what made you see it?

[forsythia12]

i was just thinking about my 'pre-brokeback' days.  i remember i saw a couple ads for the movie, and the title must've stuck in my head or something, because without knowing anything about it, i said to my husband "you know...i want to see that 'brokeback mountain' move".
much to his surprise, he responded by saying, "what?  do you know what that movie is about?  it's about gay cowboys!!!!"
for some reason i imagined a whole gang of gay cowboys who were run off from some town, and had a bunch or orgies, or whatever.  (don't hate me for my ignorance).  it was just the way my hubby said it that made me think that it had no story line other than the sexuality of a bunch of cowboys.  i'm not sure what made me think it was more than two.....kinda funny to think about it now.

some time had passed, and i still kept hearing about the movie.  my interest spiked again, so i watched a couple of trailers online, and i was comepletely intrigued.  i rented it, then bought it, and memorized it since.  my life has never been the same.  i'm a total brokie.
and my husband has seen it too, and although he's not a brokie, he did like it.

so what's your brokeback story?  did you want to see it because it was a love story?  because it was a gay love story?  because you heard it was good?  because of jake and heath?  or what was it?  what was the difference between what you expected in the movie and what you got out of it?

[Brown Eyes]

Good question Friend!

I try to make a habit of seeing good gay cinema (and there really is a quite a lot of it out there... amidst some pretty dreadful stuff too), so prior to BBM's release and prior to knowing too much about it, I was pretty certain that I was going to see it.  I'll admit that the gay theme was a huge draw for me initially (I'm a lesbian, so good stories and art focusing on gay topics are pretty important to me).  I deeply respect Ang Lee as a director and the writers are all of such high caliber I was sure this one would be worth watching.   Also, a good friend of mine talked about it a lot to me prior to its release, so I knew something about it and was curious based on what he'd been telling me.  And, while my interest in BBM initially had a lot to do with Ang Lee and Annie Proulx specifically... it didn't have anything at all to do with Heath or Jake.  I'll be honest and say that at that point I hardly knew who Heath was and I only had very cursory ideas about who Jake was.  Of course, all of this is thinking back to my pre-Brokie self.

It's amazing how much more complex all of those things are for me... my interest in the film, story, writers, actors, etc.... Just immensely more complex.  And, now of course I'm quite interested in Heath and Jake.  Prior to Heath's death I'd have said my interest was mostly still quite specifically in relation to their connections to BBM.  With Heath's passing all of that has shifted once again, and I'm realizing how much of an emotional connection I feel to both Heath and Jake (in a weird abstract kind of Brokie-bonding kind of way).  The impact that Heath's death had on me emotionally has everything to do with my evolution as a Brokie over the last two years.  I've still only seen very few of both Heath and Jake's other films... and I think it will stay that way for a while.  The idea of seeing them in roles other than Jack and Ennis is still rather unappealing to me (and I really have no idea what that's really about).  I'm actually still sort or resistant to seeing any films other than BBM (especially in the theatre).

[forsythia12]

thanks for that nutmeg guy.  yes, it was mindblowing.  i was a mess too.  i think it's all i talked about, and still do.  unfortunately i missed it in theatres, which is a shame, but looking back, it's so strange what i first thought of it before i saw it.
i had a few straight male friends say they wanted to see it, which is probably why my husband deemed it 'safe' to watch (lol).  anyways, all the men i know really liked it.
there are so many movies i thought i'd like, and ended up hating, and i wasn't even going to see brokeback and yet, look at what i would've missed out on.  

i didn't really know who jake or heath really were, but i sure as hell do now!!!!!!!!!!!!

[forsythia12]

thanks atz75!  good post. 
i too have a hard time with jake or heath in anything else......but i love them, so i have to see their other movies.  when i watched 'jarhead' i kept thinking about jack's line: "i might be back...if the army don't get me" 
that's all i could see....jack at war, and coming home to ennis. 

[forsythia12]

Aww sorry to hear you missed it on the big screen.    The outdoor scenes (moving the sheep etc.)  on the mountain were spectacular on the big screen.   The wide open-ness of it was magnificent.    
maybe some day it will be back near you for a film festival.

funny thing actually....i first saw the movie on our old t.v., which tended to be very very dark.  we had lost the remote control years ago, and couldn't adjust the darkness level, so i thought the first tent scene was blacked out completely!  imagine my surprise when we bought a new t.v.  and i saw the real thing!
my husband came in the room 'cause i called him, and he's like "AHHHH!!! i thought this was blacked out!!!!" and then he red lined it all the way outta the room!

[MaineWriter]

Thanksgiving evening, 2005, I was in an art theater in Northampton, MA to see "Shopgirl." They had a clipboard there where patrons could write requests for movies to show and about three pages were filled with "Brokeback Mountain." I didn't know what it was but began doing research on the Internet and became obsessed. I read the short story about a dozen times (it was still online at the New Yorker then) and read every word I could find about the movie. I was even on IMDb although I didn't start posting there until after I saw it.

On December 27th I had to go to Boston to put my daughter on a train to NY and saw BBM for the first time then (it wasn't playing in Maine, yet). The Loew's Multiplex off Boston Common, the 11:10 am show.

The rest, as they say, is history.

L

[opinionista]

I read online about all the hype surrounding the movie so I got very intrigued, and the rest is history.