I have several friends and acquaintances, both gay and straight, who didn't like Brokeback Mountain. And like you, I got mad at them, and tried to convice them otherwise. You would not believe their reasons, some were even silly. Then on my 5th or 6th viewing at the theater this guy who was sitting next to me started to cry loud and uncontrolably just when the movie ended. I, along with two other people tried to confort him. He was really upset. He kept saying he hated the movie, but he kept crying. And that's when it hit me. That's when I finally understood why some poeple dislike BBM, because it's too real. It deals with topics not everybody is comfortable with. The story makes some people realize mistakes they have made in the past; it makes them remember painful experiences they didn't want to remember; it makes them feel guilty for past behaviors and so on. So, now everytime I hear someone say they didn't like the movie, I stop and think before reacting because I don't know what chord the movie touched on that person. Brokeback Mountain is a tough movie and not everybody can deal with it.
Excellent point. I was just thinking about this last night (go figure!
). It came to me after I turned off "The Door in the Floor," which a co-worker to whom I had highly recommended Brokeback (and who didn't really like it all that much) had recommended highly to me. I turned it off because after a promising start in which Kim Basinger's character was shown non-verbally experiencing serious clinical depression in a manner that struck a chord in me, once they all started talking, not a word of it rang true. Whoever wrote the dialog DOES NOT GET HOW PEOPLE REALLY TALK. It just bugged the crap outta me. Then I remembered how this same co-worker later saw "Crash" after having seen BBM and *raved* about how great it was, how it totally deserved the Oscar, blah, blah, blah. And this thought struck me: She must not like anything that's too real. Some people, I guess, like movies that are contrived because it takes them completely out of their own life situations and plunks them somewhere else for a couple of hours - it's just pure escapism to them - like an extended and relatively pleasant acid trip. Then they sober up, walk out, and get on with their lives, not giving what they've seen another thought. That's entertainment to them.
I think they must actually see the whole point of movies as being completely different from how we here see it.
In order for me to thoroughly enjoy a movie, I have to believe those characters are *real*. Every word they say has to sound like exactly what someone in that real-life situation would say. Everything they do has to be likewise. Otherwise, I don't care about them and it falls flat. As soon as the characters opened their mouths in this movie last night, I stopped believing them. Every one of them. And it was over. Similarly, I have to connect with those characters in some way that comes from my own experience. Even if it's an unlikable character, if he shows me some vulnerability - some questioning of whether he believes the things he says and does are really right, I can connect. But a character can be written to be the most likable and vulnerable person in the world, and if what they say doesn't ring true, I can't connect.
To me, what movies are supposed to accomplish and what they do accmomplish when they truly are works of art is this: They show me an undeniable truth about myself - about the human condition and my experience in it.
I have no problem with pure escapism - I love a great comedy or a well-done shoot-em-up as much as the next guy. But when a movie preens itself to be great drama and then presents characters who would never say and do in a million years the things they say and do, it's failed. Utterly.