Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The "Roots" of the movie
Rayn:
--- Quote from: Shakestheground on October 10, 2007, 03:45:30 pm ---I think the GWTW reference plays into the fact they are both love stories, tragic ones. The analogy to Roots I feel is even stronger. It had a powerful impact on me that this story was taking place over the course of my lifetime (I was born 10 days before they brung 'em down). It has done a lot to teach people, esp. the young people who asked "why didn't they just go to San Francisco?"
As a person who has worked many years on my genealogy I can tell you too it humanized gay folks for the wider world, like Roots humainzed a bunch of long dead ancestors of Alex Hailey.
--- End quote ---
OK, OK, I"ll get the whole Roots series on CD this weekend. I know it's a fantastic epic story, for sure, and I'm probably one of 6 people in the US who never saw it! LOL Heck... I never could read fast enough to "read it all" and I was literature major in university! There's just so much out there to see and read. :o
Rayn :)
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: Rayn on October 12, 2007, 11:22:17 am ---
Gone With The Wind is a true epic drama. Brokeback Mountain isn't an epic. We could say in truth it had "an epic emotional impact" on some in the gay community, but it didn't do that for many non gay people and there are some in the gay community who thought Capote much better. In fact Capote is closer to epic, and it was not an epic either. BBM was far to small in scope, action, length and production to be called epic.
Spartica, Ben Hur, Gone wth the Wind, Gandhi... those are epics, but BBM, for all the love I have for it, doesn't fit the definition of epic. A quick look at a dictionary reveals that and however hard we wish our beloved movie to be an epic, it just doesnt' fit the definition.
From the Cambridge Dictionary:
epic Show phonetics
noun [C]
a film, poem or book which is long and contains a lot of action, usually dealing with a historical subject:
It's one of those old Hollywood epics with a cast of thousands.
--- End quote ---
Thanks, great point about definition of "sweeping epics". I'll just say that both Gone with the Wind and Brokeback Mountain "swept" me away.
Rayn:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on October 14, 2007, 02:47:52 pm ---Thanks, great point about definition of "sweeping epics". I'll just say that both Gone with the Wind and Brokeback Mountain "swept" me away.
--- End quote ---
Sure enough... :)
And as far as I'm concerned, BBM should have swept away more Oscars too. But men in the mainstream didn't feel that way though. More women did; and as I mentioned, some men and women in the gay community didn't "get it" either. For those that did, it certainly had an epic impact on some. It's interesting to note different reactions to it, from indifferent to swept away, huh?
brokebackjack:
I don't think it's either GWTW or Roots
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: Rayn on October 15, 2007, 04:25:42 am ---
Sure enough... :)
And as far as I'm concerned, BBM should have swept away more Oscars too. But men in the mainstream didn't feel that way though. More women did; and as I mentioned, some men and women in the gay community didn't "get it" either. For those that did, it certainly had an epic impact on some. It's interesting to note different reactions to it, from indifferent to swept away, huh?
--- End quote ---
I really like what you have said here. I think that you are right on target about the gender differences among men versus women in an understanding of BBM, this seems especially true among straight men. You can see it in movie reviews, some reviewers who didn't like the movie simply didn't watch the movie very carefully, others were motivated by an religious or ideological agenda that colored their commentary about BBM. If you have time, read conservative columnist / radio talk show host Michael Medved's review of BBM. Many like him simply couldn't bridge the cognative gap and try to really understand why the movie is so important. I heard that Tony Curtis a member of the "Academy" that selects the Oscar winners refused to even see the movie before voting on "Best Picture"!!
Your comment about different people having different reactions to the same movie, struck a chord with me. I log onto "Bettermost" just for that reason! I am facisnated with how different people, people of various ages, genders, sexual orientations, political ideologies, occupations, regions, are all strongly affected by the same movie in similar but different ways. I would LOVE to see a demographic analysis of the "Brokie" community.
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