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Brokeback is a Mountain?

In my opinion the last great Western movies are "Tombstone" (1993) and "Unforgiven" (1992). Tombstone of course was the movie about legendary Wyatt Earp, outlaw & friend Doc Holliday. A Hollywood historical account of Tombstone, Arizona's famed "Shootout at the O.K. Corral" and the events that led up to it... Unforgiven stared, directed and was produced by the same man by the name of Clint Eastwood. He took home both the coveted Best Director and Best Picture awards that year including a Best Actor nomination. He repeated the feat at last year's Oscars.

When i heard of a new Western movie looming in the big-screen horizon my reaction was rather ho-hum. Lets face it, Western movies, as of late, have not been worth a tinker's damn. Open Range (2003) directed by Kevin Costner who has not been in a movie worth watching since Dances with Wolves, was a non-achiever. Ron Howard's The Missing (2003) while it was a good movie (but not a true gun-slinger type of Western) it seemed incongruous to his recent directoral efforts. Namely; How the Grinch stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man and most certainly The Davinci Code due to release this May... But a glimmer of hope arose when i heard news that famed Crouching Tiger hidden Dragon director Ang Lee had the helm which promises at least some good action sequences (He also directed Sense and Sensibility, for added drama lol) ... The movie is called "Brokeback Mountain"... Catchy title i thought. It stars Heith Ledger who's recent performance as Skip, one of the men who pioneered surfing & skateboarding in California, in Lords of Dogtown in my opinion was close to spectacular and Jake Gyllenhaal of Jarhead, a movie Based on former Marine Anthony Swofford's best-selling 2003 book about his pre-Desert Storm experiences in Saudi Arabia and about his experiences fighting in Kuwait was pretty good. Granted all this doesn't promise the makings of an Oscar winning picture, the synopsis that i gathered from friends is that, this Western, is not your conventional Western Movie. The chasm between the roles of the two protagonist in Brokeback Mountain and their most recent movies as you may or may not already know is Heaven & Earth.

Laughing at my ignorance after realizing the word Brokeback is not a Gay term for doggy style, i wondered how i ever arrived at that interpretation. I guess my imagination tends to wander about. Anyway the oblique western had gone on to garner Best Picture awards at the Golden Globes and Best Director in the Oscars.

Not too shabby for a gay western...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Sunday, April 16, 2006