Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 15/07: Short story or movie, which one do you prefer?
serious crayons:
Artiste, do I correctly understand you to be saying that BBM is anti-gay because you think that seeing Jack's possible killing will inspire audience members to go out and commit gay-bashing incidents or murders themselves?
I'll have to say, that doesn't make any sense at all to me. In fact, with all due respect, I'll have to go a step further and say it strikes me as completely absurd.
It's like trying to imagine someone watching "Sophie's Choice" or "Schindler's List" and then deciding to become a Nazi.
First of all, anybody who watches the movie already seems automatically, by definition, a member of that portion of the population least likely to be anti-gay or homophobic or likely to commit violence toward gays in the first place. Second, one big message of Brokeback Mountain, stated in the simplest possible terms, is that it's bad to kill gay men. Its gay characters are sympathetic and three dimensional and suffering. So if it's even possible to imagine a viewer who would otherwise be likely to commit anti-gay hate crimes somehow nevertheless choosing to see "Brokeback Mountain," I would say that the experience of watching the movie, if anything, makes them much LESS likely to commit violence toward gays than they were before.
Your repeated questions about anti-gay have made no sense to me. If I am now interpreting them correctly, I would have to say I couldn't disagree more.
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: ineedcrayons on December 09, 2007, 07:35:34 pm ---Artiste, do I correctly understand you to be saying that BBM is anti-gay because you think that seeing Jack's possible killing will inspire audience members to go out and commit gay-bashing incidents or murders themselves?
I'll have to say, that doesn't make any sense at all to me. In fact, with all due respect, I'll have to go a step further and say it strikes me as completely absurd.
It's like trying to imagine someone watching "Sophie's Choice" or "Schindler's List" and then deciding to become a Nazi.
First of all, anybody who watches the movie already seems automatically, by definition, a member of that portion of the population least likely to be anti-gay or homophobic or likely to commit violence toward gays in the first place. Second, one big message of Brokeback Mountain, stated in the simplest possible terms, is that it's bad to kill gay men. Its gay characters are sympathetic and three dimensional and suffering. So if it's even possible to imagine a viewer who would otherwise be likely to commit anti-gay hate crimes somehow nevertheless choosing to see "Brokeback Mountain," I would say that the experience of watching the movie, if anything, makes them much LESS likely to commit violence toward gays than they were before.
Your repeated questions about anti-gay have made no sense to me. If I am now interpreting them correctly, I would have to say I couldn't disagree more.
--- End quote ---
Ineedcrayons, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think that your analogy to the reaction of the general public to the Nazi violence depicted in "Sophie's Choice" and "Schindler's List" is right on target. "Brokeback Moutain" is a watershed in creating greater understanding in the general public about closeted gay/bisexuals, and about the true nature of the destructiveness of the closet.
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on December 10, 2007, 12:19:13 am ---Ineedcrayons, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think that your analogy to the reaction of the general public to the Nazi violence depicted in "Sophie's Choice" and "Schindler's List" is right on target. "Brokeback Moutain" is a watershed in creating greater understanding in the general public about closeted gay/bisexuals, and about the true nature of the destructiveness of the closet.
--- End quote ---
Hey crayons and brokeplex, I'm just jumping in to say I agree with both of you as well. I agree that the Sophie's Choice analogy is good. And brokeplex, I really agree with what you said about BBM exposing the "true nature of the destructiveness of the closet." That's such an important aspect of BBM I think.
brokeplex:
So, how do we convince Artiste? I want him to see the light!
:-)
injest:
I wonder if when Artiste says 'antigay' he means homophobic...that the movie shows homophobia?
that situations or people in the movie are against gay people? in that sense it is true...there is a lot of homophobia in the movie. Aquirre's reaction to the boys...Alma's reaction...the clown...all these people were against gays.
Artiste am I close to what you are saying?
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