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"Brokeback Mountain'' XV anniversary!


marylander1940
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'Brokeback Mountain' at 15: Jake Gyllenhaal on how filming gay romance 'was uncomfortable at times but we knew the bigger picture'

 

 

OP note: I'm amazed it's been that long and specially how much life has changed from marriage equality which was unthinkable after the 2004 election, PrEP, having an openly gay candidate, etc.

 

It's also having @friendofsheila Jake Gyllenhaal contributing in this forum, he uses his own pics as avatar @muscmtl ;) ?

Edited by marylander1940
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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The first time I saw Brokeback, it made my heart hurt to where I had to lie down after

I loved JACK NASTY !!!

Seeing Heath Ledger always makes me sad. Such a talent. I believe much more so than Jake Gyllenhaal. But I liked the movie overall.

Was exceptional for it's time.

I'm probably the only one who thinks the movie was just okay. The movie was very sad at the end, practically the norm for a gay film. I'm not sure I believe Jake being all that uncomfortable. Anyone that pretty has played with a dick at least once...

 

Several people have made videos out of Rascal Flats' What Hurts The Most & Brokeback scenes. The song feels like it was written specifically for the movie.

 

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I also agree the movie was not utterly fantastic.....the cinematography and music were the best part with Ledger's acting very close behind.....otherwise, the movie was just a classic tragic love story that's been done a million times before......no significant plot twists or revelations.....that it was two guys in a mainstream movie is a healthy step forward, but, otherwise, not cutting-edge moviemaking

 

however, as @rustyrex said, the ending, of course, was excruciatingly sad.....with Ledger's acting, the music, and Jack and Ennis's history combining to create quite a finish

 

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  • 1 month later...

As others have said, it served as a lovely postcard to the area, but the film felt like one huge cliche.

 

This is what can happen when you take a 64-page novela and try to expand it into a 2 hour film.

 

Cliche defined:

1. a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

"the old cliché “one man's meat is another man's poison.”"

 

2. a stereotype or electrotype.

 

How can a movie about two poor mountain ranchHands falling hard in the 1970s fit either definition?

 

And were that true, given that innumerable plays and short stories, generally shorter than Novellas, became successful films, what would its clicheness have to do with it being a Novella originally?

 

I'm fairly certain the word you are looking for is unprecedented, not cliche.

Edited by Rod Hagen
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Cliche defined:

1. a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

"the old cliché “one man's meat is another man's poison.”"

 

2. a stereotype or electrotype.

 

How can a movie about two poor mountain ranchHands falling hard in the 1970s fit either definition?

 

And were that true, given that innumerable plays and short stories, generally shorter than Novellas, became successful films, what would its clicheness have to do with it being a Novella originally?

 

I'm fairly certain the word you are looking for is unprecedented, not cliche.

 

No, I used the correct term for my basis of the film.

 

Closeted men, secret love, wife struggles with knowing the truth, tragic ending.

 

A tale as old as time.

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I also agree the movie was not utterly fantastic.....the cinematography and music were the best part with Ledger's acting very close behind.....otherwise, the movie was just a classic tragic love story that's been done a million times before......no significant plot twists or revelations.....that it was two guys in a mainstream movie is a healthy step forward, but, otherwise, not cutting-edge moviemaking

 

however, as @rustyrex said, the ending, of course, was excruciatingly sad.....with Ledger's acting, the music, and Jack and Ennis's history combining to create quite a finish

 

In that clip, Jack's shirt hung inside Ennis's, the reverse of how Ennis found them at the ranch. That was Heath Ledger's idea. My impression is Ledger was extremely devoted to the characters, which isn't surprising, actors embracing their craft.

 

I don't argue with all the luke warm comments towards the film. We all have our taste. Me, I can't stand the recent Borat movie. I love Brokeback Mountain.

 

I love Ang Lee's work. The scene where Ann Hathaway talks on the phone to Ennis afterwards.....wow.

The scenes at the ranch. To name just a few. Great cinema. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2KF7DAlM4E:29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwE7qkkri-U:54

Edited by OCClient
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No, I used the correct term for my basis of the film.

 

Closeted men, secret love, wife struggles with knowing the truth, tragic ending.

 

A tale as old as time.

 

It's an objectively original plot/tale: two poor mountain ranchHands falling hard in the 1970s

 

To call it cliche only because the elements that make it tragic (secrets/closet/struggles/death) are familiar is to truly not understand what is cliche.

 

By no possible stretch of the imagination could you call BrokeBack a rehash of anything that's come before it.

 

A movie where the main character is a detective, about to retire, who has to complete one more "impossible" case is a cliche not just because the story has been told a thousand times, which I repeat Brokeback hasn't, but also because retelling it doesn't contribute anything to our understanding.

 

You may be cynical of a great work of art like Broke Back, but five minutes on almost any gay Message Board will show you how deeply it contributed to people's understanding of how hard it is to live a lie.

 

The post above me said it's "all about taste". I very much disagree. Broke Back is an objective work of art. Just because you don't like something shouldn't preclude you (I don't mean you Benjamin I mean generic You) from classifying something important as important.

 

I don't like Philip Roth, but I will defend him as a great artist, a great writer. This habit people have adapted in the last 20 years of not sticking to their guns about something being objectively good, or bad, and not making arguments on the one side or the other baffles me.

 

It's leaked into criticism. Read a Gore Vidal critique of a book or a Anthony Lane or Pauleine Kael review of a movie and you can see how important it is to argue the worth of something. Today critics say things akin to "it's not my cup of tea". Grow a pair!

 

Anyway, to shit on Broke Back but to swoon (and again I don't mean you Benjamin, I don't remember if you did) in another thread over an entertaining and insignificant (but not cliche!) show like Grey Gardens is to just not give a crap about art. That makes me sad. I usually express my sadness through anger. :)

Edited by Rod Hagen
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It's an objectively original plot/tale: two poor mountain ranchHands falling hard in the 1970s

 

To call it cliche only because the elements that make it tragic (secrets/closet/struggles/death) are familiar is to truly not understand what is cliche.

 

By no possible stretch of the imagination could you call BrokeBack a rehash of anything that's come before it.

 

A movie where the main character is a detective, about to retire, who has to complete one more "impossible" case is a cliche not just because the story has been told a thousand times, which I repeat Brokeback hasn't, but also because retelling it doesn't contribute anything to our understanding.

 

You may be cynical of a great work of art like Broke Back, but five minutes on almost any gay Message Board will show you how deeply it contributed to people's understanding of how hard it is to live a lie.

 

The post above me said it's "all about taste". I very much disagree. Broke Back is an objective work of art. Just because you don't like something shouldn't preclude you (I don't mean you Benjamin I mean generic You) from classifying something important as important.

 

I don't like Philip Roth, but I will defend him as a great artist, a great writer. This habit people have adapted in the last 20 years of not sticking to their guns about something being objectively good, or bad, and not making arguments on the one side or the other baffles me.

 

It's leaked into criticism. Read a Gore Vidal critique of a book or a Anthony Lane or Pauleine Kael review of a movie and you can see how important it is to argue the worth of something. Today critics say things akin to "it's not my cup of tea". Grow a pair!

 

Anyway, to shit on Broke Back but to swoon (and again I don't mean you Benjamin, I don't remember if you did) over an entertaining and insignificant show like Grey Gardens is to just not give a crap about art. That makes me sad. I usually express my sadness through anger. :)

 

Let's simply agree to disagree.

 

It's not really worth mincing over and frankly, I'd rather get back to listening to Christine Ebersole sing songs from that horrible Grey Gardens musical.

 

?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oscar-winning ‘Brokeback Mountain’ screenwriter Larry McMurtry dead at 84

 

Larry McMurtry, the prolific novelist and screenwriter who won a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award for his work, died on Thursday at age 84.

 

Amanda Lundberg, a spokesperson for the family, confirmed McMurtry’s death in an obituary published Friday by the New York Times. Lundberg did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for confirmation.

 

Neither the cause of death, nor where McMurtry passed away, are immediately known.

 

McMurtry was best known for his anti-Western work, or stories that focused on demythologizing the romanticism of the American West.

 

“I’m a critic of the myth of the cowboy,’’ the native Texan reportedly said in an interview 1988. “I don’t feel that it’s a myth that pertains, and since it’s a part of my heritage I feel it’s a legitimate task to criticize it.’’

 

Often cited as his most memorable work, his coming-of-age book “The Last Picture Show” sold over nine million copies and was adapted into a film starring Cybill 'German' Shepherd, Jeff Bridges of Madison County and Clorox Bleachman.

 

McMurtry was not only respected for his 843-page novel “Lonesome Dove,” which won him the Pulitzer and was made into a mini-series for television, but also for the screenplay for “Brokeback Mountain,” a 2005 romantic drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger. Co-written with his housemate and collaborator Diana Ossana, the pair won the Academy Award in 2006 for that film, which focused on the romantic relationship between the two men, one a ranch hand and the other a cowboy.

 

Over the course of more than 50 years, McMurtry wrote more than 30 novels, more than 30 screenplays — and published other works of memoir, history and essays. One book, “Horseman, Pass By,” was made into the film “Hud,” starring Paul Newman. The film version of his novel “Terms of Endearment” won the Oscar for best picture in 1983.

 

McMurtry was born the son of a rancher in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1936. He studied at North Texas State, Rice and Stanford universities. He taught English at the university level, but ditched teaching in his younger years. For about a half-century, McMurtry was also a bookseller. In Archer City, Texas, his store Booked Up is one of the largest in the nation, according to the Times.

 

Archer City, where he was raised, served as a model for the town of Thalia, which appeared in his works of fiction.

 

It’s not clear who survives McMurtry, but he most recently married the widow of his friend Ken Kesey, Faye, in 2011.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Was exceptional for it's time. Enormously expensive to make. "God's Own Country" with Josh O'Conner (Prince Charles in The Crown) is now I think better even though a pittance of the cost (and revenue). And Josh's endowment is given a proper starring role.

Enormously expensive? Where are you getting that?

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  • 1 year later...
On 3/10/2021 at 9:44 PM, Rod Hagen said:

 

It's an objectively original plot/tale: two poor mountain ranchHands falling hard in the 1970s

 

To call it cliche only because the elements that make it tragic (secrets/closet/struggles/death) are familiar is to truly not understand what is cliche.

 

By no possible stretch of the imagination could you call BrokeBack a rehash of anything that's come before it.

 

A movie where the main character is a detective, about to retire, who has to complete one more "impossible" case is a cliche not just because the story has been told a thousand times, which I repeat Brokeback hasn't, but also because retelling it doesn't contribute anything to our understanding.

 

You may be cynical of a great work of art like Broke Back, but five minutes on almost any gay Message Board will show you how deeply it contributed to people's understanding of how hard it is to live a lie.

 

The post above me said it's "all about taste". I very much disagree. Broke Back is an objective work of art. Just because you don't like something shouldn't preclude you (I don't mean you Benjamin I mean generic You) from classifying something important as important.

 

I don't like Philip Roth, but I will defend him as a great artist, a great writer. This habit people have adapted in the last 20 years of not sticking to their guns about something being objectively good, or bad, and not making arguments on the one side or the other baffles me.

 

It's leaked into criticism. Read a Gore Vidal critique of a book or a Anthony Lane or Pauleine Kael review of a movie and you can see how important it is to argue the worth of something. Today critics say things akin to "it's not my cup of tea". Grow a pair!

 

Anyway, to shit on Broke Back but to swoon (and again I don't mean you Benjamin, I don't remember if you did) in another thread over an entertaining and insignificant (but not cliche!) show like Grey Gardens is to just not give a crap about art. That makes me sad. I usually express my sadness through anger. :)

 

I agree with you, and knowing what prompted Annie Proulx to write the story, and that she gave the thumbs up to the film because Larry McMurtry was going to write the screenplay might cause anyone to think twice before poo pooing the film as cliche.  

And then there's Ang Lee's direction.

 

I just ran across this piece discussing some of the editing.   

 

 

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