Gay Cowboys
Posted on Sunday, January 1st, 2006 at 1:13.
Although it was featured in our Christmas newsletter, Arthur and I didn’t actually see Brokeback Mountain before we published the newsletter despite a few attempts to see the movie. Good thing our preemptive judgement was more accurate than a claim of Iraqi WMDs. But in many ways Brokeback Mountain is a WMD, at least to hetero hegemony.
Finally, a gay love story that doesn’t involve suffering from AIDS. Seriously. Why can’t Hollywood show more hott gay guys that aren’t crystal queens, club hoppers, sex addicts, flaming queers, or STD warehouses? I have many gay male friends and few fall into these stereotypes. American society must realize that gay culture in the 1980s and the cast of RENT don’t represent most gays today.
I wouldn’t say “cast” of Rent, but rather the characters as-written by Jon Larson. The cast itself pretty much did everything it was supposed to, and I plan to try and catch one of the last remaining showings with Wes when I get back to SoCal on Tuesday. Might as well have preordered the DVD when I got the first of the many extras casting call emails–schtick tho it is, that show always got to me.
Don’t think I’ve known any gay cowboys, personally, but something about the movie seemed flawed to me. Not that it should have been any more Hollywood nor any less visually stunning. Maybe it seemed like it tried too hard to be a tragedy, or maybe I’ve spent too much time in the San Francisco bubble. But do gay cowboys really go from zero to buttsex in less than ten seconds?? Really… ouch. I’ll probably watch it again someday, but not sure it’ll make my DVD collection.
Agreed, tho, that there’s a lack of reality in these kinds of movies. Enjoyed the Brits’ Get Real even if it was anything but. Nice little Cinderella story that didn’t quite work out, but easier for a city boy to relate to (tho having backpacked TONS all over the west, including Wyoming, I did appreciate the the not-citiness of Brokeback, too).
Happy New Year!!
But do gay cowboys really go from zero to buttsex in less than ten seconds?? Really… ouch.
They do in the short story upon which the film is based. Plus you have to consider that in 1963 Wyoming, two high school dropouts probably wouldn’t know a whole lot about the art of the horizontal tango, especially with a male partner.
I don’t know many gay cowboys, but working at Boy Scout camp for many years, I’ll have to say that the boys there go from zero to butt sex pretty damn fast. Specially when they are drunk. :)
I don’t think the movie was at all trying to be tragic. I think it is a realistic story of how gay men used to (and some still do) have to live for whatever societal pressures.
(Spoiler warning)
If it were trying to be a tragedy, you would have seen a much more brutal killing of Jack instead of the 2 seconds it received. The story spent less time on tragedy and mostly on love between two men. I love that the story is so subtle!
Plus I’m not entirely convinced that Jack’s “murder” is actually how it happened. I think it could be argued that the scene you’re talking about, in both the short story and the movie, is how Ennis imagines Jack died, partially because of the story his father told him when he was younger, and that Jack really did die the way his wife said.
On the other hand, I think the story IS much more of a tragedy than you do, Jeremiah, although not in the traditional (Greek) sense. Here are these two people who are clearly meant to be together but who, because of societal norms, have to continually justify or deny their love even to each other! (“I ain’t no queer.”) Although Jack comes to terms with it better than Ennis, presumably hooking up with at least two other men and trying to persuade Ennis to consider a life together, they part for the last time after fighting, and Jack dies. Ennis, on the other hand, is so restrained, so hemmed in by what society and his father have told him is normal and right, that he seems almost frightened of his feelings for Jack, which is why that moment by the campfire when he stands there holding Jack is such a big deal. Love should be scary sometimes, but not because you’re afraid of dying for it. You said the story spent less time on tragedy and mostly on love between two men, but I’d say that their love was tragic from the beginning, first because society wouldn’t accept it and second because Ennis himself never accepted it until after Jack’s death.
Steph: Yes, it is clearly a tragedy. I was responding to Scott’s claim that the movie tries too hard to be a tragedy. I don’t think the movie tried too hard. It was a respectable tragedy.