Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Small Town America And BBM

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Lynne:
Karan - I'm very glad you're here - Welcome!  and thanks for posting!

I live in a fairly rural town in Tennessee/USA, but I think my problems seeing BBM in theatres were more related to the art-house style distribution plan that Focus Feature used than to any moral objection from the theatres.  I read the short story in the fall of 2005 when I first heard of the movie, but it seemed to take FOREVER to make it from the premiere in the large cities to anywhere a reasonable from me.  I had a low startle point about this, and I made a lot of phone calls .  I was repeatedly reassured that it would get closer to me eventually - there was no conspiracy at work.  It did finally play in the cities nearest me (Nashville/Chattanooga, TN and Huntsville, AL - 60-100 miles away) by late January 2006.  And March, BBM even had a 3 week stint on the smallest screen in the closest theatre to me (6 miles).

Sadly, though, I saw it completely alone once and there were never more than 20 people there for any of my theatre viewings - about 8 people was typical.  For the first few viewings, I got to see people walk on tent scene one.

-Lynne

Shakesthecoffecan:
Karan,

I agree with Lynne, it kind of goes along with Randy Quaid sueing Focus, or whoever it was. They were advertizing it as a force of nature and not realizing what a force of nature it was. I live in an area of about 75,000, in a fairly conservative area. A local theater owner I know who is gay, I asked him was he getting it, he said he would and it would take him months because there was just not enough prints. We drove 100 mile round trip to see it, which is not unheard of because the theaters in the bigger cities are just better, more comfortable, etc.

It did finally come to my town and I did go see it, in March. By then everyone in my area who wanted to see it had already traveled out of town to see it. Others were still afraid to be seen and waited on the DVD. A local preecher claimed he was going to lead a demonstration against the movie when it opened here, but insted went on a golf trip. The only religious reaction to it I heard of locally was a local Baptist Youth group van pulled up in front of the theather, a bunch of kids got out, took a group picture in front of the poster and left. I am not sure what that means but I take it as a hopeful sign.

Now during the height of the media frenzie, the lesser educated people I encountered would say thing like this:

Conveinence Store Clerk: "I ain't gone go see no two cowboys kissing each other!"

Conveinece Store Customer: "Welll you got two gays come in here every morning and buy breakfast"

Clerk: "WHO?!?!"

I think it started a lot of dialogue, and that is usually a good thing. I did correspond with a gay guy in Riverton, Wyoming who told me he had heard Riverton was in the story but had not seen it because it did not play there.   

ProwlAmongUs:
I live in a rural area of upstate New York, and I was amazed--and pleased--to see the film released widely here. It played for a long time in Syracuse (a small city where it did well in the multiplexes and also at one independent theater).  It showed for a time in a VERY small city ten miles from where I live and also showed for two weeks in a small college town. The fact that Colgate University is located in that town was a factor, I'm sure, for its being successful, although the audiences were NOT merely college students. (Colgate is a prestigious and expensive university with a diverse student population, so that influenced the theater there to carry the film initially.)

I saw the film in more than one theater locally, and was pleased with the response from the audience. While a few snickered or voiced some disgust, most people were fine and quite moved emotionally. I feared the movie would be laughed or booed off the screen due to the conservative nature of the area here (we're mostly Republicans and Democrats are shot at dawn, figuratively speaking). 

Karan13:
Big thank you , for all your replies , i`m glad you all didn`t have to much trouble seeing the movie.
     I guess we do take it for granted here , how easy it is to go to the cinema , but i must admit it is quite an expensive affair these days { even though Brokeback was worth every penny }. Getting the Dvd was also easy as practically every supermarket , record shop , even newsagents , had it on their shelves.

I raced out on the release date and grabbed one , i was a little disappointed with no Directors commentry on it or deleted scenes , but i still watch it constantly , and will probably need to replace it before the years out.

Take care all xx kaz         ;D

Shakesthecoffecan:
I am waiting on that directors cut with baited breath. There are scenes out there, in the trailer and elsewhere that never made it to the film, and the feeling I have is there is more to the story of Jack's lynching they decided to leave out and I am hungry for that detail. I want to know what McMurtry and Ossana came up with.

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