Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Brokeback as an Anti-Gay Polemic : essay by W.C. Harris
Artiste:
Brokeplex, as your last paragraph states, that is so... I find.
But the script writers could have made that movie more gay oriented... in some ways.
Let us not forget that that these screen writers are female and male, straights??
And the director said he was straight?
Would that make a difference, towrds more hetero-normalizing?
Hugs!!
Clyde-B:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on January 14, 2008, 12:20:53 am ---The film as compared to the short story is heteronormed.
This is the point made in the essays and articles in question. Whether for good or ill, the heterosexual life of Ennis and Jack are emphasized over what we read in the short story. The question raised by the authors of the essays and the articles which I noted is : why does the screen play emphasize the heterosexual life of the boys more that the short story?
The conclusion of all of the authors is that this made the film more marketable to the general public. I agree with their conclusion.
Why then did this make the film more marketable?
Because of the heteronorming pressures in this society, most straight viewers would not empathize as fully with scenes drawn from only the gay elements in Ennis and Jack's lives, but would be able to empathize fully with showing those scenes linked to their heterosexual scenes.
--- End quote ---
The movie contains more scenes of Jack and Ennis's family life than the short story.
The family life scenes show that both Ennis and Jack are out of place.
How does this make the film more marketable?
Please explain without gobbledygook.
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: Artiste on January 14, 2008, 12:27:59 am ---
Let us not forget that that these screen writers are female and male, straights??
And the director said he was straight?
Would that make a difference, towrds more hetero-normalizing?
Hugs!!
--- End quote ---
None, the reason the film was heteronormed had nothing to do with the sexual orientation or gender of the screenwriters or the director. The film was heteronormed over the short story because it made the film more marketable. In fact I would argue that the film would never have been made if the screen play had not been extensively heteronormed.
Focus Features is a business, businesses are about making money. If the films producers planned to market the film to just the roughly 3% of the population that is gay, then the movie would have been made much more closely to the short story and would not have been mass marketed. But then it wouldn't have grossed 200 million plus world wide, and would have cost much more than it made. We live in a world that is overwhelmingly heterosexual, any mass marketing must naturally appeal to their tastes and sensibilities.
Clyde-B:
If they were only interested in making money, where are the marketing tie-ins? Many of us here have complained of the absence of BBM merchandise and have even resorted to making our own.
Also where are the sequels? I personally wrote to Annie Proulx and begged her to complete the saga of Ennis's life and she politely refused.
Larry McMurtry was asked if there would be a sequel and was reportedly quoted as saying that was the stupidest idea he'd ever heard.
It's been two years. They have the track record and the clout, and yet there is still nothing in the pipeline.
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: Clyde-B on January 14, 2008, 12:31:36 am ---
Please explain without gobbledygook.
--- End quote ---
What does the above term mean?
Do you mean to say that extensively showing the scenes of the heterosexual life of Ennis and Jack does not enable straight viewers to more completely identify with the two characters?
If not for that reason, then why would the screen writers add those scenes? Its just not a good enough explanation of the additions to say, that it "fleshes out the home life of the two characters", as McMurtry and Ossana have said.
OK, why "flesh them out" at all ? And why "flesh them out" in the fashion in which they were fleshed out?
If the screen writers are going to INVENT scenes wholesale, why not show more of Jacks philandering with Randall, or his undoubted cruising for sex in other area such as parks, bathrooms. Hey I'd like more of the scene with the Mexican hustler.
Why not show more of Jacks's cruising time when he was bullrider? We can go on and on.
There has to be a reason for the extensive additions over the screenplay, and emphasizing Jack's closeted sexuality does nothing to market the product because I doubt that most mainstream viewers would not be interested in those hypothetical scenes.
But they just loved Ennis's scenes with Alma and the girls. And Jack's scenes with Lureen.
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