Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Did anybody else... (Golden Globes thoughts)
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: Meryl on January 16, 2007, 11:27:45 pm ---I thought to myself "He's this year's Philip Seymour Hoffman" and sent a sympathetic thought out to Heath.
--- End quote ---
You know, it's funny. I think of him as this year's Heath Ledger in the sense of what Heath Ledger should have been last year. He should have been the juggernaut - and at the very beginning of the season, it seemed like he would be. But you know what - I don't blame Phillip Seymour Hoffman specifically for that - I blame our stupid society. I really believe that had PSH not been in the running with that performance, they would have picked David Straithairn instead. Heath not winning was totally about not wanting to reward someone for f***ing with our precious American cowboy icon. I really believe that. And the Academy aren't the only ones, in this case, who are guilty of it. The truth is our society likes their gay men to be prancing queens like Truman Capote and Jack on Will & Grace and Harvey Fierstein and Carson Kressley. That's the societally acceptable way to be gay in this country. Our society is a long way away from ever accepting that there are all kinds of gay men, just as there are all kinds of straight men. If the movie had simply been about a platonic friendship (as much as I hate to make that analogy) a la "The Shawshank Redemption" he'd have had a better shot. Just goes to show you, I guess, how really meaningless all these awards are, after all.
I think Forest Whitaker actually deserves to be the juggernaut this year because his performance is in fact legendary, i.e., better than Hoffman's by a country mile. He didn't do a parlor trick impression of Idi Amin - he became him. And I don't care what anyone says - Hoffman never became Capote to me - I could see him acting the whole time. Ruined an otherwise excellent movie for me, in fact. And I actually liked him a lot going into it.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on January 17, 2007, 01:14:09 pm --- The truth is our society likes their gay men to be prancing queens like Truman Capote and Jack on Will & Grace and Harvey Fierstein and Carson Kressley. That's the societally acceptable way to be gay in this country. Our society is a long way away from ever accepting that there are all kinds of gay men, just as there are all kinds of straight men.
--- End quote ---
Interesting point, Barb. It made me wonder if one reason (among many, probably) that stereotypes about gay people persist is that society wants to be able to distinguish easily between gay and straight people. If someone is black or Latino or whatever, stereotypes may linger in people's minds but they don't have to be played out onscreen (though they sometimes are, too), because it's easy for people to see the differences and do the profiling on their own. But they can't do that with ordinary looking men and women, and it makes the homophobes uncomfortable. They need a way to be able to instantly tell the difference.
That would help explain why the gay cowboys in the SNL audience were the way they were. If they just looked like ordinary cowboys, it's assumed that nobody would get the joke.
ednbarby:
Yep - the SNL bit is case in point.
So is the Espys debacle, come to think of it. They had to make a tasteless joke about the character Jake played liking it 'in the rear' so no one in their excruciatingly homophobic audience would be uncomfortable with the idea of someone who is not a prancing queen being/playing gay. Is that a stretch? Unfortunately, I think not.
And not that there's anything wrong with being a prancing queen. Some of my best friends are. ;)
But society is definitely more comfortable with you if you are one than if you're openly (or even possibly) gay and you aren't.
It goes without saying, but God, I hate our society sometimes. OK, most of the time.
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on January 17, 2007, 02:05:17 pm ---
They need a way to be able to instantly tell the difference.
--- End quote ---
Hunh. Yeah, that makes sense.
Re Heath not presenting at the GG. I watched it, and wondered/assumed that he was not asked. He may not be asked to present much at upcoming awards shows, based on his behavior at a couple of them last year.
Agreed that Jake did not look sparkly. I noted though, that some others also didn't. Will Ferrell looked downright dour when they showed him in his seat during his best actor nomination announcement.
Made me wonder if something was going on there that was worrying them.
ednbarby:
Yeah, Elle. A lot of them there seemed quite subdued to me, too. Will Ferrell was one. Felicity Huffman was another. Both are usually pretty effervescent at these things.
Maggie and Peter looked sparkly, though. I was annoyed that they didn't show them more often and that they never showed Jake in the audience. I assume he would have been sitting with them? I think there might be bad blood there after all in the latter case. I mean, he agreed to present, didn't he? So I don't see why they never bothered to show him, unless he hung out backstage the whole time. I said to Ed afterwards when he asked me how it was, "It was a pretty random fiesta." (Cookie to the first one who can name the movie that's said in.)
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