BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum
Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond => Brokeback Mountain Open Forum => All Things Brokeback: Books, Interviews and More => Topic started by: Jeff Wrangler on January 07, 2007, 04:27:42 pm
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I thought those without access to The New Yorker might find this interesting. It's from Denby's article, "Big Pictures: Hollywood Looks for a Future," in the Jan. 8 issue of The New Yorker. Denby is a film critic for the magazine.
I looked at "Brokeback Mountain" on a portable DVD player with a seven-inch screen and headphones--the kind of rig people use on airplanes and in jury waiting rooms. The focus was precise, the color bright. And, through the headphones, I heard such extraordinary details as the flip-flip-flip of the rain on the tent when Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are up in the mountains. Yet there was something wrong. I was not in the mountains. The grandeur of the terrain is not something the men are necessarily conscious of, but the massiveness of the mountain range, the startling clarity of the air, the violence of the weather enlarge the experience of the feelings they have no words for and can't control. If you watch the movie on a small screen, you're not living within this great breathing, palpable place. The small screen takes the emotion out of the landscape.
Essentially I agree with Denby. It's nice to be able to "visit" with Ennis and Jack anytime I want to in the comfort of my own living room, but for me, the experience of Brokeback Mountain is most definitely and probably unavoidably diminished on the small screen. :-\
Denby goes on to add:
The experience was dissatisfying in other ways, too. Having a highly detailed soundtrack in your head and a reduced image before your eyes is an oddly unsettling experience. It's as if the movie had been pulled back to the editing stage, before the sound and picture were "married." You are reminded of the obvious reason that theatres have put speakers behind the screen all these years--so that the words seem to be coming out of the characters' mouths. In "Brokeback," as a storm breaks, the lightning flashed onscreen, but the the thunder roared in my head.
Denby also talked with James Schamus about running Focus Features, which he characterizes as a "specialty" division of Universal. He also shares that to market the movie, one of Focus Features' target groups was older women who do volunteer work. This group was targeted because they were thought to be more compassionate.
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Oh yeah, watching it on DVD, it's nothing like how it was in the theatres. That's why I saw it 45 times in the theatres! :D Everybody reading this should make an effort to go to the Bay City Michigan Screening...
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,5549.0.html
Man I wish I had driven to Fresno though and saw it on the IMAX screen there.
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Yup. Seeing the mountains on the big screen was breathtaking. Even my Mom commented on that after she saw it on the big screen.
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Oh yeah, watching it on DVD, it's nothing like how it was in the theatres. That's why I saw it 45 times in the theatres! :D Everybody reading this should make an effort to go to the Bay City Michigan Screening...
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,5549.0.html
Man I wish I had driven to Fresno though and saw it on the IMAX screen there.
OMG, that mountain scenery on an IMAX screen? :o THUD. (Jeff keels over in a dead faint. ...)
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OMG, that mountain scenery on an IMAX screen? :o THUD. (Jeff keels over in a dead faint. ...)
Yeah, and I missed it. I kick myself for missing this. RonTrigger is the lucky one of us who saw it there many times, as that's his home town. And it would've only been a 2 hour drive for me. Uggh! :(
It wasn't on IMAX film, but this particular location has a stand alone former IMAX theatre that they now use to show traditional 35mm movies on. They showed BBM for about 8 weeks on the IMAX screen!
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Yeah, and I missed it. I kick myself for missing this. RonTrigger is the lucky one of us who saw it there many times, as that's his home town. And it would've only been a 2 hour drive for me. Uggh! :(
It wasn't on IMAX film, but this particular location has a stand alone former IMAX theatre that they now use to show traditional 35mm movies on. They showed BBM for about 8 weeks on the IMAX screen!
Seeing Brokeback on an IMAX screen--now that would have been some high-class entertainment! :D
In view of his comments it would be interesting to know what Denby would think of viewing the film on an IMAX screen.
(I remember RonTrigger. Wonder whatever became of him? ??? )
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Rontrigger still posts now and then at imdb.
I just saw my first mainstream IMAX film (not counting the ones about ocean life and the Grand Canyon and things like that). It was "Night at the Museum." I didn't like the experience much. I was sitting closer than I probably should have been, and my eyes kept wandering around the screen, not knowing where to settle.
But the fact that "Night at the Museum" was bad probably didn't help. :-\
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(I remember RonTrigger. Wonder whatever became of him? ??? )
Ron's alive and well over on Imdb. There's actually a lot of good discussions that are still going on over there. Worth a lurk....
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Ron's alive and well over on Imdb. There's actually a lot of good discussions that are still going on over there. Worth a lurk....
IMDb? Seems like I haven't been back there in four effen years. ;D
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I take a kind of middle view on those smaller screens.
On one hand, any kind of large-scale scenery is diminished on a smaller screen; we have a medium size one, about 25". But for me, the balance tilts a little toward the advantage of being able to view it whenever I want, replaying certain scenes and just the sentimental feeling of having Ennis and Jack in my house. (Yeah, I know that sounds a tad demented!)
We got one of those little 7-inch DVD players for Christmas, and finally dug through the junk boxes to find some earphones that fit it. Looking forward to that!
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I just saw my first mainstream IMAX film (not counting the ones about ocean life and the Grand Canyon and things like that). It was "Night at the Museum." I didn't like the experience much. I was sitting closer than I probably should have been, and my eyes kept wandering around the screen, not knowing where to settle.
As of tomorrow, folks in Australia are going to have the opportunity to see BBM outdoors!
It's one of the featured movies in their annual summer "Moonlight Cinema" program and will be shown in five cities: Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Donnie Darko and Candy will be screened too, but not in all five cities.
Anyone wanting to check it out: http://www.moonlight.com.au/
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I take a kind of middle view on those smaller screens.
On one hand, any kind of large-scale scenery is diminished on a smaller screen; we have a medium size one, about 25". But for me, the balance tilts a little toward the advantage of being able to view it whenever I want, replaying certain scenes and just the sentimental feeling of having Ennis and Jack in my house. (Yeah, I know that sounds a tad demented!)
Sounds perfectly sane to me, Marge! :)
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I touched on this here:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,7088.msg137212.html#msg137212 (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,7088.msg137212.html#msg137212)