We finally got the DVD from Netflix this weekend, and we all sat down to watch “The Gay Cowboy Movie”. There was/still is soooo much controversy about this movie and how they’re gay, and how the movie is still a beautiful movie, etc. My mom saw it in theaters, and said that it was pretty good, but loooong. It’s actually only a little bit over 2 hours.
But anyway, it starts out with two guys herding sheep, and then they find out that they’re gay and love each other. One is open about it, while the other is in denial. After the sheep herding (about 50 minutes of the movie) they both go their seperate ways, scarred for life. They both get married and have kids. Then one day, a letter comes to the one in denial (Keith Ledger) asking for another trip to Brokeback Mountain where they had originally herded the sheep. “You Bet” he replies. This starts a 20 year relationship where they pretend that they’re “fishing pals” every year or so and go back to visit Brokeback Mountain, and well - love each other.
The movie is BEAUTIFULLY shot, the locations on Brokeback Mountain, the way the shots are set up, it’s all amazing, also how this movie can be about two gay cowboys (actually, they’re sheepboys), and not be shunned by the entire world (The movie, that is.) The movie is emotional, and although slowly paced, (It was originally a short story) it keeps you fairly interested throughout, and the situations are great. But in the ending BEGIN SPOILER.
Someone dies, and it’s just not brought out in the same way that it should. It’s not as emotional as it could and should be and the ending just leaves you kind of feeling empty.
END SPOILER. It’s “gayness” is a bit disconcerning throughout, though you get used to it about half way through. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem to come together at the end the way other movies like Crash did. Personally, I think that Crash DEFINITELY deserved the Academy Award for best picture more than Brokeback Mountain, as it did win it. I mean, Brokeback Mountain is a great movie, but it’s just not really meaningful at the end, and makes you feel like you missed something, and there is something missing, though it’s hard to place what. Heterosexual love? Maybe. But it does have that - kind of, I mean they both get married and have kids which just makes it seem kind of weird how they both live striaght lives and gay lives alos. Or maybe it’s just that it was taken from a short story as opposed to a full length book, or just an original screenplay.
[rating:4]
Very perceptive review.
Nice review of a turd of a movie. I mean really, outside of an art house on the same street as the local Village Voice . . .
To lend some context, I’m not real crazy about over-the-top hetero “lovin’ each other” on mainstream movie screens either. That gay sex is not my method of physical “lovin’” just extenuates the matter. In other words, anyone whose core societal division is governed by which holes are involved in sex, rather that have that factor be off to the side somewhere, is automatically suspect in my mind.
Treating this “B” plus movie with kid gloves, and insulating it from honest competition - if there is such a thing in the movie business - didn’t do it, or it’s devotees any real favors either.