"Why do we care so much? Who are we?"Ellemeno asked these questions on another thread, one in which participants have been spending countless hours analyzing impossibly minute, almost invisible, details of the movie. I've long wondered those same things myself. What is it about us that makes us so crazy -- and I do mean crazy, but in a good way -- about Brokeback Mountain?
When I met Front-Ranger recently, we discovered that we both love fish tacos, and wondered, sort of jokingly, if there might be correlation between Brokeback-loving and fish taco-loving. (Results of a poll proved inconclusive, though did produce some good recipes.) Then yesterday I met YaadPyar and we were wondering, in a mystified way, what we all have in common that might explain this passion. I started reeling off what I assumed were obvious basic commonalities: "Well, we're open-minded, we like to analyze things, we like movies -- " and she stopped me to point out she's normally not all that into movies!
So what
is it about us? I've seen this question raised before -- have raised it myself, in fact -- but I can't say I've ever been fully satisfied with the answer. We have different ages, genders, religions, sexual orientations, ethnicities, personalities, jobs, backgrounds, cities, hobbies, families, favorite cowboys
... We even have different reasons to hang out at BetterMost: some love to dissect the movie, some more interested in building community, and so on. And if we do have a few things in common, those characteristics aren't exclusive to Brokeback-lovers. Lots of people who are open-minded and analytical and like movies preferred Capote!
The one thing we all seem to share (or at least, to have shared at some point) is this huge, unexplainable, consuming passion for one particular movie (and/or short story). But why?!?!??