Brokeback Mountain
Do you think the new movie "Brokeback Mountain" shows gay people in a positive light?
posted by Affirmation at 17:02
03 January 2006
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For many of us who grew up or lived in places like Wyoming and Utah, this film is a moving reminder of how difficult it is to live and love in a culture where you are expected to get married and have children--a place where people are bashed, ostracized, and sometimes even killed for being gay.
I don’t know if they characters are shown in a positive light-—they are shown in a very HUMAN light! The film depicts real people, with all their flaws, and that makes the story compelling.
i personally am happy that they decided to do a movie like this. It goes to show that both of the men where human and had a unique and powerful love for one another.
This movie should show people that are gay are not monsters or anything of that nature. I cant waite till this movie comes out on DVD because ill charish it for a long time.
After viewing this movie, it showed with a great deal of honesty what many people on both sides of the fence had to go through and many still go through today because of the culture of the region. It it a glimpse into the lives of to many people and the pain that is caused because of both hatred and a refusal to understand those who are different from the masses.
As always, people will see what they want to see, rather than what is necessarily there. I've already noticed postings on a couple of online groups where those who 'tried' the 'homosexual lifestyle' and were not comfortable with it see the experience of the characters in the movie as a reflection of their own lives, and their inability to find happiness with a gay 'identity.' On the other hand, those who are more at peace with being gay (rather than SSA), see in Brokeback Mountain the tragedy and unhappiness which occur when people make decisions based on society's/religion's innacurate perceptions of homosexuality, or their own internalized homophobia.
without a doubt! I appreciated that BROKEBACK MOUNATIN also showed the pain that can come when homosexuals try to "overcome" their sexuality by entering into heterosexual marriages. I found the plight of the wives in the film heartbreaking...not to mention the effect it had on the men's children.
This film truly was about "the LOVE that dare not speak its name." Thank God a group of gifted artists have finally given us a beautifully crafted, naturalistic, underplayed film that so honestly explores the tragedy that results in denying one's highest values and sacrficing human LOVE.
Yes I do believe it showed "us" in a positive light. I'll go one step further to say that it showed a very real and honest light, which I've seen has already been mentioned. I throughly agree. I grew up in a VERY rural community, at least through high school. I thought that when I moved out of Washington State that year, perhaps some things could be different, but I was certainly surprised. Well, anyway, back on point, I think that this movie really gave excellent insight as an example of what some of us had to endure. It may not be 100% accurate, as it was with Latter Days, but it's a wonderful example, one which will make a nice addition right next to Latter Days. :-)
I keep coming back to this...
I'm a polyamorist and I ... loathe the idea that someone has to lie, be false, to one love in order to see another love. I hate the idea that infidelity is somehow glorified because "true" love is the excuse.
Even in the decades this supposedly represents, the option for an irreconcilable differences divorce was available. And plenty of people of the non-straight variety took that option rather than put their families through that kind of hell.
Now, mind you, I'm speaking of the actual story. I haven't seen the movie and don't intend to - because this kind of thinking gives me the gripes. :)
ON the other hand, if it had been a story of two cowboys or cowgirls, in love, who had opted to work a ranch together and were faced with outside issues... I would have gone in a heartbeat.
Just saying.
As a true work of art, Brokeback Mountain allows for different readings and interpretations. People will see what they want/are able to see. Right-wing fundamentalists will say: “See what happens when people give in to Satan. Their lives are miserable”. But I prefer to look at things differently.
It’s a tragic story. Yes. But tragedy is part of the human condition. Life is not always the cheesy bed of roses of most Hollywood blockbusters.
The characters are not perfect. They are normal people, with their shortcomings, fears, and inconsistencies. Some gay people might want to see a movie with totally exemplary gay characters, in order to portray a “good” image of homosexuals to mainstream America. But I don’t care for unrealistic, shallow characters. It was the same for Almodovar’s “Bad Education”. Some of my gay friends thought it was a disservice to the gay community, with gay characters that were disturbed, tortured, addicted to drugs, transvestites, and what not. But I don’t agree. Gay people are just people. We don’t have to be perfect. We are entitled to be who we are: human beings, with our strengths and weaknesses.
To me, Brokeback Mountain is a poignant ode to love, however impossible it may be. And a plea against bigotry, that is far from disappearing in this sometimes medieval 21st century.
I was very touched by this movie, on a variety of levels. And I hope it will make some people reassess their ideas
Beautiful, sobbering, confusing, intense. What this world needs.
I think it shows gay people in a real light...positive and negative...like anyone who goes through life. It is a touching film that I found difficult to sit through in parts but a very REAL story as well.
Brokeback Mountain is just another gay movie made by straight people who do not have the first clue about how it is to be gay. The only thing beautiful about the film is the scenery. To compensate for its shortcomings, just like most other gay movies, they cast very good looking young men who have lots of sex.
The first sex scene was more like a rape scene. The entire movie was offensive to my morals, my feelings about families and the Eternal Plan, and to my sense of taste. I am not homophobic at all. I feel it insults Heavenly Father's Plan not because they are gay; that is not a sin. But they both bring families into it. President Hinckley advises against that.
I caught that movie! I liked it, too. To answer your question, yes I do think it protrayed gay men in a positive way. It gave an honest portrayal of two very human characters who find each ohter and begin a long and ultimately painful and ill-fated relationship with each other. We see the characters doing what a lot of gay men had to do in those days-live a life that was not true to themselves and their feelings. We also see as a consequence the effect that this unfortunately had on their poor wives who had to deal with the truth about the men they had fallen in love with and married.
We can't, to be fair, judge the men for marrying these women and trying to conform to society and it's expectations. as we saw in the film, the consequences of deviating from the norm and being who they really were OPENLY could have some very terrible consequences for them and others. If you can imagine how afraid they must have been and how complicated their lives must have been because of the cross that they both had to bear in their lives, we feel much sympathy for the characters. The film was an eye opener and very true to the period, I think. There are still gays and lesbians today that live in Texas and Ohio and experience prejudice and deeply unpleasant situations as a result of their being true to themselves.
Such treatment could crush a weaker person. We must admire their strength and courage in the face of adversity and their dogged determination to be who they really are and not buckle under the pressure to conform or become recluses in fear of persecution every day of their lives.
By the way, I meant to say UTAH not OHIO! Silly me, that was a mistake.......................just thought I'd correct my error before someone picked me up on it.
My ex-LDS partner and I went to see this movie together, shortly after it opened here in North Carolina--and it seemed as though it never would. I'm a Southern boy from an evangelical background. I was surprised that we had such differing reactions, in spite of both having conservative religious upbringings.
I recognized the film as a milestone, not because of the setting or overt masculinity of the characters--but because it depicted enduring, passionate love between two men which both included and transcended physicality. Too many people can't see beyond the sex--that the emotional yearnings of homosexual men proceed from deeper wellsprings than mere libido. Libido was a drug for Jack that he indulged to soothe his emotional, spiritual, and physical longing for Ennis. But it was the whole package in Ennis that he missed--not the sex alone. The technical nature of the act seems to obliterate for many the laudable yearning for love (to give and to receive) and commitment behind it--someone to break the cosmic loneliness. And the movies too often portray us as sex-starved and out of control. Sure, a lot of us are, but few stop to ask why.
Many, I think, abandon moral standards because the purveyors and guardians of moral standards seem to anathematize them. Others hate themselves so much, they don't think themselves worthy of anything better. Still others make the mistake of conflating the value of exclusive relationships with heterosexual oppression. There is more in common between homosexual and heterosexual well-being than we often wish to realize.
My friend had a different reaction. He hated the infidelity, both the men to their wives and Jack to Ennis when they were separated by hundreds of miles. He thought too many excuses were being made for their choices--the fear of ostracism and death, fear of starting a new life elsewhere. But then, Ennis was committed to his family and he was battling poverty as well as suspicion about his orientation. Moral dilemmas are commonplace in life and not easily resolved. Sometimes no choice available is a good one and inertia tends to set in. I don't find that the movie approves anyone's behavior, it just documents a typical human scenario.
It was just a real movie. Real things happen to real people, no matter what a church or government want. Nor wifes. The heart is the heart. Love is offen hard and real. Love should never be outlawed.
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