Brokeback - and why I prefer DVDs at home
Frank and I had a "date night" last Thursday - so we went to see Brokeback Mountain. Friends of Frank's were "devastated", "moved beyond words" or "emotionally drained" from the experience. I was seeing similar comments in the posts and reviews. Besides, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the same sleeping bag.....how could we resist? I am definitely of the age where DVDs at home on the big screen with a nice glass of Shiraz is my idea of how to indulge in "film". But going to the theater and buying tickets - contributing to those box office numbers - seemed the right thing to do for this particular film, at least. Besides, I have been an Ang Lee fan since The Wedding Banquet.
The crowd was a mix of f/f couples, m/f couples (liberals all, I surmised) and a few m/m couples. Most were groups of friends. The place where the film was playing in Houston has a full bar, and is near the Montrose neighborhood (which still retains some gay street cred despite extensive gentrification by yuppie lawyers). Found a good spot and settled in for the experience. Eventually all the boys and girls found seats, toting vodka sodas and bottles of Heineken. Theater was maybe 75% full for a 7:00PM showing.
Well, aside from the rude couple in the back (Frank had to go get the manager), terribly uncomfortable seats and everyone in front of us suffering from poor bladder control....it wasn't bad. But not the earth shattering experience I was psyched for. I really thought the story would speak to me in particular, having been closeted so long, and in a 16 year marriage, etc, etc, etc...but no. I was moved by the part where he (Ennis) ditches poor Alma with the babies to go skinny dipping with Jack up on the mountain. Made me think of my ex and some of the pain she went through. But in the end it was a sad little story of people who don't/won't/can't make the right choices for themselves. The two shirts tucked into each other was sweet...maybe my butt was hurting too much by that time to get too worked up over that.
A couple of subsequent irritants though - I saw the comments in several blogs on the ads used for the Oscar campaign, featuring hetero scenes of wedded bliss.....and I thought about two scenes where the female leads displayed their breasts....and I wondered why? Was this to get the straight guys into the seats? Come on honey, I wanna see it, and there's something for you too.... But we need to take what we can get - baby steps- and compared to much of what passes for gay cinema, this was not too bad of a movie.
When it hits DVD, I will probably add it to the collection, and see it again on the big TV with my Shiraz. Maybe my butt will be in a better mood and allow me the emotional devastation I was expecting!
The crowd was a mix of f/f couples, m/f couples (liberals all, I surmised) and a few m/m couples. Most were groups of friends. The place where the film was playing in Houston has a full bar, and is near the Montrose neighborhood (which still retains some gay street cred despite extensive gentrification by yuppie lawyers). Found a good spot and settled in for the experience. Eventually all the boys and girls found seats, toting vodka sodas and bottles of Heineken. Theater was maybe 75% full for a 7:00PM showing.
Well, aside from the rude couple in the back (Frank had to go get the manager), terribly uncomfortable seats and everyone in front of us suffering from poor bladder control....it wasn't bad. But not the earth shattering experience I was psyched for. I really thought the story would speak to me in particular, having been closeted so long, and in a 16 year marriage, etc, etc, etc...but no. I was moved by the part where he (Ennis) ditches poor Alma with the babies to go skinny dipping with Jack up on the mountain. Made me think of my ex and some of the pain she went through. But in the end it was a sad little story of people who don't/won't/can't make the right choices for themselves. The two shirts tucked into each other was sweet...maybe my butt was hurting too much by that time to get too worked up over that.
A couple of subsequent irritants though - I saw the comments in several blogs on the ads used for the Oscar campaign, featuring hetero scenes of wedded bliss.....and I thought about two scenes where the female leads displayed their breasts....and I wondered why? Was this to get the straight guys into the seats? Come on honey, I wanna see it, and there's something for you too.... But we need to take what we can get - baby steps- and compared to much of what passes for gay cinema, this was not too bad of a movie.
When it hits DVD, I will probably add it to the collection, and see it again on the big TV with my Shiraz. Maybe my butt will be in a better mood and allow me the emotional devastation I was expecting!
posted by j3sdad at 10:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home