Nasty Little Man

Thoughts on Brokeback Mountain

My wife thought that she would be going to see it alone because she thought I wouldn't be interested, but I was interested for several reasons.
1. It's the odds-on favorite for Picture of the Year.
2. I don't mind spending $7 to stick it to Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell. Yes, I went to the movie as a political statement.
3. While I knew in advance that there is a love scene, I didn't allow that to keep me away for two main reasons. First, it's healthy to put ourselves in potentially uncomfortable situations. (As it turned out, it wasn't that uncomfortable.) Two, if gays avoided hetero love scenes in movies, they would be left with Harry Potter and those Ernest films. Turn-about is fair play.

This is a great film, and I highly recommend it. Even if initially you cannot relate to the gay relationship, at some point, the viewer (at least, this viewer) is taken over by the simple fact that these characters are human beings.

Plus, you can't help but have feelings for all of the main characters. There's no real antagonist here. Jack (Jake Gyllenhall), Ennis (Heath Ledger), Ennis' wife, and Jack's wife are all deserving of the viewer's care and concern. (Although, Mrs. Jack is not very well-developed. Mrs. Ennis is, though, and I felt terrible for her.)

The generations ahead of mine are really out of touch on this issue. A co-worker of my wife, who is of my parents' generation, said "no one" would go see the movie. They just don't realize how much more open my generation and, especially, those after mine are to gays and gay issues. And who is it that movies are marketed toward? By and large, it's the 18-35 year olds.

In fact, in October, Time did a cover story on The Battle over Gay Teens. ("Battle" seems like an odd choice of words, but we'll go with it.) The article points out an emerging trend among teens and young adults today: It's almost uncool at this point to be anti-gay.

Although this seems like a pitched battle right now, those on the side of equality for homosexuals will ultimately win out. We just need the Baby Boomers to start kicking off. Sorry to any Boomers reading this, but let's face it: Your generation causes quite a bit of the problems we face. Today the idea of opposing the civil rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s seems absurd, but it wasn't then. In a few decades, we'll feel the same way about opposing equality for gays.

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 11:31 PM