February 23, 2006
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The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep.
He was a short man, with some bulge to his limbs that gave him a funny walk. Startled that he was in my kitchen (and going through my refrigerator), I addressed him in a firm, questioning manner.
“Um, excuse me, sir. Can I help you?”
Alarmed at my voice he jumped and turned to me and yelled, “Woh! …oh, my dear lad. Caught me off guard, you did. Sorry, I was comin’ to talk to ya, but I’m awfully partial to my warm milk. I was fixin’ some aforehand.”
With such a funny voice and character, I immediately relaxed and decided there was nothing to worry about. But I was still curious as to why he was in my house.
“Um, okay, that’s fine. Might you tell me who you are and why you want to talk to me?”
He was still preparing the warm milk as he answered, “Certainly. I’m an old friend of yours, but you haven’t known me like you see me now, that’s fer sure. My name is Sleep.”
“Sleep?” I said confused, as my mind drifted to think of how cruel parents were becoming.
“Aye, Sleep’s me name. I have come to talk about you and I.”
“Am I dreaming?”
“Ha! Dreamin’? How can ya dream if ya don’t sleep?!”
“Good point,” I said, still puzzled. “You know, you look a lot like Rip Van Winkle.”
“Aye, that’s me old name. I was appointed the guardian of sleep after my nap in the woods those many years ago. Goes to show what a good nap can do for ya!”
I didn’t care that it was absurd, I liked the guy, and I wanted to talk to him. In a jesting manner I remarked, “So, you’re like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus?”
His faced dropped. “No,” he replied, “They’re not real.”
I stopped smiling. “Oh, right.”
The awkward silence and our staring at one another was broken by the microwave’s beeping.
“Well lookie there! My milk’s ready!” he said in a once again energetic voice.
We moved to the table and sat down. After excitedly rubbing his hands together, he sipped his milk.
“So why don’t you like me, sonny?” he blurted out.
“Like you?” I started, trying to figure it out, “Oh, yeah. You are Sleep. Um, well, I don’t really feel the need to sleep. Besides, without sleep my day is longer.”
“Well ya know that I make your life longer, don’t ya?” he quipped.
“Yes, but those extra years of my life would have been spent sleeping. If I sleep 8 hours a night and live until I’m 90, I really only lived 60 years. That’s all I was awake for.” I responded.
“I see,” he said, understanding he needed a different approach. “You know, a lot of very interesting people are known for their hibernation: Astronauts, Han Solo, Grizzly Bears…”
“Yeah, but I mean, sleeping is a nuisance. It’s like a long commercial break to my favorite show. Staying up late is my way of fast-forwarding through those commercials.”
“No, you’ve got the wrong thinkin’, lad. Think like this: you’re good friend Sleep is like a spring, like the thingy that launches the pinball,” he said, trying to help me understand very carefully, “All night long the spring becomes more and more compressed, and then upon waking up it launches you into the day! The more sleep, the higher the spring launches ya out inta the big sky! And then you’re really livin’ then, o boy,” he explained, very excited about what he was saying.
“Hmmm...” came from my face, staring straight ahead, scraping in my mind for a rejoinder. Then it came to me, “Ahh, but in the book of Proverbs it says that slumber brings poverty.” I was confident he couldn’t argue against God’s word.
“O, don’t think I aven’t erd that one before! Solomon generally wrote his proverbs around noon, I think he was talking about then. Asides, the wise man is early to bed and early to rise. Y’know, like the early bird gets the worm an’ all that.”
“Yes, but the owl, the symbol of the wise, is nocturnal. And the bird who pulled an all-nighter beats the early bird,” I quipped with a grin across my face.
After the quick-witted replies, there was a moment where we both paused. This time, he tried talking to me on a personal level.
“Listen, Philly boy, you really need me. Remember the good old nights? Why do you like stayin’ up s’late anyhow?”
“Well,” I explained, “midnight is where it’s happening because nothing’s happening.”
He looked confused.
“Besides,” I continued, “I don’t really like lying down in my bed all that much.”
“O, that’s easy to fix, lad,” he replied, “Just sleep around!”
“Um…?”
“You know, around your house.”
“Oh, yeah. Of course.”
He smiled at me and nodded his head, hoping I would nod with him.
“But the night just gives me this sense of wonder. The rest of America dreams away, while New York, the stars, and I guard the night. Silence reigns during the hours where traffic has subsided and the clamorous people of the world have been drawn into an unconscious slumber. There are two worlds around us, and the world of Night is far more adventurous than the world of Day. How could I willingly bid farewell to a place that I have grown to love?”
With a sense of hopelessness about him, he didn’t quite know what to say.
“Would you abandon me, your friend, for a sense of wonder? Just open your mind!”
“Open my mind? You want me to close my mind! That’s what sleep is!”
“But closing your mind gives the day its marvel once you have awoken! Every flower was once a bud and every play starts behind a curtain. Sleep is the curtain that rests before it is pulled back to reveal the day! Without the curtain, there is no anticipation, and the show loses its foretelling sense of excitement, and the audience is not as delighted!”
Sleep looked at me sheepishly, waiting for a reaction. Maybe he was right after all. I had always scoffed at the thought of sleep, like it was the fad of having a pet rock. If sleeping was a fad, it is certainly the longest running fad, and it probably won’t die out. What would happen if I joined the crowd and wrapped up the night at 10 or 11 PM? I tried to rationalize it.
“But sleeping is such a vulnerable state. People could draw on your face, or put shaving cream on you, or TP your house! I’ve never seen a TP’ed bat cave.”
“I’d rather have sharpie on my face than have a shortened life.”
That was it. I caved. He was right. How could I have been so blind? Sleep was my friend, I had only forgotten. To sleep and to dream and awake to the morning is a glorious thing. It was like a revolution had occurred in my brain. The brain cells that wanted sleep had overthrown the government and were now rejoicing in the streets.
“I’m sorry, Sleep! I want to sleep again! I’m so very sorry that I’ve neglected you!”
“Ahh, why that’s alright, lad. Let me tell ya, New Year’s Eve is a lonely night for me, so I know what it feels like. And those confounded girls that have sleepovers! It’s like an organized protest against me!”
With a compromise and truce found with my friend, Sleep, I began to hope for peace in the Middle East. If I can make it to bed at 11 P.M., then by golly, there can be hope that the world can learn to cope with differences. Sleep walked out the door and went to his convertible, where Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy had been waiting for him. I shook my head to myself and set my aim for dreamworld, a place I love more than Wendy’s.
Have a goodnight. But better yet, have a good sleep.
Comments (13)
haha sleep around. phil, you've changed so much! MERRY CHRISTMAS
Reading that makes me want to stay up late now! But whatever man, I guess I'll be taking your place then. Midnight fun here I come!!! (Sleeping in late on the weekend is where it's at) Merry Christmas? Sure......
-Alex
mmm sleep is good. very good. : )
Yea it is, and the one in my at the top of my page is one as well.
Hm.. this weekend is gonna boring., lol ^^^
it's cool that kyung and i have the same profile picture!
wasn't the mall so fun this morning before school? we're going to have to do that again sometime!
I saw u collection pop bottles and stuff from the trash at end of school? Was it one of the charity things? Also Do you know anyone going to the Rocket summer and Relient K conecert saturday? i think its those two, or House of Heroes and someone else?
dang, i love you too.
phil, i love you. and i love sleep. and i love your disscussion with sleep. very entertaining. sleep is a good friend. but occassionally, like tonight, i miss my friend the night, and spend a little time with him. but now i am off to sleep. i can not neglect him for too long, or i will miss my friend the morning, which would be quite sad. good night phil. and tell sleep next time you talk to him that us girls who have spend the nights appologize for not spending quality time with him, but girl time is so fun
phil, i dont understand. That link just took me to my site, before I had any posts? I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT AN EPROP IS!!!
1 eProp for your rant.
wow philip i would have to say that was the longest comment in the history of comments. very well done.
dance dance dance dance ya ya ya ya
Brokeback Mountain is an Academy Award-nominated, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning film directed by Ang Lee. The 2005 film, a commercial success and critical favorite, stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams. The film depicts a sexual and emotional relationship between two men living in the American West in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
The screenplay was written by Diana Ossana and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry, and is based on a short story of the same name by American novelist Annie Proulx. The short story first appeared in The New Yorker in October 1997 and was subsequently included in a published anthology entitled Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999).
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Contents[hide]
<LI class=toclevel-1>1 Plot
<LI class=toclevel-1>2 Filming locations
<LI class=toclevel-1>3 Commercial success
<LI class=toclevel-1>4 Critical reception
<LI class=toclevel-1>5 Controversy
<LI class=toclevel-2>5.1 Roman Catholic Church
<LI class=toclevel-2>5.2 Utah theater cancellation
<LI class=toclevel-2>5.3 Fox News
<LI class=toclevel-2>5.4 Gene Shalit and The Today Show
<LI class=toclevel-2>5.5 U.S. social conservatives
<LI class=toclevel-2>5.6 Liberal groups controversy
<LI class=toclevel-2>5.7 Derogatory use of "Brokeback Mountain"
<LI class=toclevel-1>6 Parodies and humor
<LI class=toclevel-1>7 Trivia
<LI class=toclevel-1>8 Awards
<LI class=toclevel-2>8.1 List of notable awards
<LI class=toclevel-2>8.2 Nominations
<LI class=toclevel-1>9 See also
<LI class=toclevel-1>10 References
<LI class=toclevel-1>11 Recommended reading
<LI class=toclevel-1>12 External links
<LI class=toclevel-2>12.1 Reviews
<LI class=toclevel-2>12.2 Discussion forums
<LI class=toclevel-2>12.3 News articles
<LI class=toclevel-2>12.4 Blogs
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Plot
Brokeback Mountain is the story of Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), two young men who meet and fall in love in 1963 on a sheep-herding job on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. The film documents their complex relationship over the next twenty years.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
After the two part ways at the end of their job, Ennis marries Alma Beers (Michelle Williams) and starts a family. Jack moves to Texas where he meets Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway), whom he subsequently marries.
Four years later, Ennis receives a postcard from Jack saying that he will soon be in town. The two reunite and find their passion is as strong as ever. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together, but Ennis, haunted by a childhood memory of the murder of a man suspected of being homosexual, fears that such an arrangement could only end in tragedy.
Ennis is also tied to his family in Wyoming, making it impossible to get a ranch with Jack. Ennis grows more and more disinterested with family life, favoring fishing with Jack over working to support his children, and takes out his frustrations over his long separations from Jack on Alma. Alma soon discovers Jack and Ennis' relationship, and after a long deterioration, Ennis and Alma's marriage ends in divorce.
Jack is excited about the divorce, thinking it is his chance to be with Ennis, but when Jack shows up at his lover's new home, Ennis tells him that it is not to be. Ennis must remain working in Wyoming in order to pay his child support. Jack, heartbroken, returns to Texas. Unable to live together or to be open about their relationship, the two men settle for infrequent meetings on camping trips in the mountains over the next twenty years.
Several months after their last meeting, Ennis learns that Jack has died when a postcard Ennis sent to him is returned, stamped "deceased." In a strained telephone conversation, Jack's wife Lureen tells Ennis that Jack died in an accident. As she explains the details of the accident, Jack is seen being beaten to death by three men. Both Lureen and Ennis realize that Jack was murdered, but, in order to protect the secret of Jack's homosexuality, Lureen keeps the true circumstances of her husband's death in subtext. At the end of their conversation, Lureen tells Ennis that Jack willed to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain, and suggests that Ennis contact Jack's parents about taking Jack's ashes there.
Ennis visits Jack's parents. Jack's father refuses to let Ennis take Jack's ashes, insisting that they be buried in the family plot. In Jack's boyhood bedroom, Ennis discovers two old shirts hidden in the back of a closet. The shirts, hung on the same hanger, are the ones the two men were wearing on their last day on Brokeback Mountain in 1963.
At the film's end, Ennis opens his own closet to reveal that he has hung the shirts together alongside a postcard of Brokeback Mountain.
Spoilers end here.
[edit]
Filming locations
The film was shot primarily in Alberta. Ang Lee usually shoots his films in the exact locations in which they are set (another notable exception was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in which the scenes set in the Wudangshan monastery were actually been filmed at another Taoist monastery), but he decided that Alberta would be an ideal place to shoot Brokeback Mountain because of its lush landscapes broadly similar to those in Wyoming, the lower production costs in Canada, and the willingness of the Alberta Film Development Corporation, an instrumentality of the Alberta provincial government, to assist with funding.
The movie was filmed during the summer of 2004.
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Commercial success
Brokeback Mountain cost about U.S.$14 million to produce, excluding its advertising budget[1].
The film saw limited release in the United States on December 9, 2005 (in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), taking $547,425 in five theaters its first weekend. According to several sources, including TV Guide[2] and indiewire[citation needed], this was the highest per-showing average for any drama in film history.
Over the Christmas weekend, it posted the highest per theater gross of any movie[3] and was considered a box office success not only in urban centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, but also in suburban theaters near Portland, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and Atlanta. On January 6, 2006, the movie expanded into 483 theaters, and, on January 13, 2006 Focus Features, the movie's distributor, opened Brokeback in nearly 700 North American cinemas as part of its ongoing expansion strategy for the movie. On January 20, the film opened in 1,194 theaters in North America; it opened in 1,652 theaters on January 27 and in 2,089 theaters on February 3, its widest release yet[4].
As of February 24, 2006, Brokeback Mountain had grossed more than $73 million in North America and $44.5 million elsewhere, adding up to a worldwide gross of more than $118 million [5]. It is already the top grossing release of Focus Features [6].
The film was released in London, UK on December 30, 2005 in only one cinema, and was widely released in UK on January 6, 2006. On January 11, Time Out London magazine reported that Brokeback was the number one movie in the city, a position it held for three weeks.[7]
The movie was released in France on January 18, 2006 in 155 cinemas (expanding into 258 cinemas in the second week and into 290 in the third week). In its first week of release, Brokeback Mountain was in third place at the French box office, with 277,000 people viewing the movie, or an average of 1,787 people by cinema per week, the highest such figure for any film in France that week. One month later, it has reached nearly one million viewers, with still 248 cinemas. Released in Italy on January 20, the film grossed more than 890,000 euros in only three days, and was the fourth highest-grossing film in the country in its first week of release. In the second week, in 224 theatres, the film's gross increased to €1,986,000, and is at €4,626,271 for its fifth week (second only to Match Point at its sixth week).
Brokeback Mountain was released in Australia on January 26, 2006 where it landed in fourth place at the box office and earned an average per-screen gross three times higher than its nearest competitor during its first weekend, despite being released in only 48 cinemas nationwide, most Australian critics praised the film. [8] Brokeback is being released in many other countries during the first three months of 2006 [9]. The film was released in the Netherlands on 16 February, and will open in Germany on 9 March. It premiered in Brazil on February 3 and quickly topped the charts with over 100.000 viewers.
Brokeback Mountain was the highest-grossing movie in the U.S. from Tuesday, January 17 through Thursday, January 19, 2006, perhaps due primarily to its wins at the Golden Globes on January 16. Indeed, the movie was one of the top five highest-grossing films in the U.S. every day from January 17 until January 28, including over the weekend (when more people go to the movies and big-budget films usually crowd out independent films from the top-grossing list) of January 20-22. [10] On Saturday, January 28, the movie fell out of the top five and into sixth place at the box office during that weekend before entering the top five again on Monday, January 30, and remaining there until Friday, February 10.
According to interviews with the filmmakers, Focus Features was able to recoup their production costs by selling overseas rights to the film so, from the outset, the film was not in danger of losing very much money.
[edit]
Critical reception
Professional film critics have heaped praise on Brokeback Mountain. [11] The film won four Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture-Drama, and was nominated for seven, leading all other films in the 2005 awards. It has won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, as well as the title Best Picture from the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Dallas Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the Utah Film Critics Society, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (the BAFTAs).
Brokeback Mountain was given two thumbs up by Ebert & Roeper, the former granting a four-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times. Currently, the film holds an 85% rating of "Fresh" from 203 reviews on RottenTomatoes.com and received 'circumspect' positive reviews from the Catholic News Service and Christianity Today. Conservative movie critic Michael Medved gave the film three and a half stars, stating that while the movie's agenda is blatant, it is an artistic work. He did not, however place the film on his year end top 10 list.
Most gay and lesbian cultural commentators have praised the film, although a few critics, such as David Ehrenstein, believe that the film's cultural impact is being overplayed at the expense of other groundbreaking films and the challenges that openly gay and lesbian actors still face. A few other gay commentators and bloggers have written disapprovingly about the fact that, in what has been widely hailed as a "breakthrough" film for gay cinema, neither of the film's two lead actors, nor its director, nor its screenwriters are gay.
The film significance is attributed to its portraying of a same-sex relationship without any reference to the history of the civil rights movement [12]. This emphasizes the tragic love story aspect, which leads many commentators to effectively compare Ennis and Jack drama to classic and modern romances like Romeo and Juliet or Titanic, often using the term Star-crossed lovers. [13] [14] [15].
This link to classic romances is no coincidence, but actively sought by the film authors. An example of this is that the poster for the film was inspired by that of James Cameron's Titanic, after Ang Lee's collaborator James Schamus looked at the posters of "the 50 most romantic movies ever made".[16]
On January 3, 2006, Focus Features' parent company, Universal, announced that Brokeback Mountain was the most honored film of 2005. The independent website criticstop10.net[17] backed that assertion, reporting that Brokeback Mountain was the most frequently-selected movie on reviewers' year-end "Top Ten" lists of 2005.
On January 31, 2006, Brokeback Mountain received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score.
[edit]
Controversy
[edit]
Roman Catholic Church
The warm review by the Catholic News Service caused a controversy in itself when it labeled the movie "L" for "appropriate for limited adult audiences". A few days after the original post praising the film, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting changed the rating to "O" for "morally offensive," in part due to the reaction of conservative Catholic organizations, such as LifeSite. [18] On December 29, 2005 the review was completely removed and replaced with a review that contained Catholic teachings against persons in same-sex relationships and called the two male characters "scarred."
Journalist and political pundit Andrew Sullivan, a practising Roman Catholic who is openly gay, speculates that the Catholic Church now sees the power of the film as a threat that may change the perspective of Catholics, and that Catholic officials fear that the film might lead Catholics to rethink whether homosexuality is truly an "affliction". Further, Sullivan suggests that perhaps Catholic officials fear that the film may encourage Catholics to view homosexual love as emanating from "deep-seated human love" rather than being a love based purely on sexual acts.
Controversy notwithstanding, one large Catholic private school in Utah had its students attend a field trip to a local movie house to view the movie for a humanities class. The school principal defended the action stating it would broaden the students' understanding and humanity.
[edit]
Utah theater cancellation
On January 6, 2006, Utah Jazz owner and Latter-day Saint Larry H. Miller pulled the film from his Jordan Commons entertainment complex in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, at the last minute after entering into a contract to show it and heavily advertising for it. He reneged on his obligations approximately two hours before the first scheduled showing upon learning that the plot concerned a same-sex romance.
On January 9, 2006, he also canceled his agreement to show Transamerica, a comedy-drama about the life of a transgendered person, which had been scheduled to open on January 20. However, on January 20 he did not interfere with the screening of another film with gay themes, Capote. [19]
Miller was heavily criticized by Equality Utah, Focus Features, and local residents who had arrived to purchase tickets only to find it had been canceled without notice. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center of Utah has called their fellow Utahns to "vote with your hard-earned dollars" and "avoid" Miller’s holdings in response, including the Delta Center, his two theaters and several car dealerships. Focus Features has threatened to sue him and announced it will no longer do business with him. In a statement it added, "You can't do business with people who break their word."
Gayle Ruzicka, of the Utah chapter of the conservative national organization, the Eagle Forum, commended Miller's decision: "I just think [pulling the show] tells the young people especially that maybe there is something wrong with this show," she said.
Brokeback actor Heath Ledger called the cancellation "unnecessary", noting: "Personally I don't think the movie is controversial, but I think maybe the Mormons in Utah do. I think it's hilarious and very immature of a society." Comedian Jay Leno and MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann both made jokes about the decision. Utah talk-show host Doug Wright, who reviews movies for KSL Radio, which is owned by the LDS Church, has said that if he were Miller he would not have pulled the movie.
Brokeback Mountain has been successful at other Salt Lake City-area theaters. The Broadway Theater placed it the tenth highest per-screen average nationwide during the New Years holiday, and in terms of total grosses it ranked number one while only showing on one screen at the Century 16. A poll aired on KSL television found 40% of all Utahns disagreed with Miller's move, as did a majority of Salt Lake County residents, where his complex is located. KSL found that the 60% who agreed with the film's removal had larger families and less disposable income compared with those who disagreed. A spokesperson for Focus Features added, "Given the gigantic grosses already being posted in Salt Lake City for Brokeback Mountain, this is their loss." [20]
[edit]
Fox News
Several political pundits on Fox News, including commentators Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and Cal Thomas, accused Hollywood of pushing an agenda and told their viewers that the Christian-themed Chronicles of Narnia has more merit for "best picture of the year." On December 23, 2005, the network reported that Brokeback Mountain was facing "Brokeback Burnout," citing a fall in revenues from Sunday, December 18, 2005, to Monday, as well as subsequent falls during the week as evidence.[21] Others have pointed out that nearly every movie faces declining business during the transition from weekend to weekdays. O'Reilly has persisted in his criticism, bringing up the movie as a subject of intense criticism on over 9 different occasions thus far on his cable show, and a half dozen times on his radio program.[22]
The actual dollar values for the film's daily revenues can be found here [23]. Currently, it is the highest grossing Oscar nominee and the film has already topped $119 million worldwide.[24]
On December 29, however, the news organization reported that the movie was a box-office success, leading all other movies in terms of per-theater gross during the Christmas weekend, [25] while Narnia was top in overall weekend gross (showing on 3,636 more screens than Brokeback Mountain at the time) [26].
[edit]
Gene Shalit and The Today Show
The film critic for the U.S. morning show The Today Show, Gene Shalit, called Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack Twist, a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts." This triggered complaints, particularly from gay media watchdog group GLAAD, who argued that Shalit's characterization of "Jack" would be akin to calling Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Titanic a sexual predator because he is romantically interested in the character played by Kate Winslet. Shalit later apologized, saying: [27]
In describing the behavior of "Jack" I used words ("sexual predator") that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary... I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of "Brokeback Mountain."
In a letter to GLAAD, Shalit's gay son Peter said, "He may have had an unpopular opinion of a movie that is important to the gay community, but he defamed no one, and he is not a homophobe." He went on to say that GLAAD had defamed his father by "falsely accusing him of a repellent form of bigotry." [28]
[edit]
U.S. social conservatives
Several Christian fundamentalist groups, such as Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family, lambasted the film before it was released. Following wins by Brokeback Mountain, Capote, and Transamerica at the 2006 Golden Globes, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, a Concerned Women for America Senior Fellow, said on January 17:[29]:
"Once again, the media elites are proving that their pet projects are more important than profit."
"...none of the three movies, Capote, Transamerica or Brokeback Mountain, is a box office hit. Brokeback Mountain has barely topped $25 million [at the time] in ticket sales. While it has recouped all the production costs, it is doubtful that receipts have covered the massive PR costs."
"If America isn't watching these films, why are they winning the awards?"
Several conservative commentators predicted, erroneously, that the movie would be a commercial failure. On his program The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly said on December 20, 2005: "But I don't care about the movie. I'm going to make the prediction. The movie will get a lot of Academy Awards, because again Hollywood is very sympathetic to the gay movement ... But I will submit to you this movie does not do big box office outside the big cities. It won't. They're not going to go see the gay cowboys in Montana. I'm sorry. They're not going to do it." On January 2, 2006, Charles Krauthammer stated on the Fox News Channel that "Brokeback Mountain will have been seen in the theaters by 18 people, but the right 18 and will win the Academy Award." On December 7, 2005, Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America, opined that "people don't want to see that. They don't want to see two guys going at it. It's that simple ... I think Ang Lee is off his rocker if he thinks he can have the same commercial success with two cowboys instead of a cowboy and a cowgirl, as other movies do." [30]
Some anti-gay groups have explicitly dissuaded their supporters from protesting the movie, in an attempt to avoid additional publicity for the film.
This talk has even made its way up to the White House, as Rolling Stone reports:[31]
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<TD>Fielding questions from a Kansas State University audience on January 23rd, President Bush got sandbagged when a student asked him what he thought of Brokeback Mountain, the R-rated gay-cowboy flick. "You'd love it!" the student urged. "You should check it out." As the crowd tittered, Bush insisted, "I haven't seen it," and then reiterated his point: "I haven't seen it." (This despite the fact that weeks earlier, the White House requested, and received, a copy of the film for screening.) Like it or not, Bush had stumbled into the debate swirling around Brokeback Mountain, a movie that appeared to repulse much of his core constituency.
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Liberal groups controversy
Conversely, gay and liberal commentators and bloggers have raised their concerns about the treatment given to the coverage of the movie's same-sex theme in the mass media, both in advertising and in public exhibitions like press conferences and award ceremonies. Some bloggers and commentators have noted their disappointment that expressions of love between two men have been carefully avoided in certain representations of the film in the media[32], even though same-sex love is Brokeback Mountain's main theme.
Several journalists including New York Daily News writer Wayman Wong and Dave Cullen [33] have complained that the movie's director, lead actors and publicity team avoid using the word gay to describe the story, and that the movie trailer does not show the two male leads kissing each other even as it includes a heterosexual bedroom scene, evidently in an attempt to avoid alienating the potential heterosexual audience.
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Derogatory use of "Brokeback Mountain"
The term "Brokeback" or "Brokeback Mountain" has been used as a derogatory synonym for homosexuality, particularly among college students. One such incident occured at Gonzaga University when students heckled an opposing player from Saint Mary's University at a basketball game by chanting "Brokeback Mountain". This game was nationally televised on February 6, 2006[34]. The chant was designed to heckle an opposing player as homosexual. After an opinion column in the student newspaper condemned the chant[35], faculty advisors to the Kennel Club, Gonzaga's booster association, formally called on students to stop employing the chant.
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Parodies and humor
The subject of "gay cowboys" in a relatively mainstream Hollywood release have led to many — usually good-natured — jokes and punchlines, from late night television to editorial cartoons. On a 2005 Late Show with David Letterman, guest Nathan Lane starred in a skit in which the film had been turned into a flamboyantly gay musical. In the first three weeks of February 2006 alone, Letterman used it as a joke in three Top Ten lists. Internet parodies have sprung up lampooning the film's trailer. Brokeback to the Future uses clever editing to suggest that Back to the Future characters Marty McFly and Doctor Emmett Brown had more than a platonic relationship; another, Bareback Mountain, includes bestiality; and yet another from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno parodies the marketing of the movie. The word "brokebacking" has been coined to describe homosexual relations, particularly secret, closeted ones. A line from the film that is featured in the preview, "I wish I knew how to quit you", has become a catch-phrase and been featured on novelty tee-shirts. On the February 25-26 edition of "Ebert & Roeper", Richard Roeper called for a moratorium on "Brokeback Mountain" jokes at the Academy Awards.
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Trivia
Gyllenhaal and Hathaway as Jack Twist and Lureen Newsome.
<LI>The film is one of several highly acclaimed LGBT-related movies of 2005 to be nominated for critical awards, others being: Breakfast on Pluto, Capote, and Transamerica. It is also the second LGBT work for director Ang Lee, his first being The Wedding Banquet.
<LI>Filmakers Gus Van Sant and Joel Schumacher, who are both gay, considered directing Brokeback Mountain before Ang Lee (who is heterosexual) signed on to the project.
<LI>During filming Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger began dating and conceived their first child.
<LI>During filming it was reported Ledger almost broke Gyllenhaal's nose during a kissing scene, as the scene required that they pull each other close very quickly.
<LI>On seeing a pre-release screening, Madonna called the movie "shocking [and] surprising" and commended Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger on their bravery in taking on the challenging material of the film when many actors turned the film down. [36]
<LI>Heath Ledger had a nude scene in which he jumped into a lake. The director intended to edit any actual frontal nudity out of the film, but a paparazzo photographer took photos of both Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal's stunt double with a digital camera. The photos have appeared on the internet and in some press publications.
<LI>Some reports have it that Ang Lee barred screenwriter Larry McMurtry from the set of the movie. A spokeswoman for Focus Features commented: "Larry McMurtry can never go on sets because he's got very severe allergies." No one barred Larry McMurtry from the set—he was in the midst of writing a novel when filming began and ended. Diana Ossana, co-writer of the screenplay and a producer, was on set during the entire filming.
<LI>It has been reported that several major actors declined to audition for the film because of its frank depiction of a strong and sexual relationship between two men.[37]
<LI>When Ledger and Gyllenhaal were asked about any fear of being cast in such controversial roles, Ledger responded that he was not afraid of the role, but rather he was concerned that he would not be mature enough as an actor to do the story justice.
<LI>The quote by Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack Twist, "I wish I knew how to quit you," has become a catch phrase from this movie. [38] [39]
<LI>According to news reports, the film has been banned in mainland China, where censors still consider same-sex sexual relationships to be a taboo topic. [40] [41]. Brokeback Mountain is, however, playing in Lee's native Taiwan and opened in Hong Kong on February 23, 2006. [42]
<LI>Willie Nelson, who appears on the movie soundtrack, released "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)", which was written long before the movie's popularity but recorded only last year. [43]
<LI>The shirts that Ennis finds hanging one inside the other in Jack's closet sold on Ebay on February 21, 2006, for over $100,000[44]. The buyer, a collector of movie memorabilia, called the shirts “the ruby slippers of our time,”[45] and intends never to separate them. The proceeds will benefit California children's charity Variety [46], which has long been associated with the movie industry.
<LI>In South Park episode 209, Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls, Cartman made a statement about independent movies: "They're always about gay cowboys eating pudding." In a 2005 interview with the Associated Press, the authors of the episode were asked about Cartman's statement in relation to then-forthcoming Brokeback Mountain. Trey Parker's reply was "if there’s pudding eating in there, we’re going to sue!"
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Awards
The movie has won many awards, including four Golden Globe awards for Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Song, and Best Screenplay. It has also received four Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Ensemble, more than any other movie released in 2005. It has been nominated for eight Oscars by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [47]
I LOVE YOU MORE THAN I LOVE BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN! well, actually i didn't really like the movie very much so that's not a big deal.
so i love you more than i love taking embarassing pictures of people!
i'll go to jamaica! bye phil!