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

What is it about Gyllenhaal?

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starboardlight:

--- Quote from: ghent on April 29, 2006, 12:17:07 am ---2) each actor is 'arguably' straight in their public lives. Privately, I don't think there's a Kinsey 1 (completely straight) among them. Regardless of how they live their lives, I think that they're all somewhere between Kinsey 2 and Kinsey 5 emotionally and sexually.

--- End quote ---

true. but then again, doesn't Kinsey say that no one is truely 1's and 6's?

TJ:

--- Quote from: starboardlight on April 29, 2006, 12:37:20 pm ---
--- Quote from: ghent on April 29, 2006, 12:17:07 am ---2) each actor is 'arguably' straight in their public lives. Privately, I don't think there's a Kinsey 1 (completely straight) among them. Regardless of how they live their lives, I think that they're all somewhere between Kinsey 2 and Kinsey 5 emotionally and sexually.

--- End quote ---

true. but then again, doesn't Kinsey say that no one is truely 1's and 6's?

--- End quote ---

"Kinsey" can say whatever he wanted to say when he was alive. His findings were not exactly as scientific as one says.

The Kinsey thing is a straight line continuum from 1 to 6;  but, I see it as a bell curve with the majority of folks being bisexual.

From what I personally know about myself and my sexual orientation, I am exclusively homosexual in my sexual orientation. I have never experienced a physiological sexual attraction to a member of the opposite sex. But, I did confuse psychological, emotional, social and spiritual attractions to girls and women with sexual attraction toward them, although there was no below the belt emotion felt in their presence.

While I had seen Jack Gyllenhaal in a few movies before Brokeback Mountain, up to seeing the movie, he was just another actor to me.

Jake Gyllenhaal seems to express some natural innocence when he is on a talk show; and I also got that feeling when he was in the role of Jack Twist. So, IMO, personality wise, he was natural for the role because it was like he could "act naturally" as Jack.

starboardlight:

--- Quote from: TJ on April 29, 2006, 08:08:28 pm ---The Kinsey thing is a straight line continuum from 1 to 6;  but, I see it as a bell curve with the majority of folks being bisexual.
--- End quote ---

I don't think that those two are mutually exclusive. A bell curve sits on a graph with x and y axis. Kinsey's 1-6 is just the x axis of that graph. The fact that in his theory 1's and 6's are very rare, if they exist at all would support the bell curve.


--- Quote from: TJ on April 29, 2006, 08:08:28 pm ---While I had seen Jack Gyllenhaal in a few movies before Brokeback Mountain, up to seeing the movie, he was just another actor to me.

Jake Gyllenhaal seems to express some natural innocence when he is on a talk show; and I also got that feeling when he was in the role of Jack Twist. So, IMO, personality wise, he was natural for the role because it was like he could "act naturally" as Jack.

--- End quote ---
I thought the same thing about Jake, until I experienced this movie. His performance here while it appears naturalistic at first, you realized how much thought he actually gave to the character when you take note of the nuances. His expressions in the moments where he wasn't saying anything, the moments that aren't described in the short story nor the script. He had to really dig deep to define the character for himself and bring out the subtle emotions. I'm a convert when I comes to Jake. I didn't think he was anything other than a pretty face until this film came along.

ghent:


--- Quote ---
He had to really dig deep to define the character for himself and bring out the subtle emotions. I'm a convert when I comes to Jake. I didn't think he was anything other than a pretty face until this film came along.

--- End quote ---

I completely agree. I didn't really take him seriously until BBM. He gave a workmanlike performance in Proof and The Day After Tomorrow. Jarhead was also interesting and courageous, if somewhat predictable. But his performance in BBM was brilliant, especially from my post-Stonewall perspective. People have described him as Generation X's answer to Montgomery Clift and Johnny Depp, but the Meloni influence is extremely important as well. Jake is more masculine, and even macho, in BBM than Depp and Clift have ever been, and I think that this is an aspect of gay culture that red-state America needs to see. Macho Chris Keller on Oz (Meloni) is not a mainstream character, but Jack Twist circa 2006 is your next-door neighbor: your stock-broker, your lawyer, your doctor (see husky Javier Bardem in Second Skin), your farmer, your construction worker, your football player or your soccer-Dad. As long as they're completely gorgeous, of course!

Jake, on the other hand, is an honorary bearcub.  ;)

ednbarby:
I agree, ghent.  And excellent analogy with Christopher Meloni (who I adored on Oz and pretty much everything else he's done).  I see that comparison much more readily than the Clift or Depp ones.  Along the same lines, Heath keeps getting compared with Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Sean Penn.  I don't see that at all.  If we must make comparisons, I see William Holden - someone much more complex than those other three put together.  But really, I think they're both unlike anyone who's ever been a cinematic icon before.  I remember Owen Gliebermann was one of those who compared Jake to Montgomery Clift - I didn't see that so much, but I liked the way he preceded that by saying "he has a quicksilver quality" - as Ang Lee would say, I like the taste of that word, quicksilver, in relation to him.

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