Author Topic: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime  (Read 26968 times)

Offline ednbarby

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #40 on: May 28, 2006, 07:08:07 am »
ERxcept for Bob, who for some reason loves me, everyone I know, collegues, friends, relatives--thery all know that whatever I'[m talking about "The Da Vinci Code, Portrait ofr thr Artist as a Young Man, a quilting pattern, "Crash,"--they know I am really talking about brokeback Mountaiun. Every last one of them...my daughter isn't speaking to me anymore. My sonis more tolerant. he's a mocvie cdritidc, and 36 years old. he wonders how long this illness is going to last.

I know what you mean, Julie.  Perhaps that's why I get the inevitable comparison when I ask people what they thought of any other recent movie or book.  My husband is the only one who seems to know that while BbM is always in my subtext, I really ask about those movies in a feeble effort to branch out into other conversation.  So he helps me out and doesn't mention it.  He's always been good at denial.  ;)

Sigh.  They're onto me.
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Offline David

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #41 on: May 28, 2006, 07:20:52 am »
Well,  I had dinner with a few friends last night and two of them just saw BBM for the first time. 

Their reactions?   One, the more serious of the two guys, said he was disappointed.  Said the first half of the movie was too slow and that the first tent scene was too violent.   His partner gave him a dirty look then looked at me and said that he thought it was a beautiful movie!   LOL     

I'm still shocked when people say it was slow in the first half.   I told him that perhaps because he waited to see it on DVD that he wasn't getting the full enjoyment of the panoramic scenery.     Can't please them all I guess.   Well, he is off my Christmas card list!     LOL  <just kidding> 

Offline ednbarby

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #42 on: May 28, 2006, 08:55:34 am »
Well,  I had dinner with a few friends last night and two of them just saw BBM for the first time. 

Their reactions?   One, the more serious of the two guys, said he was disappointed.  Said the first half of the movie was too slow and that the first tent scene was too violent.   His partner gave him a dirty look then looked at me and said that he thought it was a beautiful movie!   LOL     

I'm still shocked when people say it was slow in the first half.   I told him that perhaps because he waited to see it on DVD that he wasn't getting the full enjoyment of the panoramic scenery.     Can't please them all I guess.   Well, he is off my Christmas card list!     LOL  <just kidding> 

LOL.  Remember way back when, when I said I saw it for the second time and realized that sitting next to me was someone I recognized vaguely from my travels and his partner whom I'd never seen before?  At the end of the movie, I was weeping uncontrollably, and his partner put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Are you gonna be all right, sweetie?"  It was their first time, too, judging from his reactions to realizing Jack was dead and how he died, and I had noticed he cried during most of the last act as well.

I came to find out from a mutual friend that the guy we both knew thought it was "a little slow" but also that his partner was mad at him because he thought it was beautiful and he couldn't stop thinking/talking about it and was irritated that he didn't share the sentiment.
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Offline bbm_stitchbuffyfan

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #43 on: May 29, 2006, 12:07:30 am »
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At the end of the movie, I was weeping uncontrollably, and his partner put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Are you gonna be all right, sweetie?"

Lucky. What did I get in my 5 theatre viewings? Nosy theatre employees cleaning the damn floors while I'm trying to soak up "The Maker Makes."  >:(

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His partner gave him a dirty look then looked at me and said that he thought it was a beautiful movie!

The 'dirty look' part sounds just like me... and then some. I get very argumental about this movie.

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Sigh.  They're onto me.

Hell, I wish they knew what I was talking about! My family members couldn't care any less; they just ignore my Brokeback love -- not to mention they truly underestimate it.

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I miss them, too -- and I just turned off the DVD five minutes ago!

I am just glad to know I'm not alone. I always miss them! I wish I could be like Jeff Wrangler and I quote:

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I sympathize, but for me, Ennis and Jack, like my late mother and my late boyfriend, are with me always in my heart. All I have to do is think of them and they are with me. And I'm not jokin'.

You see, I believe I carry Ennis and Jack in my heart seeing as how I love them like they're my children. But, you know what, sometimes knowing that is still not enough for me. I'm kind of insatiable; I want more Jack and Ennis!


It's cool that you guys are trying to raise open-minded and accepting kids. Okay, I've commented on this before but I'll briefly say it again. I go to high school and seeing Brokeback Mountain in school -- well, first off, I haven't seen one TV in my cheap-ass school that could do the beautiful visuals justice -- would be awkward because of all the damn homophobes who'd be freaking out and pissing me off throughout the entire, hypothetical viewing. And then the kids who wouldn't like it, then praise something that sucks (say, Laguna Beach, perhaps) would be on my Hit List, which is longer than my arm...

I'm hypocritical because when I hear about someone my age watching Brokeback Mountain, I think, "Oh, God, you don't deserve this movie" (unless I know them personally and approve).

If I had a child who was a homophobe, I think I'd beat the kid.  ;)



(*groan* Alright, I admit I'm kidding...)
If you'd just realize what I just realized then we'd be perfect for each other and we'd never have to wonder if we missed out on each other now
We missed out on each other now


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Offline Lynne

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #44 on: May 30, 2006, 12:47:43 am »
Their reactions?   One, the more serious of the two guys, said he was disappointed.  Said the first half of the movie was too slow and that the first tent scene was too violent...Well, he is off my Christmas card list!     LOL  <just kidding> 

If I were you, I'd try to cut the guy some slack here, at least for a little while.  I only say this because I also thought the first tent scene was too violent after my first viewing.  I think it was 2-3 viewings before I fully came to appreciate all the subtleties in the first part of the movie.  And even now, I often see things that didn't strike me in earlier viewings but I found meaning in later.  There is definitely too much for your average human to absorb in only 2.5 hours.  I never had the 'too slow' reaction, myself, though.  I always thought I was getting the opportunity to visit with these wonderful characters and relished every single second of that gift to time.  But I can see how someone could think that if they weren't attuned to the subtle details we've analysed for so long.

Just my own ideas here...
-Lynne
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Offline ednbarby

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #45 on: May 30, 2006, 08:35:55 am »
I'm still  :laugh: at Buffy's "Hit List."  I say something like that too:  "That's it.  She's on The List."  In my thinking, it's a black list.

I understand what you're saying, Lynne - I understand finding the first tent scene abrupt on one's first viewing.  I didn't, but maybe that's because I've experienced something very much like it (though it was against the inside of a door in someone's house and not in a tent in the mountains  ;)).

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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #46 on: May 30, 2006, 09:19:03 am »
We are such an impatient society. I'll even admit that I can be pretty impatient myself at times. But as for the "the first part is too slow" folks--well, I wouldn't care if that part of the film went on twice as long as it does. It's such a beautiful idyll, two handsome young guys all alone in the wilderness, falling in love at the top of the world. Sigh. ...
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline ednbarby

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #47 on: May 30, 2006, 09:24:37 am »
We are such an impatient society. I'll even admit that I can be pretty impatient myself at times. But as for the "the first part is too slow" folks--well, I wouldn't care if that part of the film went on twice as long as it does. It's such a beautiful idyll, two handsome young guys all alone in the wilderness, falling in love at the top of the world. Sigh. ...

So true.  When people say that to me now, I say "Really?  It goes by *way* too quickly for my liking."
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #48 on: May 30, 2006, 09:40:30 am »
So true.  When people say that to me now, I say "Really?  It goes by *way* too quickly for my liking."

It's hard to imagine a length I would consider "too long." Four or five days? Nah ...

As I said once on another thread, if Ang Lee and a camera crew had followed Ennis and Jack around for every moment they spent together over 20 years, I would buy that 100-disc DVD in a heartbeat.

Tell you what, though, lately when I watch it I always think it seems way too short and quick. I think, what, they already have long sideburns? What, the post-divorce scene already? Twenty years in 134 minutes seems to fly past.

Offline isabelle

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Re: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
« Reply #49 on: May 30, 2006, 11:22:24 am »

Tell you what, though, lately when I watch it I always think it seems way too short and quick. I think, what, they already have long sideburns? What, the post-divorce scene already? Twenty years in 134 minutes seems to fly past.


Same here! I think it might be because I want to know more, see more, of them together especially!
No, it really isn't too slow at all. And then you get people wondering how they could "get down to business" SO early on, they don't see it coming. But they are the same who say it was too long/slow!
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