Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > All Things Brokeback: Books, Interviews and More
Special BBM issue of 'Film Quarterly'
serious crayons:
Some Canadians on imdb were complaining about missing pages, too. I don't know exactly what city they were in, possibly Toronto. Maybe it's just one bad batch? ???
Front-Ranger:
I recently had the chance to read this thanks to Ellemeno who brought me a copy at the BBQ (thank you so much, Clarissa!) and I found the articles thought-provoking but also sometimes maddening, puzzling, and upsetting. I would like to discuss them if anyone's interested.
Oregondoggie:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on June 17, 2007, 01:31:00 pm ---I recently had the chance to read this thanks to Ellemeno who brought me a copy at the BBQ (thank you so much, Clarissa!) and I found the articles thought-provoking but also sometimes maddening, puzzling, and upsetting. I would like to discuss them if anyone's interested.
--- End quote ---
Although Jack Schilling (brokeback_1) feels that this magazine gives Brokeback Mountain official canonical status, I recall with distaste that a couple of the articles were "just plain crap"...Joshua Clover and Christopher Nealon comparing BBM to a Madonna video and "Marlboro" type cowboys. Statements by D.A. Miller that "erotic disappointment may well be the only genuine homosexual response to BBM --and hence the only genuine basis for a political crticque of the film." BULL. These articles are an academic sop to the members of the Academy who got properly nipped by the Dave Cullen site ad in Variety last year.
I hope someone calmer and more articulate than myself can deconstruct these patronizing pieces of deconstruction. Better yet, let Film Quarterly discover that careless articles have consequences...
Front-Ranger:
That article about the Madonna video was pretty tacky...but there was one thing that I found very interesting. The author talked about how the images in the video were "flattened" and it reminded me of the phrase in the story, during the prologue, about how Ennis "let a panel of the dream slide forward." As well as the many other "flat" references.
Not to apologize for the magazine's authors, but maybe those articles were written when people were still amazed over the phenomenon of the movie and were trying to explain it.
The article that was the most disturbing to me was the one that described the industry that was created to cater to older women wanting subject matter about gay men...that was pretty disgusting!!
serious crayons:
My biggest objection was that the articles focused too much on the film as a political and cultural breakthrough and not enough about the film's artistry. Not that the political/cultural stuff isn't important, but it's only one piece of what makes BBM a masterpiece.
Think of all we've written here analyzing the subtexts and symbols and mirrors and bookends, etc., that FQ didn't really touch on. They should have gotten one of us to write something!
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