Where did you FIRST hear/read about Brokeback Mountain?

[mvansand76]

And when...

A. Somewhere in between 1997-2006
B. Which month
C. Day? 

[ednbarby]

I think I must have first read about the movie in Entertainment Weekly magazine, probably in their Fall or Winter Preview issue for 2005.  Those are always the ones I look forward to the most, because that's the time of year when all the highest-quality films come out over here to be in contention for Academy Awards.  I hadn't read much about it - just the synopsis they provided in their blurb about it.  It interested me at that time mostly because it was an Ang Lee film, and I so loved The Wedding Banquet and Sense and Sensibility that I knew he'd do a wonderful job with the subject matter.  I guess I usually look at the filmmaker first and then the actors.  If I'm interested in all (or most) of their work and the story sounds interesting, I'm in.  I knew of all the actors' work in this one and respected all of it, but I wasn't overly enamored with any of them at the time.  I think now that that was a very good thing - it made me much more free to enjoy the characterizations.  I went into it with little to no expectations except that it definitely wouldn't suck because it was Ang Lee.  That was good, too, because the story just immediately grabbed me and pulled me in.  And it hasn't let me go yet.

[Front-Ranger]

Actually, I first heard about it BEFORE October 13, 1997, because I have a subscription to the New Yorker which arrives a few days before the publication date. I read the story the same night and was floored by it. I kept the magazine in my nightstand drawer several years after that, and I still have the original pages from the story.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Actually, I first heard about it BEFORE October 13, 1997, because I have a subscription to the New Yorker which arrives a few days before the publication date. I read the story the same night and was floored by it. I kept the magazine in my nightstand drawer several years after that, and I still have the original pages from the story.

I envy your foresight, FR. I've had a subscription to The New Yorker since sometime back in the 1980s (yikes!), and my issue used to arrive faithfully on the Wednesday before the cover date. I wish I'd saved the 10/13/1997 issue.

As for the film, however, the first I heard anything about it was an ad in the Weekend section of the Philadelphia Inquirer a week before the film opened here.

[mvansand76]

Actually, I first heard about it BEFORE October 13, 1997, because I have a subscription to the New Yorker which arrives a few days before the publication date. I read the story the same night and was floored by it. I kept the magazine in my nightstand drawer several years after that, and I still have the original pages from the story.

Wow, that must be a record!  That's wonderful!

I first heard about it in 2004, that they were filming a movie called Brokeback Mountain and soon forgot about it until in September 2005 I saw a quote in a newspaper from Jake, I think it was about the kissing scenes or something and then I decided to look it up on imdb.com! Hooked from then on....

[Lynne]

I read about the movie being made (and the controversy surrounding it - Robertson or Falwell had something to say about it, I believe) in the fall of 2005.  So my contrary and completely accurate feeling is that if those two have problems with it, it must be worthwhile.  I sought out the short story, read it a zillion times, and harangued movie theatres in my area until I finally got to see it in late January 2006.  It took me awhile to abandon my conspiracy theory about it NEVER coming to my area and accept it was just Focus Features distribution plan.

[nakymaton]

A friend sent me a link to the short story in October, 2005, with a message that was something like "OMG READ THIS!" (except much more coherent). I read it. Then I read it again. Then I read it a third time. Then I went hunting for info about the movie. Then I started the agonizing wait for the movie to show within driving distance of my home, reading responses to various film festival showings and pre-screenings and then the openings in NY and SF and LA and then the major cities and then the suburbs, all the while reading comments about how it would never play in my part of the country. And I forced all my friends to read weekly updates on the box office and the awards nominations and everything. I was a real pain in the neck.

Good thing the movie finally showed here. I think my friends might have killed me if they had had to endure me for a day longer.

So I found out about the story because of the movie, and got obsessed with the movie because of the story.

Don't know what I would have done if I had read the story in 1997. Probably gone insane. (Wait. I think that happened anyway.)

[Lynne]

Don't know what I would have done if I had read the story in 1997. Probably gone insane. (Wait. I think that happened anyway.)

And isn't it terrific?!?!?

[delalluvia]

I saw/read/overhead a blurb on Heath picking Jake up and slamming him against the wall/nearly breaking his nose story.  And I was 'Oh, yeah, they're making a gay western'.  I'd heard/read/overheard a rumor somewhere about it.

Then I saw a preview for the movie back in - October? - and just went batshit over it and have been turned on ever since.

[vkm91941]

I read it in the Doctor's office the first week in November 1997 I was so captivated that I asked the receptionist if I could take the copy with me.  She said sure.  It's a little dog eared because I read it repeatedly until Wyoming Stories came out in May of 1999.  But I now have it saved in an acid free, light proof museum quality sleeve and envelope.