Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Brokeback Mountain -- movie review by Steven D. Greydanus
TOoP/Bruce:
--- Quote ---He does waffle, but he makes some good points. It sounds like he's writing for a Christian or conservative readership (is this right, Bruce?) so wants to be critical of the movie from a moral perspective and yet admires it from an artistic one.
--- End quote ---
You are correct. Greydanus is a critic for the National Catholic Register.
I believe this review got him into some hot water for being "too positive."
BlissC:
Up to here:
--- Quote ---The character in question isn’t sure what really happened, and neither, perhaps, are we.
--- End quote ---
I think he was going well, and made some very valid, and insightful comments, but I think it went downhill from here:
--- Quote ---At the opposite end of the spectrum, alas, is one relatively minor but crucial respect in which Ang’s subtlety and even-handedness largely fail him. Whenever it considers straight men, Brokeback Mountain begins to verge toward Magdalene Sisters–style prejudicial stereotyping.
--- End quote ---
The focus of the review on masculinity detracts from the far more important (in my eyes) messages of the movie - the themes of the power of love, the tragedies that result from the situation, etc, etc., and the fact that the reviewer's a critic for the National Catholic Register does explain quite a bit.
At the same time though, I have to say that I do feel at times that the movie did rather overplay the masculinity angle. Maybe that's just me though.
The one bit of the review I couldn't work out was this:
--- Quote ---It may be the most profoundly anti-western western ever made, not only post-modern and post-heroic, but post-Christian and post-human.
--- End quote ---
Anyone any idea what the hell that's supposed to mean? (I've had a long day at work and my brain gave up functioning a couple of hours ago ;) )
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