ATTN: Taboo Subject Ahead

Last night Jim and I went to see Brokeback Mountain. I wanted to see it for the reason that it’s apparently a good movie, Jim only wanted to know what all the hype was about. We headed off to the dollar cinema where there were about 50 other people in the theatre, including a really chatty row of women who sat next to us, for the 7:30 show.

On Friday night at the Cetti’s the subject of homosexuality came up briefly and the joke was made “when it’s two girls it’s hot, when it’s two guys it’s gay”. While I consider myself VERY open about gay rights I have to admit that even I was shocked by how openly gay the movie was. The first scene where Enis & Jack become intimate is a flurry of emotions and sexual activity for the characters and took even me off guard watching it happen. I felt kind of embarrassed because I wouldn’t have given the scene a second thought if it had been a man or a woman which tells me I’m wasn’t as emotionally/mentally as prepared to watch two men fool around as I thought I was. All those episodes of Will & Grace didn’t get me as far as I thought.

As you can imagine, the movie was cause for conversation between Jim and I about the subject. After watching the movie and talking about it I’ve come to see again that I am still very open about the subject and see no problem with homosexuality. My opinion of gay people being born gay (versus choosing to be gay) still stands. And my belief that two people, regardless of gender, should have the opportunity to find and love their “solemate” without criticism from anyone else is a right all people should have.

My respect level for Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger also went up – I can’t imagine it’s many actors who would read a script like Brokeback Mountain and be willing to so passionately play the role as they did.

As for how the movie was: Heath Ledger was often difficult to understand causing a number of people to simultaneously ask “what’d he say?”. The scenery was beautiful, the acting was very good. The editing was somewhat choppy for me, but overall worked for the movie. I was downright bored with the soundtrack though it was period appropriate. I give it a B+ overall, an A for effort in tackling such a daunting project.