Brokeback as an Anti-Gay Polemic : essay by W.C. Harris

[ifyoucantfixit]

    I agree Jeff.  And it rather trivializes the thing to try and compartmentalize it.  No matter how learned the
person making the statement.

[Luvlylittlewing]

The sheer variety of people, regardless of age, gender, or sexual orientation, who have fallen in love with this film and this story, who have had their lives touched and changed and enriched by this film and this story, and who participate in this community as a result of this film and this story, is proof enough of the universal appeal of both "Brokeback Mountain" the story and Brokeback Mountain the film, any academic critic to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Certainly true!

[Artiste]

Thanks garycottle, and thanks all of you too!!

Gary, you say about the BM movie: it's about two individuals, Jack and Ennis, and they happen to be gay.
..........
Gary, may I wonder of these two were indeedgay?? I do not think that film passes them just as gays!!
Rather, as straights in some or too many ways, plus much more!!

........
If they were so gay, then why so, so many secondary scenes showing them in??

Anyway, food for thought maybe,

hugs!! May Hollywaood do real films about real gay lives!!

[Artiste]

Thanks Gary!

Your comments are very, very interesting to me. They also puzzle me... (you know that is the way I am, puzzled about life!)!!

Since I just got a call from someone saying that her mother just passed away, I am in difficulty in reading you and in answering you. I will try, especially with questions to some of your thoughts, OK?

You say: Of course you can wonder if Jack and Ennis were really gay.  You can wonder about anything you like.  No one needs anybody's permission to wonder.
...
Gary to that: may I say in agreement thank goodness one can wonder, even if a person figures that life is like a prison or even when tortured!! To wonder is great!! My views about Ennis and Jack being gay or otherwise have changed somewhat, even yesterday about one!! I will likely colour that further as I go on finding about them!! (And about myself and others too, of course!!)
...

Gary when you say: But I personally think Jack and Ennis were gay.  You can argue that they were bisexual.  There may be something to that.  I suspect most people are bisexual to one degree or another, even if they won't admit to it.
...
Gary to that, may I say that was, is and, I guess, will always be a puzzle to me: bi-s!! I think too that most persons are bi-s, to certain degress, as you say!! Including myself! Will talk about moi on that later, if you or anyone like, but for now, am puzzled about bi-living!! Why??
....


Gary you add: But it seems to me that Jack and Ennis were primarily interested in one another, and the reason they had wives was because they felt pressure to live up to societal expectations.

.....
Gary: That really puzzles me!!
Gary may I question: I do not really know if it is only society (in our civilisation still) that forces gay men to marry females, as wives!! ?? Of course, many persons expect a straight, bi or gay or other guy to marry a female
... as that continues as the norm, for now... and I question that too. But related to that word expectations is another question: to me, many gay men do also want children and/or to marry a female and have a wife therefore!! ?? Right? And in that range, there are some who are bi-s who also want their gay partner!! ?? Right??
So, maybe there are some ménage à 3 Which I would find that normal too, and which I would have maybe preferred??
.....

Of course you and others are welcome to comment. I still think that the BM movie is somewhat anti-gay, etc., as well as pro-gay, in some degrees and find much more everyday about that, especially regarding normalizing... too!!
Your other lines, may I comment later. And remind me if I forget!

For now, I do not see why Ennis is not considered OK having married a female to be his wife, and for them both to have children (since he cares for his children and her too); plus have his straight, bi-, gay, or other male lover!!

Hugs!! May we all be enlightened about different marriages  or couplesand wondrous ways of living in comfort, freedom and peace!!!

[ifyoucantfixit]

   Ok Artiste, I will try yet again to find out exactly where you are coming from...

   Do you think that men or women for that matter if they are gay, should be allowed, nay encouraged to
   marry, and even have an extra partner if that is available to them....
   
   Then when that is not allowed, nay encouraged if the gay person desires it...then that person that stops that
   from happening is then anti gay?

[Artiste]

Thanks ifyoucantfixit!

There are indeed things in the BM movie which are anti-gay as well as pro-gay, and, plus for straights as well as for bi-s...others, so far??

Ifyoucantfixit, you say about the constant challenge about life: Then when that is not allowed, nay encouraged if the gay person desires it...then that person that stops that
   from happening is then anti gay?
 
 

....
May I reply then, if I understand you right ifyoucantfixit - since you puzzle me by your question , then yes possibly or likely - for that time or moment, and maybe will change mind set with education about living mutually in order to accept others persons living differently - if loggically that person does not allow such an ménage à 3!! - maybe at first thought unembraced. Another example maybe: It goes without saying, that if, for instance, a gay female or gay male, who refuses  a straight lady and a straight man, to marry, is anti-straight, likely, right - as imperfection for now??
...
Why not grab life as opportunities to love in wondrous ways - may I say? I see that in Annie's story and in the Brokeback Mountain movie!! Is it deliverance?? Talks are about needs!! WE all need comfort and to love and be loved!! May I add!! Sure, humans are imperfect, at least we hope for love as exential and can fix things... somehow in loving others and ourselves!! ?? Different forms of love - 3 forms in Greek terms; children understand love as relationships, like boyfriend and girlfriend; eros, sexual love, or like one is friendship, and the other agape (?) above all other love like God's love!! Critically important is to love ourselves, others and Infinity!! - it seems to me!! To you?? To you all?? Sure there are and will be problems; they are always to be solvevable, with mutual help... love being significant!!
....
If youcantfixit say:
Do you think that men or women for that matter if they are gay, should be allowed, nay encouraged to
   marry, and even have an extra partner if that is available to them....
   

....

To reply to you if I think that two gay men should be alllowed to marry as gay me as a couple, I say: yes!!  Either marriage or as civil union, that is debated still in Canada, maybe also in England, France, Spain... and parts of the USA?  Civil unions are legal now as gay marriages in Canada! Two or so years ago when I was on a gay internet site in England, I was for gay marriages and I was replied by a member that they were working on that - he said he was a Lord (therefore, able to add such law), I do not know if he was straight, gay, bi or other! I think, I read that gay civil unions are legal in England now, is that so?

As to have an extra partner, I do not see that as extra, I just see it as 3 persons in love!! Possible, I think so!! You think so??

Your nay word confuses me - but I think that I understand it?

Awaiting your news, if love your neighbour as yourself - is to be, be- as motto (is that it, the phrase?)

hugs!! May marriages or civil unions be legal as persons want... for freedom and peace

[Artiste]

May I add again:
While I tried to post this, I noticed that time ran out and was forced therefore to re-start this: hope this is OK?!! In reply to melb_boy88 thread concerning COMFORT:

Thanks Sandy, thanks injest, thanks melb_boy88!!!

Thanks for the condolences Sandy! The lady who passed away was the mother of the wife of one of my straight brothers. She did seek comfort in her ways. But became diabetic! Since it is hard to be one with that, maybe on a thread that can be talked about in order to help and prevent that even?? This seems to be more and more common, and discomforting to live with!!

Like you Sandy, I would love to have seen much more love scenes... even sex ones too!! I wonder why not a 69 one?

....

Sandy, as affection: holding hands would have been so great!! Possible, where and when??

...

Injest, one or more love-affection scenes like which to be added?? Detail one or more, please??

.......

Melb_boy88, yes more 2nd tent scenes?? Others like you can detail as affection during 16 years??

Awaiting your thoughts and descriptions if you care too do so too,
hugs!!      May affection scenes be with you in it, often!!                                 


...........

Hugs again too to you and to all!!

[brokeplex]

Augmenting my earlier remarks concerning the "antigay" subtext discussed in essay #9 by Harris "Broke(N)back Faggots", I would like to consider essay #5, "The Gay Film That Wasn't: The Heterosexual Supplement in 'Brokeback Mountain'", by Lisa Arellano.

This excellent work by Ms. Arellano sheds light on the motivations behind the heteronormative transformation of Proulx's essentially gay story into the essentially heterosexual film of Ang Lee / McMurtry-Ossana. The motivation being the desire to accede to market pressures to transform a gay story into a universal love story.

Paraphrasing Arellano, the screenplay expands the "spare original text" of Proulx with the addition of "multiple narratives whereby Ennis and Jack are made intelligible through their reintegration with the heterosexual economy."

Let's look to the difference between how Proulx sparsely and grimly depicts the Delmar household and homelife on the one hand, and on the other hand the vastly expanded theater of the Delmar household constructed by McMurtry-Ossana.

Quoting Proulx,

"In December Ennis married Alma Beers and had her pregnant by mid January. He picked up a few short-lived ranch jobs, then settled in as a wrangler on the old Elwood Hi Top place north of Lost Cabin in Washakie County. He was still working there in September when Alma,Jr, as he called his daughter, was born and their bedroom was full of the smell of old blood and milk, and baby shit, and the sounds were of squalling and sucking and Alma's sleepy groans, all reassuring of fecundity and life's continuance to one who worked with life stock."

This short, grim, "shitty" characterization is vastly expanded by McMurtry-Ossana as a major part of the 69 extra pages added by the screenplay. Page after page is given over to describe the heterosexual life of Ennis : the wedding, recreational trips with Alma, Alma's household work, and other scenes. The image of the love of Jack and Ennis disappear and their heterosexual lives predominate.

For whom did McMurtry-Ossana create these expanded and elaborated images of Ennis's heterosexuality?

These additions were placed in the screenplay by very savvy screenwriters to make the mainstream film viewer more comfortable. These images invite the general film goer to identify with Ennis and understand him as familiar and more importantly for them to see the film as a universal love story.

Arellano continues,

"In the screenplay, Jack and Ennis are carefully redrawn as competent and caring father figures, reassuring audiences of their all but normal masculinity and their but for an aberration, sexual normalcy. The screenplay's 69 additional pages are comprised of precisely these types of heteronormative re-framings of the characters, resulting in a film that is centrally about heterosexuality and committedly resistant to the characters sexual 'misconduct'."

This segues neatly with the manner in which "Focus Features" promoted this heterosexualized film.

In Mendelsohn's article, "An Affair to Remember" he writes,

"Because I am as admiring as almost everyone else of the film's many excellences, it seems to me necessary to counter the special emphasis in the way the film is being promoted and received. For to see "Brokeback Mountain" as a love story, or even a film about universal human emotions, is to misconstrue it seriously - and in so doing inevitably to diminish its real achievement."

"Simply because a narrative has universal appeal that doesn't mean that the story it tells is universal."

"Brokeback Mountain" is a story of the tragedy of the closet. This is a real tragedy that is unfolding around us right now. Real lives and relationships are damaged in real time, not just on the silver screen. The closet is a "specific gay phenomenon" and the misery it produces affects everyone a closeted person contacts.

Mendelsohn continues,

"A distinction that sorely needs to be made in the current cultural climate (between universal appeal and a gay story), one in which everyone wants to lay claim to everyone else's pain. To say that the story of 'Brokeback Mountain' is universal because in some general way it concerns love is to say nothing at all; its like saying "Schindler's List is a universal story because we all know what its like to lose a family member."

The sad tale of Ennis and Jack shows how the misery of the closet taints their lives and offered them no permanent solace or refuge from the hatred of the general population.

Mendelsohn again,

And, "if Jack and Ennis are tainted, it is not because they're gay but because they pretend not to be, this the lie that poisons everyone they touch."

Another tainting poison is the misunderstanding that "Brokeback Mountain' is a universal love story. And this is a muddle with dangerous consequences in the real world.

Pretending that the film "Brokeback Mountain" was not heteronormed in order to provide larger audience revenue for the film and its later spinoffs has no real consequences for the majority population. But for the tiny minority of gays struggling through the minefield of hate, deceit, and identity questions, not fully understanding the truth of a closeted life and society's heteronorming pressures exerted at all levels has disastrous consequences.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Thanks for taking the time and making the effort to share these writers' thoughts with this community, Brokeplex. I won't be coming back to this thread, however, because the musings of these academic twits make me so angry I could chew nails, not to mention not know where to start to respond to them--and I simply have no wish to have my spare time poisoned by the likes of these writers.

I haven't tried to find any information on Mendelsohn, but I googled Lisa Arellano. She teaches women's studies and gender and sexuality issues at Colby College. She also writes as if she has no clue how you go about transforming a short story into something that can actually be acted out on film. Maybe she would have preferred a slide show of Annie Proulx's text to an actual movie?

The attitude these people have of presuming to know why something was done by Proulx, McMurtry, Ossana, or Lee--and they seem to think that why is "to make money"--I find offensive in the extreme. Oh, sure enough, you don't make a movie to lose money, but to imply that profit is the only motive is, I think, cheap.

I wish I could convince myself that these people are just playing academic games, that they don't really believe some of this stuff they're writing. I've already made pretty clear my position on academic literary and film criticism. These people write as if they believe this film has done more harm than good.

In the words of one of the characters from another of my favorite movies, "Who are these guys, anyway?"

[brokeplex]

Daniel Mendelsohn, "An Affair to Remember," New York Review of Books, 02/23/06

www.nybooks.com/articles/18712