The first tremors that Brokeback Mountain was coming out of the celloid closet began in late January 2006, as the film went into major distribution nationwide. After a slow roll-out and strong word of mouth, many people who thought they would never vote for two men kissing as MTV's hottest kiss did witness the idea of two people in love who just happened to be of the same gender. Those that came away after seeing BBM the first or the fifth time reported that the movie was raw, haunting and ground breaking. The first weeks after many saw the movie, just mentioning Jack Twist or Ennis del Mar brought tears to eyes of those reflecting on their experience with the movie. I had never seen this type of reaction to a film by such a broad range of Americans. Scores moved by the movie, bought the book, by Annie Proulex. Not very often can a movie tell a story as well or better than a book, but many people felt director Ang Lee did and won an Academy Award for BBM. But other BBM nominees were left out on awards night, and homophobia was the mantra of BBM devotees, including thousands who posted daily on David Cullen's BBM forum. Seldom in recent history has a film touched the emotions of a cross section of people world wide. It takes something very different or special to speak to so many. Love though is universal, and love triumphed in a big way over many other issues raised in BBM. Even movie reviewers got side-tracked by saying the main characters were sheep herders not cowboys, filmgoers rarely talked about such surface distractions that the reviewers debated for weeks. And some reviewers in a delayed response weeks after their original review, either corrected or retracted it. That was really new to American culture, the media rethought themselves. It is to early to know if there will be a permanent shift in culture and societies perspective on same gender relationships. One thing I know for sure and Health Ledger was right on the money when it was reported that he said:"It was definitely like walking on the moon for the first time, but it wasn't the butt of a mule. I was kissing a human being with a soul." Heath Ledger on kissing Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain. Thank goodness Brokeback Mountain let people rediscover their soul. |
