Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
<-- Introduce Yourself -->
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: DavidinHartford on March 30, 2006, 07:45:01 pm ---So I can honestly say that BBM was a life changing experience for me. I woke up and shed some baggage, plus met a nice guy. Not to mention a great bunch of fellow BBM lovers here on the internet.
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Wow! Thanks for sharing this amazing story David, that's the best news I've heard in weeks! You know, we hear so many disturbing stories about the tolls and right-wing nuts trying to make our lives, well disturbing. But our endurance is rewarded and we are all uplifted by hearing just one piece of good news like yours. Well done, congratulations, and welcome to BetterMost!
Phillip Dampier:
--- Quote from: horo04 on March 21, 2006, 12:27:39 am ---Hello all...I'm 34, male, heterosexual and live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I've been on another bbm forum but will try another since this is less cluttered for now. I've seen this movie expecting to go in laughing and making jokes but I was very wrong...the movie ripped my heart out. :'( What an incredible picture! It really sucker punched me...never expected it. Guess that's why it took a hold of me...plus being filmed right where I live gives me a close connection to it even though the book takes place in Wyoming. Never the less hope to contibute and share feelings with others concerning this amazing movie.
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So you're the heterosexual guy on here. ;D
Actually, this illustrates how backlogged I've been in dealing with the messages here because you are definitely going to be an important user here - a connection to the "real" Brokeback Mountain we can use.
As users know on here, I am contemplating a vacation sometime this summer perhaps to your neck of the woods, if only to go somewhere. I've never been a big "tourist" type being dragged around to see this site or that. Sometimes I just want to get away just to quietly take things in.
The movie did loads of emotional punching for most of us, as I'm sure you've seen. We will definitely enjoy hearing your stories about Alberta life. I assume you were aware they were filming this movie in your neck of the woods but it probably didn't make an impact on you until you actually went to see it. I wonder how much of the scenery you did recognize as you watched the movie.
I'm very glad you are here.
Phillip Dampier:
--- Quote from: stripey on March 23, 2006, 09:25:48 pm ---Hello all,
My name is Peter and like Chris I am also from Melbourne, Australia. I live with my boyfriend and our cat Stripey.
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Hey Peter... more Aussies! I think outside of the US, we have more Australian users than anywhere else, including Canada. I actually find myself thinking about that when I write messages on here, with usual apologies going out to you guys when I mention seasons because while spring is here, fall is there.
John wants a kitty (we are pet-less at the moment). He is a cat person, I grew up with a dog, but get along fine with all animals, including skunks(!) and squirrels that used to follow me around at the townhouse we used to live in. Unfortunately, he's also allergic to most critters, so this has delayed our cat quest. Additionally, I am always wary of way-too-independent pets sneaking around the house. :)
--- Quote ---I am 34 years old and I really enjoy writing. I have been inspired by Annie Proulx to write more imaginary characters - however it is really hard for me to write as Ennis and Jack are on my mind.
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I wish you success in your creative writing endeavors. I am personally terrible at creative writing. It's like Cliche Corner with me - "it was a dark and stormy night" is the usual kind of stuff I end up turning out. I can write more effectively in news pyramid and magazine style than creatively. But keep it up.
--- Quote ---I am curious to see how this goes as I am a very shy person. Like Philip I have lived in my home town pretty much all my life - although I have lived in different suburbs and lived in the country from ages 7 till I was 14. I have never travelled overseas and rarely interstate. However I would love to travel to Alberta, Texas and of course Wyoming! I have always wanted to travel to America, UK and Canada.
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Being in Australia really does seem more isolating than say the US or Europe, if only because you are essentially on an island nation. Yes there is New Zealand, but that's probably not going to be a culture shock. Back in 1986 when I went to California for a week, I recall sitting in the hotel restaurant overhearing Australian businessmen the next table over talking about their Los Angeles experiences. It was a culture shock to be in Los Angeles, but several had also been in Utah and Illinois and evidently the cultural values of the more rural or heartland portions of America and Australia weren't tremendously different. One had said he had more trouble dealing with England than America.
I should start taking pictures and things myself and create some sort of cultural scrapbook of life in my part of the country - western New York state. To those in New York City, upstate New York is often dismissed as being part of Canada, and those of us in the western half of the state have almost nothing in common with people downstate in the Big Apple. In fact, culturally we are closer to the midwest or Ontario, Canada.
I sense a new project coming to fruition - stories about our communities with pictures and such.
--- Quote ---So one Saturday night on impulse we went to see it at midnight at Chadstone Shopping Centre (Chris would know where that is). Well I didn't say much but my heart got ripped out and stomped on and like Strazeme I almost wished that I hadn't seen it. My reality dimmed in comparison to Brokeback. In the morning I woke in a cloud and the next week at work I was just too sad. All I could think was man - how life can sure give people a major blow.
Brokeback Mountain is the best movie I have ever seen. I am very grateful for it. However I dare not ever see it again - I am afraid that it would just cut open the wounds again as the pain was agonising. Love too can be agonisingly painful sometimes - I think that is why Brokeback affected me as I think a part of me fell in love with the characters.
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It got easier for me on subsequent viewings because everything ripped open the first time around didn't get any worse for me. However, seeing it again re-inspires and re-focuses me on my life plan to make some changes and stop missing opportunities. It's like how the soundtrack kept Ang Lee focused - he said he listened to it often while filming to stay in the spirit of the story.
--- Quote ---I get a bit confused sometimes between my love for the story and my love for the actors. Am I inspired to be more like Heath or Jake - and so feel like nothing compared to their great talent or am I inspired to be more like the characters and so feel like nothing compared to the beauty of Ennis and Jack? I am not sure. ???
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I think this is a great question. Someone posed the theory that BBM was not real because it cast two pretty people in the roles of downtrodden, dirt poor ranch hands. They felt it would have been more authentic with a Steve Buscemi and some other plain looking, weather-beaten actors in the Jack and Ennis roles. They do have a point. Few of us can rival the looks of the average Hollywood movie star, and seeing two attractive people on screen may actually make it easier to connect to them than if they were ordinary looking people. My shallow side tells me this is probably partially true with me - after Donnie Darko I was definitely interested in Jake's films because of his looks and performance in that film. But I am convinced pretty people alone wouldn't have done it. I saw Torch Song Trilogy and people on my generation would drool for Matthew Broderick, yet Torch Song really didn't do much for me.
twistedude:
What I WANTED to reply to was "So we've seen the movie; now what do we do?" I was GOING to say: correct the screenplay! It's fun andf time consuming, and you will drive people nuts in the theater as you take notes...
I'm Julie Vognar, 70 years old (for a while yet), live in Berkeley, California, and am a docent at the Asian Art Museum of SF. I have a few friends and fewer relatives, none of whom want to hear ANY MORE about Brokeback Mountain. I gotta go home, or I won't be asble to get home...
And where's my tagline?
Phillip Dampier:
--- Quote from: Impish on March 24, 2006, 12:08:21 pm ---
--- Quote from: stripey on March 23, 2006, 09:25:48 pm --- I have also been inspired by Brokeback and also by the movie Latter Days and Steve Sandvoss' performance - to give acting a try.
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I loved Sandvoss in Latter Days also, in both senses of the term: loved his performance, and developed a huge crush on the character he played.
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He looked so innocent and non-tainted by Hollywood. It was a similar reaction to watching Ethan Embry in that silly Can't Hardly Wait movie with his puppy eyes look. I was slightly put off when I learned Sandvoss is actually a professional model-turned-actor. The innocence factor lost some of its shine at that point. I never connected at all with Wes Ramsey. I almost dismissed him as a shallow predator-type sleazebag until the middle of the movie. Even then, I just never trusted the guy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was probably the most amusing character (he played the guy who loved to use "flippin" for everything and hollered "gross" when he caught the main characters kissing. The scene where Ramsey's character dragged Gordon-Levitt out of the doorway was probably the most amusing scene in the film for me.
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