New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | March 3, 2006

The gay cowboys are heading toward what will no doubt be an anticlimactic showdown; meanwhile back at the ranch, Jesse Walker searches the celluloid closet for older doomed-romance pictures that were less homosexual but more gay.

Comments

|3.3.06 @ 9:35AM|#

I happen to be heterosexual, but I guess I'm also pretty gosh-darned gay because I liked the movie entirely because I connected to the doomed-romance theme. Guess I'm just hopelessly sappy, but I eat that shit up. Plus the acting was superb, which confused me because Heath Ledger was in it.

|3.3.06 @ 9:55AM|#

So you're saying that it's like Maurice but with more dung?

|3.3.06 @ 9:57AM|#

I liked Coulter's take on the Oscars:
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=12857&o=ANN001

"Gunfight at the K-Y Corral"

|3.3.06 @ 10:07AM|#

Anyone who like Coulter's take on anything is pretty dodgy anyway, as far as I can tell.

|3.3.06 @ 10:11AM|#

It's my way or the Hershey Highway.

|3.3.06 @ 10:24AM|#

OT, but I went to Mr. F. Le Mur's link (Human Events) and wrote in Ron Paul for my choice for Rep Prez nom.

I know, it's childish and pointless, but it felt gooood.

|3.3.06 @ 10:27AM|#

A friend of mine suggested this idea a few weeks ago. She described the movie as "Titanic" without the boat. We decided it was a shoe-in for the Oscar at that point because it followed in the footsteps of "Titanic," "The English Patient," and any number of other doomed love movies all the way back to the silents. All it lacks is period costumes, although I suppose 1978 counts as "period" now. I decided against seeing it, since my take on "Titanic" was that by about an hour into it I was cheering for the iceberg. (If she'd stayed on the lifeboat, he could have used the bit of flotsam she had as a raft and lived. I do not feel anything for characters who behave foolishly.) Anyway, I'm glad someone with a platform pointed out this fact.

|3.3.06 @ 10:42AM|#

"...older doomed-romance pictures that were less homosexual but more gay."

As a certified Queer, I know we're good at finding subtexts that are so subtle they aren't even there. Still, one that rang my gaydar like a Rosalind Russell movie:

Fight Club

|3.3.06 @ 10:44AM|#

Anyone who like[sic] Coulter's take on anything is pretty dodgy anyway, as far as I can tell.

Fascinating commentary. Nearly as fascinating as the Oscars.

I can hardly wait for the latest crop of PC cartoons from Hollywood to be on regular TV.

|3.3.06 @ 10:54AM|#

Doc,

Fight Club is probably in my top 5 movies of the 90's - and I'd rather watch it over and over looking for gay subtext than watch two heteros gay it up for Oscars in Brokeback Mountain.

|3.3.06 @ 11:00AM|#

My Beautiful Laundrette was a lot gayer than Brokeback, and that was way back in 1985. Of course the homosexual romance ends up being the only one that isn't doomed so maybe that doesn't count.

|3.3.06 @ 11:03AM|#

My problem was the whole "This Movie Is An Important Social And Cultural Event" thing going on.

I saw it, I thought it was good, three stars, if more movies were that good, I'd go to the movies more often...

But I didn't think that it was An Important Social And Cultural Event.

dhex|3.3.06 @ 11:15AM|#

so where's the neo-marxist angle in brokeback?

|3.3.06 @ 11:30AM|#

Of course the homosexual romance ends up being the only one that isn't doomed so maybe that doesn't count.

That movie was a little outside the mainstream of its time...

But I didn't think that it was An Important Social And Cultural Event.

I agree, and I especially dislike movies that purposely created to be just that.

|3.3.06 @ 11:33AM|#

Fascinating commentary. Nearly as fascinating as the Oscars.

Well, I wasn't willing to put in the effort to try to top gay jokes that stopped being funny when I was, like, seven years old. I mean, I guess I can see retarded people finding the column funny, but they're generally easily entertained, you know?

|3.3.06 @ 11:47AM|#

so where's the neo-marxist angle in brokeback?

I didn't see the film, but I was wondering the same thing.

Jesse Walker|3.3.06 @ 11:58AM|#

There is no neo-Marxist angle, of course. Baehr is just babbling.

|3.3.06 @ 12:05PM|#

I didn't think it was possible to be more of a raving lunatic than Ann Coulter - until I read the Baehr piece. Yikes.

|3.3.06 @ 12:13PM|#

An impotent and out-of-office Left uses the Oscars as their substitute for power. Makes 'em feel good to use their fantasy world to stick it to the Right.

Either that or it's just a big pointless fashion show. I have no idea, actually. Just another crackpot. Move along.

|3.3.06 @ 12:15PM|#

There is no neo-Marxist angle, of course. Baehr is just babbling.

I figured that it was the typical "I doesn't fit my current political viewpoint, it's clearly Marxism" type statement. It seemed strange that a love story would be even slightly concerned with "the means of production" or "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs".

dhex|3.3.06 @ 12:23PM|#

i had thought maybe they found the true means of production in someone's tight, low-slung jeans or something. and then seized it, if you know what i mean. (wink wink)

then again, you never know; my wife recently read an 80 page howler for her english lit phd program where an author claimed that conrad's lord jim is metaphysically trying to avoid the economic realities of capitalism and the implications of marxist materialism, so...anything's possible.

Wild Pegasus|3.3.06 @ 12:24PM|#

What if heterosexual audiences are projecting themselves onto these sheepherders the same way gay audiences once projected themselves onto Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman?

I must be 14 again.

- Josh

|3.3.06 @ 12:31PM|#

I'm not much of a filmie (if it isn't a word it should be), but Ang Lee caught my attention with Ice Storm. And held it with Ride With the Devil. Perhaps Ang wasn't trying to put out a movie of tremendous social import, but rather was just continuing to genre-hop. Maybe it's certain members in the media who want it to be a statement film; I dunno.

And Karen, I too was rooting for the iceberg when I saw Titanic at the theater. I was appalled that they spent a gazillion dollars on those amazing sets, and instead of sticking to the actual story of the Titanic, which is unbelievable by itself, they decided to overlay it with an incredibly preposterous love/action/soap opera plot. There were actually people chasing and shooting at each other as the boat went down! You got Hollywood cheese in my historical drama!

|3.3.06 @ 12:37PM|#

older doomed-romance pictures that were less homosexual but more gay

I'm wondering if Trog (starring Joan Crawford) fits the bill.

|3.3.06 @ 12:59PM|#

Perhaps Ang wasn't trying to put out a movie of tremendous social import, but rather was just continuing to genre-hop.

Nah, that movie had Oscar ambitions from the start - or at the very least it was advertised in that way from day one. I haven't seen it but the buzz is really turning me off. I prefer my gay movies to be more quietly effective, like "My Beautiful Laundrette" mentioned above or especially "Parting Glances". A low budget and mostly no-name actors usually helps for me, too.

|3.3.06 @ 1:06PM|#

--What if heterosexual audiences are projecting themselves onto these sheepherders the same way gay audiences once projected themselves onto Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman?

Considering how butch Jane Wyman was, that's not much of a stretch.

|3.3.06 @ 1:15PM|#

One thing that amuses me is how "the market" responds to being told that they had to see this movie or else!!!

Brokeback Mountain Jokes.

I've seen more than one segment on TV and more than one column written about how Brokeback Mountain jokes JUST AREN'T FUNNY.

Quit yelling "I wish I knew how to quit you!" at each other! Quit calling stuff that you used to call "gay", "brokeback" (e.g., "You're going to be playing Vampire: The Masquerade? That's so Brokeback.")

Look, if you tell people that this movie is An Important Social And Cultural Event and you tell them to ask themselves if maybe the reason they don't want to participate is homophobia, they won't come out of the movie thinking "Maybe I should stop hitting gay men with tire irons" but "Why didn't they include the line 'Gun's goin' off!'? It would have made the scene!"

And then they're going to yell "I wish I knew how to quit you!" at each other.

Why did you think that it would turn out any better than making that friend of yours read that Harry Potter Slashfic that you thought gave particular insight into the character of Draco?

|3.3.06 @ 1:26PM|#

BP: You're right about the Titanic story not needing embellishment. My father was a history professor and he always told me to avoid movies about actual historical events, because Hollywood would always tart up a good story with soap-opera nonsense. He absolutely hated the John Wayne "Alamo" movie because they couldn't leave the actual story alone and felt the need to add stuff like the idiotic Richard Widmark cattle raid.

Rhywun: "Brokeback" was definitely made for the awards. It follows the time-honored Oscar-winning tradition of killing off the love interest. The movie-buff friend with whom I went to the gym at lunch gave me her Academy Award formula: dead lover + hoop skirts or WWII airplanes = Best Picture. This one just left out the hoop skirts.

|3.3.06 @ 1:47PM|#

I guess I'm also pretty gosh-darned gay because I liked the movie entirely because I connected to the doomed-romance theme. Guess I'm just hopelessly sappy, but I eat that shit up.

Dude, you're not gay. You're a coprophage. ;)

For those who aren't sick of Brokeback Mountain jokes, and especially if you're a Mac-user, there's Broke Mac Mountain.

|3.3.06 @ 2:09PM|#

Good one Stevo.

And I'm not tired of them. I haven't heard many.
Please sirs, more.

|3.3.06 @ 2:25PM|#

heh, thanks for teaching me a new word Stevo :)

|3.3.06 @ 2:28PM|#

FWIW I'd vote for Crash since its the only one I paid to see twice.

keith|3.3.06 @ 3:00PM|#

I lost interest in Brokeback Mountain when I heard it was a tender romance instead of a gay cowboy movie. I wanted a film where two guys ride around shooting and beating the crap out of cattle rustlers, and then while drinking coffee out of tin mugs around the campfire, one of them just happens to grab the other and say, "Give me a big wet one, hombre." But I guess that wouldn't be "Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain." It'd be "Tom of Finland's Brokeback Mountain."

|3.3.06 @ 4:31PM|#

How does it happen that Sin City, possibly the best movie I've seen in decades, doesn't even get nominated for a single award?

Sin City is pure art, outstanding cinematography, and I absolutely love how it shows the underbelly of society as morally superior to the establishment.

Where is the outrage? Am I alone here?

|3.3.06 @ 7:15PM|#

Some musin's:

You'd think the Concerned Christian Assholes of whatever would endorse a film like Brokeback Mountain, given its basic premise: being gay will make you miserable...

It doesn't really hike my skirt one way or another, but I kinda hope Brokeback wins, if only for the entertaining right-wing spectacle the next day...

I understand Coulter's favorite picture last year was Downfall, though she insists on watching it backwards so it'll have a happier ending...

|3.3.06 @ 7:30PM|#

April,

Sin City came from a cartoon, therefore it's not serious enough for the Academy voters.

Perhaps if there's ever a full-length Captain Planet movie where CP has to choose between saving his gay lover or saving the rainforest, things may change.

|3.3.06 @ 8:06PM|#

so where's the neo-marxist angle in brokeback?

Don't be silly, dhex. Marxist is just a nonsense word, like sha-na-na or give peace a chance.

|3.3.06 @ 9:10PM|#

I'd compare BBM to Age of Innocence -- Martin S's best underrated/underappreciated movie. BBM is based on a short story from the New Yorker by an author (female) whose name escapes me and is excellent. I thought the acting was superb (on par with Robert Duval's 'The Apostle') and overall it was a good movie a B+ somewhere in my top 100 overall ever.

Speaking of the general area of fiction -- when will reason publish fiction?

|3.3.06 @ 11:17PM|#

Spur, "The Age of Innocence" was a full-length novel by Edith Wharton, and yes, both book and movie are excellent.

|3.5.06 @ 11:14PM|#

Funny you should mention Fight Club as setting off gaydar- the author of the book was homosexual.