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

6 months on.......Where are you now?

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Katie77:
I have been scanning thru the forums and threads on here looking for a thread where we can post stories about what is happening to us now....6 months, or 8 months after first seeing Brokeback Mountain.

It has been well documented, the initial impact on viewing the movie....some of us made life changing decisions, some of us found feelings and compassion that we had thought was lost, some of us found friendship, love and some wonderful new friends......For all of us, our life changed, the day we first saw Brokeback Mountain.

i want to tell a story of something that has happened to me, and I know it will be interesting to hear other stories, of what has happened to others or changes that have happened to others because of this movie.Who found love?...who lost love?.....who moved in a different direction?.....what things good have happened and what things bad have happened?......

Let me just tell you what prompted me to write this thread......

.....I recently hung a Brokeback Mountain poster on the wall in my office at home, while I was in the mood of decorating the office even more, I printed off some of the fan art that Lucise does so brilliantly, and posts on the Jake Jake Jake thread....I taped these prints to the front of the drawers of my filing cabinet.....it looks great, and I was really happy about how my office was looking, and I took some photos and sent them to a couple of my friends.....

One of my friends wrote back and said, "what do your grandchildren think of seeing pictures of two men kissing?"......

When i read that question, I actually had to turn around and have a look at the pictures on my filing cabinet, to see what she was talking about.

And of course, I did see two men kissing, but I realized then, that I had looked at those pictures dozens of times before that, and all I had see before was two peoplekissing, I had seen two people that loved one another.......and I saw nothing wrong or out of place displaying such picures, for anyone to see, my grandchildren, my sons, my mother, my friends, anyone......

I think what it made me realize was that even though i have never been homophobic, always had a great understanding of gay people, never had a problem with it at all.....I am now even more accepting of it, to the point where I dont even notice it anymore....it has become such a part of my life, thru the movie, and discussions on here, that i dont even think of it as an "alternative", or even different anymore.

Before i became obsessed with the movie, I dont think I would have ever put pictures of "two men kissing", out on display, before i saw the movie, i thought the gay community was "different"....(but not wrong.....as you can see by my signature quote).....here I am 6 months down the track, and my understanding has become more understanding......and you know what.....I am very pleased that I feel this way.

Just wish a lot more people could feel the same...I'm sure if the too, watched this beautiful movie and saw it as the love story that it is, a lot of them, would be reacting in a similar way to all of us.

Please post your story of what is happening 6 months after seeing the movie.

Attached are the pics of my office......

Jeff Wrangler:
That's wonderful, Katie! Thanks for sharing it with us.  :)

Me, I'm just as much in love with Ennis and Jack as ever.

I think it's time Leslie did a follow-up study on Brokeback Fever.  ;)

ednbarby:
I'm feeling a bit melancholy reading this thread because I realize my Brokeback Fever has subsided.  I can't say for certain when exactly that happened, but like mourning any loss (and I think my version of the Fever was a mourning period I went through - mourning the loss of Jack (because he really was real, wasn't he?) and feeling Ennis' heartbreak and regret as if he was a real friend of mine (because he really is, isn't he?)), one day you wake up and it occurs to you that though you still miss that person who is gone, it doesn't exactly hurt anymore.  I'm feeling melancholy I guess because I got used to feeling that hurt - it became a part of me - and now that hurt is gone and I sort of miss it.

I'm actually at a point where I don't know that I can ever watch the movie again.  It's like I'm saturated with it.  Not tired of it - just - I don't know - full.  But it does still feel good to know it sits on my DVD shelf and lives in my home.

Like you, Katie, this movie has changed the way I think about love relationships.  I thought I was open-minded before, but I realize my thinking was still very hetero-centric.  Now, for example, when my four-year-old says he'd like to be married to someone like Mommy and Daddy are married, I say something like, "Well, someday you'll meet someone who'll take your breath away, and they'll feel the same way about you, and if you both want, you'll live together like Mommy and Daddy do.  You can marry them or not {God, I hope that will be true if that somebody happens to be a man}, and you can have a family or not - it's all up to you."  I think before seeing the movie, I'd probably have said something, I'm ashamed now to say, more like "Well, someday you'll meet a girl who'll take your breath away..."

And, of course, seeing (and loving) the movie has made me more compassionate about what gay men specifically in our society go through.  I thought I knew, but I really didn't.

nakymaton:
Eight months in a couple days. Ten months if you count the time I was obsessing over clips and screencaps and early reviews.

And what do I have to show for it?

Ummm. I knew how to adjust the brightness on my computer screen this morning, when a video projector didn't work very well. :/

(Ok, well, anything more serious than that isn't really fit for public confession, I think. At least for me.)

2robots4u:
Like Barbara, I also have put my DVD away, and find myself visiting bettermost less and less.  For me, it brought back too many very painful memories that I have not been able to shake.  At first, I used to think about BBM most of the time, and it was enjoyable.  But recently I found myself dwelling on the past, the events of Roswell and D. and the terrible deaths that ended a glorious love.  It took a long time back then to come to terms with his death, and now I am struggling with it all over again.  

I'm leaving on a month-long trip to Seattle and will have no computer contact with BBM or the ability to watch the movie. Hopefully, when I return, I will be able to once again rejoin the discussions.  Until then, so-long...Doug


 

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