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]

With the dumbness, I mostly meant the emotional stuff. I know personally the kind of guys who can't express or acknowledge any emotion except anger, and I know just how much trouble it can be. Ennis makes inroads on that issue, mostly because Jack has the patience of a saint, but it's still a knee-jerk reaction when he's feeling just about anything to lash out instead, because anger is simpler.

My mother's theory is that some guys just lack several connections between their frontal lobes ~_~

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

I think Ennis also thinks anger's safer. I figure his upbringing was the emotional equivalent of Chinese foot binding; his ability to acknowledge (let alone express) what he's feeling has been unnaturally stunted. He does make some progress, as you say, but I suspect he'd never find expressing "weak" feelings (meaning ones that make him feel vulnerable) an easy thing to do.