become sexually attracted to men by recognizing the beauty of a love story between two men."
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Random Thoughts
Over the past week, I've had a lot of random thoughts, but none that would be able to carry their own post. Or maybe they would, but would be irritating. Instead I have compiled them and hopefully together they make for a less-irritating full post:
1) 'Bird people' are weird. I don't understand the fascination, really. Yes, birds are interesting, but I am not going to get out of bed early to sit in a forest to watch them and try to interpret what they are saying. I also don't care what they eat. And? Birds in the house are annoyingly loud. It's also cruel - let them go.
2) Speaking of weird people: 'Anime people'. I was listening to the radio on my commute this morning, and a DJ was describing a really wacked out Japanese show (which really doesn't narrow it down, does it? ) that his daughter had recorded on TiVO (I refuse to use TiVO as a verb!). I was just getting over the description - a man who is a psuedo superhero whose power is that his NOSEHAIR can fight people (and the different nosehairs have personalities or something) - when a 40-something year-old man called in and stated quite forcefully that the show described is not REAL Anime, and that the real Anime is well done and amazing and...I turned the station. Dude, get a grip!
3) Dream Catchers. Ok, I get the basic premise. Native Americans believed bad dreams would be caught up in these thingys. Fine. So why do I see dream catchers hanging from the rear view mirrors of white hippies' cars? Do they live in their cars? Fall asleep at the wheel frequently? I most recently saw one hanging from the mirror in a pizza delivery car. Ehhhh....
4) Thanksgiving. I am for the most part against this particular holiday. I grew up with the white-washed version of kind British settlers who came to this country unprepared for winter etc. and were helped out by the Native Americans. Awww...*blech* They always leave out how we turned around and wiped out most of said Native Americans with either chicken pox, or firearms. Ok, maybe not all on the same day, but you know the history. For me, they are linked. In any case, I am still grateful for many things and people. I did have a nice dinner with the family members I actually like to spend time with as well as Darren (who I'm always grateful for, esp when he chases the cat with a water gun so I can sleep).
5) This weather is killing me. I finally got used to the colder weather and resigned myself to only having warmth in the sauna at the gym. Then a front came in, and it was 60 degrees again! What a cruel tease. Pick one season or the other! Why does Mother Nature hate me so?
6) I *heart* New Zealand. This is not news, but it was a (frequent) random thought all the same.
d
1) 'Bird people' are weird. I don't understand the fascination, really. Yes, birds are interesting, but I am not going to get out of bed early to sit in a forest to watch them and try to interpret what they are saying. I also don't care what they eat. And? Birds in the house are annoyingly loud. It's also cruel - let them go.
2) Speaking of weird people: 'Anime people'. I was listening to the radio on my commute this morning, and a DJ was describing a really wacked out Japanese show (which really doesn't narrow it down, does it? ) that his daughter had recorded on TiVO (I refuse to use TiVO as a verb!). I was just getting over the description - a man who is a psuedo superhero whose power is that his NOSEHAIR can fight people (and the different nosehairs have personalities or something) - when a 40-something year-old man called in and stated quite forcefully that the show described is not REAL Anime, and that the real Anime is well done and amazing and...I turned the station. Dude, get a grip!
3) Dream Catchers. Ok, I get the basic premise. Native Americans believed bad dreams would be caught up in these thingys. Fine. So why do I see dream catchers hanging from the rear view mirrors of white hippies' cars? Do they live in their cars? Fall asleep at the wheel frequently? I most recently saw one hanging from the mirror in a pizza delivery car. Ehhhh....
4) Thanksgiving. I am for the most part against this particular holiday. I grew up with the white-washed version of kind British settlers who came to this country unprepared for winter etc. and were helped out by the Native Americans. Awww...*blech* They always leave out how we turned around and wiped out most of said Native Americans with either chicken pox, or firearms. Ok, maybe not all on the same day, but you know the history. For me, they are linked. In any case, I am still grateful for many things and people. I did have a nice dinner with the family members I actually like to spend time with as well as Darren (who I'm always grateful for, esp when he chases the cat with a water gun so I can sleep).
5) This weather is killing me. I finally got used to the colder weather and resigned myself to only having warmth in the sauna at the gym. Then a front came in, and it was 60 degrees again! What a cruel tease. Pick one season or the other! Why does Mother Nature hate me so?
6) I *heart* New Zealand. This is not news, but it was a (frequent) random thought all the same.
d
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
The Martian Chronicles
I recently took a look at the books in my two bookcases and realized I have been moving books I have never read from place to place over the years. A couple weeks ago I picked up The Martian Chronicles - still brand new - and started reading. First, I love Ray Bradbury, and am quite fond of other books of his. However, when I started reading this book, I had a hard time forgetting what I knew about Mars from the recent NASA explorations. I almost gave up on the book. I'm really glad I didn't.
What a beautiful and poingnant piece of work, even after 60 years. So difficult to believe (and amazing to see) that Ray Bradbury was concerned about the same issues back then that I am concerned about now - humans wrecking the Earth then moving on to other planets only to wreck them too; American's disregard and disdain for anything different and unfamiliar. Ray packs a lot of story and meaning into a little book. Once I was able to suspend disbelief and accept his version of Mars, I could focus on his message. I guess I had no idea anyone was worried about the Earth to this extent back in the 40s. I understand concern about atomic war, but to hear the characters complain about humans chopping down trees and overpopulating and mining the hell out of the land was interesting.
When I read the ending, I interepreted in a way I don't think many other people do. It ended with a family from Earth arriving on Mars in a private rocket. Everyone on Mars had gone back to Earth to fight in the last great war. The father of the family promised his sons that he would show them "real live Martians", and in the end he did - he took them to the canal and had them peer into the water. He told them the Martians were there in the reflections. Based on the earlier parts of the book that had several examples of Martians outsmarting humans, my initial thought was that Martian had gone down to Earth when humans started populating Mars, created a family and bade his time until it was safe to come back and take his planet back.
While that may be the case, it could also be that the man meant that as his family moved to Mars, they are now Martians and should let go of the ideals of Earth. This would be a better message and more idealistic, but I like my initial thought as it is more clever (and I wanted the Martians to 'win'.)
Awesome book. I must read more!
What a beautiful and poingnant piece of work, even after 60 years. So difficult to believe (and amazing to see) that Ray Bradbury was concerned about the same issues back then that I am concerned about now - humans wrecking the Earth then moving on to other planets only to wreck them too; American's disregard and disdain for anything different and unfamiliar. Ray packs a lot of story and meaning into a little book. Once I was able to suspend disbelief and accept his version of Mars, I could focus on his message. I guess I had no idea anyone was worried about the Earth to this extent back in the 40s. I understand concern about atomic war, but to hear the characters complain about humans chopping down trees and overpopulating and mining the hell out of the land was interesting.
When I read the ending, I interepreted in a way I don't think many other people do. It ended with a family from Earth arriving on Mars in a private rocket. Everyone on Mars had gone back to Earth to fight in the last great war. The father of the family promised his sons that he would show them "real live Martians", and in the end he did - he took them to the canal and had them peer into the water. He told them the Martians were there in the reflections. Based on the earlier parts of the book that had several examples of Martians outsmarting humans, my initial thought was that Martian had gone down to Earth when humans started populating Mars, created a family and bade his time until it was safe to come back and take his planet back.
While that may be the case, it could also be that the man meant that as his family moved to Mars, they are now Martians and should let go of the ideals of Earth. This would be a better message and more idealistic, but I like my initial thought as it is more clever (and I wanted the Martians to 'win'.)
Awesome book. I must read more!
Monday, November 14, 2005
Skinny pregnant women are evil
Poor Darren had his work cut out for him this weekend after we attended a birthday party for a friend of mine. Now, I'm not a BIG girl...but neither am I a skinny girl. I am reasonably fit and curvy.
We were the first to arrive at the party on Saturday night - unusual for us to be right on time (esp to a party), but we knew that we didn't plan on attending the second half of the festivities out on the town. Also, it was the host's birthday, and she cooked! The least we could do is show up on time.
Her house was beautiful, and it was fun looking around and catching up with her before her other guests started coming in. The first was a painfully skinny girl with her fiance'. Like, one step away from needing hospitalization skinny. Still pretty, but I wondered how she supported the weight of her head.
I watched in horror as each woman who walked through the door was no larger than a size 4. I believe there were at least 5 or 6 other couples there. I felt larger and larger as they walked in. Nevermind I was sitting RIGHT next to the table with all the food. No way was I going to be the first to start eating! Thankfully, some of the men started dishing up their food, and Darren and I followed suit.
As I started to relax, we had a lot of fun meeting new couples - all in their 30s, which was nice - and talking about how we knew the birthday girl, our occupations etc. We even met a couple we'd like to hang out with again.
Then.
At the end of the dinner portion of the partying, everyone was getting set to go into town to the cigar bar. One very pretty woman seemed hesitant and then explained by saying that she was pregnant. Four and a half months pregnant. And she was STILL thinner than I am by a couple sizes!
*sigh*
Darren got that look on his face like "oh, shit. I won't see d naked for at least another month now. Damn skinny pregnant woman!" To his credit, he was very generous with compliments for the rest of the weekend and told again and again me just how attractive he finds me.
Back to the gym tonight!
We were the first to arrive at the party on Saturday night - unusual for us to be right on time (esp to a party), but we knew that we didn't plan on attending the second half of the festivities out on the town. Also, it was the host's birthday, and she cooked! The least we could do is show up on time.
Her house was beautiful, and it was fun looking around and catching up with her before her other guests started coming in. The first was a painfully skinny girl with her fiance'. Like, one step away from needing hospitalization skinny. Still pretty, but I wondered how she supported the weight of her head.
I watched in horror as each woman who walked through the door was no larger than a size 4. I believe there were at least 5 or 6 other couples there. I felt larger and larger as they walked in. Nevermind I was sitting RIGHT next to the table with all the food. No way was I going to be the first to start eating! Thankfully, some of the men started dishing up their food, and Darren and I followed suit.
As I started to relax, we had a lot of fun meeting new couples - all in their 30s, which was nice - and talking about how we knew the birthday girl, our occupations etc. We even met a couple we'd like to hang out with again.
Then.
At the end of the dinner portion of the partying, everyone was getting set to go into town to the cigar bar. One very pretty woman seemed hesitant and then explained by saying that she was pregnant. Four and a half months pregnant. And she was STILL thinner than I am by a couple sizes!
*sigh*
Darren got that look on his face like "oh, shit. I won't see d naked for at least another month now. Damn skinny pregnant woman!" To his credit, he was very generous with compliments for the rest of the weekend and told again and again me just how attractive he finds me.
Back to the gym tonight!
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