Brokeback Mountain

[winter]

I know it's late, but in this backwater, Brokeback Mountain just premiered yesterday.

I think this movie can be summed up by three sentences: Wyoming is pretty. Jack is pretty. Ennis is dumb.

I can't point to any particular scenes or points that clenched it for me, but I liked it. There's a timelessness to it that makes it a story of star-crossed lovers, period, not particularly tied to any period of time or space except maybe the macho mythos of men-don't-cry and extrapolating from that, men-don't-have-any-emotions-except-anger (see: Men Are Dumb). It felt soft and quiet and real, and I walked out of the cinema with a sad smile.

(Also: this is the director of Hulk and the star of A Knight's Tale. Just for the transformations, Oscars for both of them, please :>)

In other news: a very happy belated birthday to kiraboshi - sorry luv, completely slipped my mind :S

Comments

[winter]

That, and the fact Jack's parents weren't exactly the pitchfork kind. The one bit I liked was the "so you're Ennis... now why did we have to wait 20 years to meet you?" scene. But the one serious issue was the custody of the kids, though after he knew Alma knew anyway, he could have put two and two together and see she wouldn't keep the girls away from him.

I liked the beginning and the ending much more than I liked the middle, I guess. Though I appreciated Heath's portrayal of a Typical Male Emotional Cripple.

[merentha.livejournal.com]

I don't think custody was an issue, or if it was then the movie failed to convey that totally.

I see Ennis as the type of character who refuses to take responsibility for his life. He takes the easy route of avoidance instead of facing his commitments. Wife not happy? Fine, divorce. Daughter wants to move in? Make up some excuse about being away most of thet ime. Barslut interested in him? Stay non-committal until she finds somebody else. Throughout the movie, he kept repeating the same excuse that he's needed at some ranch and he can't move out to town (he was kinda railroaded into the decision by his wife)/run away with Jack/meet Jack more often etc. The final scene with his daughter was supposed to show that he's changed. Ennis was about to use the same excuse to avoid attending his daughter's wedding when he suddenly decided that his daughter was important.

I don't begrudge the message; I begrudge the tormentous boredom I had to sit through to get there.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Oh, Alma might well have kept the girls from him if his "perverted" sexuality became a matter of public knowledge. The social pressures she would have been facing if she hadn't would have seen to that.