Mainstream gay movies/TV series
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Gay movies do not usually make into the mainstream usually due to smaller audience.. However, in recent years, we get to see more and more of such movies/TV series both in theatres and in our TV box..
And with Jake Gyllenhaal (of "Donnie Darko" fame) starring in this.. It's a definite must watch!
Btw, it was directed by an Asian director, Ang Lee (Li An)..
3 Sept 2005
Yahoo! Reuters
Gay cowboy film rides into Venice festival
VENICE (Reuters) - A pair of gay cowboys rode into Venice on Friday, as Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" set tongues wagging at the annual film festival with scenes of homosexual love in the wilds of Wyoming.
The film stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, two of cinema's hottest young prospects, and is a moving tale of forbidden love that begins in 1963 and ends 20 years later.
It is one of 20 movies vying for the coveted Golden Lion at the world's oldest cinema competition, which is gearing up for its busiest weekend as more Hollywood A-listers prepare to bring glamour and screaming fans to the famed Lido waterfront.
Both actors appear in other competition films. Australian heartthrob Ledger is in Terry Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm" and Gyllenhaal acts alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in "Proof." Ledger has a third film in Venice, the out-of-competition "Casanova."
Ledger said "Brokeback," shot amid stunning mountain vistas, was the first "proper" love story he had played.
"I find there's not a lot of mystery left in stories between guys and girls; it's all been done or seen before," he said.
"I felt this was such a refreshing story of love. For me, our characters were also complex and to ... really investigate this form of humanity and expression of love was an opportunity that I hadn't had."
For Lee, director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the film based on a short story by writer Annie Proulx was about the pursuit of love and happiness in the face of adversity.
"Ennis and Jack are in the American West, which has macho and traditional values. So everything they feel, they have to keep private," Lee said.
But the aim of the film was not to make a political point about intolerance toward homosexuals, producer James Schamus told reporters.
"We are using the codes and conventions of romance that have always applied to straight people very unapologetically. We don't care if anyone is going to be upset about it. There's not a conscious political programme one way or the other."
INDEPENDENT SPIRIT
True to the spirit of many American entries at Venice this year, Lee describes "Brokeback Mountain" as independent and low-budget. It was filmed in Canada, rather than Wyoming where it is set, in order to save money.
Several U.S. offerings, including George Clooney's "Good Night. And, Good Luck" which premiered on Thursday, point to a less studio-oriented approach to movies, with many fully or partially independent.
At the other end of the spectrum is "The Brothers Grimm," with a budget estimated at $80 million and starring Matt Damon alongside Jonathan Pryce and Monica Bellucci.
Clooney, who acted in and directed "Good Night" and has a home on Lake Como, Italy, drew screaming fans to his red carpet event on Thursday, signing autographs and chatting with the mostly female crowd.
His story of a journalist's use of television to expose the bullying tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee in their anti-communist crusade was well received by critics and journalists, as was Brokeback.
Venice also aims to showcase Asian cinema this year, and the "surprise film" of 2005, which entered the official competition at the last minute, was cult Japanese director Takeshi Kitano's mystery movie "Takeshi's."
It screens on Friday, as does out-of-competition "Initial D," a Hong Kong film starring Jay Chou and Anthony Wong. -
Is this outdated? Initial D was screened quite awhile ago ya?
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Not all movies are released worldwide on the same day.Originally posted by aRcTiC_sTaR:Is this outdated? Initial D was screened quite awhile ago ya? -
Ah.. In fact.. Brokeback Mountain just won the Best Picture in Venice! Nice!Originally posted by aRcTiC_sTaR:Is this outdated? Initial D was screened quite awhile ago ya?
Just hope that it will arrive in Singapore uncut! -
It seems like it won't go down well with our film censors. Anything that deals with what's different is always "bad".Originally posted by earthlings73:Ah.. In fact.. Brokeback Mountain just won the Best Picture in Venice! Nice!
Just hope that it will arrive in Singapore uncut!
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'Brokeback Mountain' best at Venice film fest
By Domenico Stinellis
Associated Press
VENICE, Italy -- Ang Lee's tale of love between two gay cowboys set in the conservative West of the 1960s won the Venice Film Festival's top award Saturday.
"Brokeback Mountain," starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, topped 19 other competitors, including favorite "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's black-and-white movie set in the McCarthy era of the early 1950s.
Receiving the Golden Lion award, Lee described his movie as a "great American love story" that is "unique and so universal."
"I'm so glad it's prevailed here and was received so warmly here," he said.
Based on a novella by "The Shipping News" author E. Annie Proulx, the movie has sweeping vistas, lonesome men, bucking broncos and smoldering campfires. It also has sex scenes between two men whose lives are changed, disturbed and entwined after being hired to tend sheep for a summer in Wyoming.
Lee's other films include "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hulk," "The Ice Storm" and "Sense and Sensibility."
One of the stars of Clooney's film, David Strathairn, got the top acting award for men. Strathairn played American broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, who systematically scrutinized the methods of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's quest to root out Communists and their sympathizers.
Strathairn said the movie was a reminder of the responsibility of journalists, addressing his remarks to "all of you here, and all of those who will see this movie, all of those who are out there trying to bring truth to all of us so that we can make better decisions about our lives."
The top acting award for a woman went to Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno for her role in "La Bestia nel Cuore" ("The Beast in the Heart").
The film tells the story of an apparently happy woman who suddenly is plagued by dreams that reveal a dark part of her childhood, when she was abused by her father. She eventually uncovers her past with help from her brother. It is based on a 2004 book by Cristina Comencini, who also directed the movie.
The Silver Lion for directing went to Philippe Garrel for "Les Amants Reguliers" ("The Regular Lovers").
French actress Isabelle Huppert was given a special award for her contributions to cinema, and Italian Stefania Sandrelli received a lifetime achievement award.
Clooney and Grant Heslov took the prize for best script for "Good Night," in which Clooney plays a principled and practical CBS television producer, Fred Friendly, who later became a professor at Columbia University and encouraged a generation of journalists to ponder responsibility and ethics.
The festival's special jury prize went to "Mary," by Abel Ferrara.
Others awards Saturday:
• William Lubtchansky for his photography in Garrel's "Les Amants Reguliers."
• Menothy Cesar, the Marcello Mastroianni prize for an emerging young actor, for his role in "Vers le Sud," ("Toward the South") by Laurent Cantet.
• Lech Kowalski, the Horizons prize for "East of Paradise."
• Lin Chien-ping, the Leone Citroen for the best short, for "Xiaozhan" ("Small Station"). -
I believe MDA is loosening their grip..Originally posted by iveco:It seems like it won't go down well with our film censors. Anything that deals with what's different is always "bad".
Of course, you still have the extreme rightist frequently lobbying the ban of all gay movies, but we have seen 2 pretty good gay movies this year..
Summer Storm (Germany)
Mysterious Skin
Both movies would not have make it in the past.. =p -
I think you forgot about Bad Education (La Mala Educacion).Originally posted by earthlings73:I believe MDA is loosening their grip..
Of course, you still have the extreme rightist frequently lobbying the ban of all gay movies, but we have seen 2 pretty good gay movies this year..
Summer Storm (Germany)
Mysterious Skin
Both movies would not have make it in the past.. =p
This art-house film was released during CNY and rated R-21. It basically involves a gay love triangle between a Catholic priest and 2 male students in Spain. Seems like it was also partly based on Pedro Almodovar's experiences at school. -
Ah.. How would I forget abt Bad Education! Pedro Almodovar instantly becomes one of my favourite directors with this sexy, intense, beautiful movie!Originally posted by iveco:I think you forgot about Bad Education (La Mala Educacion).
This art-house film was released during CNY and rated R-21. It basically involves a gay love triangle between a Catholic priest and 2 male students in Spain. Seems like it was also partly based on Pedro Almodovar's experiences at school.
I've caught it on DVD though.. heh..
Anyway, will do some write-ups soon when I have time.. Thx for reminding..
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The West Asutralian did an exclusive with Almodovar when Bad Education was released in Australia. He mentioned that he used to see this priest behaving in an intimate way with one of his schoolmates. Although the film was taking a swipe at paedophiles in the clergy ranks, the fact that one of the characters was expelled because he came between the priest and the other boy implies there is more to it.
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Receive this piece of news from a gay list:
Next week, another of Stanley Kwan's film opens — the Golden Horse Award Best Film Lanyu — the first Chinese movie about a life-long love story between two men in Beijing. Exclusive at Lido.
It has become more and more obvious that movies which were used to be "ban" were allowed by the censorship board to be screened here in Singapore. Lan Yu was made in 2003 (or 2002?) Was not allowed here just 2-3 years back.. But now, with the loosening of grips on gays materials.. Yippee! -
They are starting to show bre[i]asts....
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Another gay (lesbian rather) movie scheduled to open really soon.. This is like the gay movie year.. Of course, will be anticipating Brokeback Mountain at the end of the year..
http://www.fridae.com/lifestyle/article.php?reviewid=82&viewarticle=1
It is never fun to be the sandwich filling in any triangular situation. This is a key moment in Alice WuÂ’s rave debut film, Saving Face. It is a meet THE mother scene.
Vivian Shing (Lynn Chen) is meeting the love of her life’s mom (Joan Chen) for the first time. This encounter was reluctantly acceded to by Wil (Michelle Krusiec), the movie’s protagonist and Chen’s 28-year-old daughter. As with this sort of situations, the women meeting for the first time are sussing each other out, as highly trained martial artists will do – with minimal giveaway and lightning fast mental operations. The scene is well-directed and well-played, the tensions are very tangible, more so when tones and quick looks say more than mere words, although the words are very appropriate and do double, triple duty as message/counter-message, irony, and riposte.
Scarily caught between is Wil, as mom and girlfriend try to get to know each other. On every Chinese parent’s mind are questions such as, how emotionally important is this person to my kid, and what does said person do. So, when it transpires at the dinner table that Vivian is a dancer, Chen’s clipped responses are priceless for the classy actor she is and priceless for the hilarity we felt in the safety of the theatre’s seats – a safety not shared by an increasingly stressed out Wil, very concerned that mom will soon find out that best friend is also one’s hotter-than-hell lover. And no offspring, particularly an uptight doctor type as was Krusiec’s role, wants their mom to imagine even the slightest detail of their erotic lives. Wil’s high anxiety is mostly conveyed through eye movements and a continuous shovelling of rice into her gullet. The tension almost snapped her chopsticks. This is emblematic of Wu’s attentiveness to the more than surface textures of life in her film, and to her ability to direct her actors, and the camera.
Saving Face is a well-edited story that flows well, so well that you need to sit back to begin to understand how Wu put it all together.
It’s culturally very empowering to see two talented and highly-educated Chinese lesbian characters engaged in a love pas de deux that’s as ‘normal’ as they come. (This is not to say that the lovers do not face challenges, they do). Indeed normal is not a usual word to use to refer to queer women film, or literary, characters. However the normalising of lesbian love between Chinese American characters suits the film, and is among the significant inclusionary gestures that would be valid both in the lesbian cultural corpus and the mainstream cultural oeuvre. After all, outside of burlesque and Halloween, no one wants to be treated as grotesque. Yes, we use our digits and use them well but most of us come with the normalised ten digits, queer or not. As the film says adroitly, we Chinese lesbians can conjugate Latin verbs when we want to but that’s not the only conjugation you ought to presume of us. -
TNP's review of Angels in America..
This is the series that won it all in US 2 years ago.. I didn't catch the HBO version.. But there might be serious censorship since the topic is still very much controversial here in Singapore..
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Angels and the bitter truth about Aids
Don't let prejudice bar you from an excellent series
By Yeoh Wee Tech
December 02, 2005
ANGELS IN AMERICA
STARRING: Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson
SHOWING ON: HBO (StarHub Ch 60), tonight and tomorrow, 10pm
RATING: ****1/2
HOW do I praise the Emmy-winning, six-hour mini-series Angels In America without coming off as mildly hysterical?
It has my criteria of what makes classic TV - passion, high drama, amazing acting and that breathless feeling of knowing you're witness to something magical.
It is also bitter and bitchy, two components that make for good television.
Angels In America traces the impact of Aids on a varied group of New Yorkers in the mid-80s.
HIV-positive Prior Walter (Justin Kirk) is dumped by his lover, Lou (Ben Shenkman). Their friend Belize (Jeffrey Wright) helps Prior cope.
Attorney Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson) - a Mormon and Republican - has a Valium-addicted wife (Mary Louise Parker) and a passive-aggressive mother (Meryl Streep).
Right-wing fixer Roy Cohn (Al Pacino), who is ravaged by Aids, is another staple.
Both are in the closet - Pitt out of religious turmoil, Cohn to preserve his power.
An angel (Emma Thompson) invites Prior to be a prophet of death.
Streep is spectacular in four vastly different roles, and the other actors - especially Thompson, Wilson and Wright - are elegant and intense.
The lines are gems. My favourite: 'Oh, my queen, you know you've hit rock bottom when even drag is a drag!' And the special effects, while simple, do their work.
Gay men hiding inside closets may find watching this uncomfortable because stereotypes like musical-loving gay men, bitchy queens and seedy cruising are tough to stomach.
And this gay-centric drama may also distance fearful straights.
But don't let your prejudices or fear prevent you from a dose of Angels, and don't let naysayers prevent you from enjoying this.
Take the advice of one of the characters: 'Be quiet you medieval gnome. Let them dance.' -
I want to see the L word
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I believe "L Word" and "Queer as Folk" are both cable in US.. It will be tough for the local censors to allow these in, as there should be explicit nudity.. Whether the theme is gay or not..
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Long article: About "Brokeback Mountain", one of the front runners for Oscars in the category of Best Film and Best Director..
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Homos On The Range: Is America Ready For Brokeback Mountain?
Every once in a while a film comes along that changes our perceptions so much that cinema history thereafter has to arrange itself around it. Think of Thelma and Louise or Chungking Express, Blow-Up or Orlando — all big films that taught us to look and think and swagger differently. Brokeback Mountain is just such a film. Even for audiences educated by a decade of the New Queer Cinema phenomenon — from Mala Noche and Poison to High Art and Boys Don't Cry — it's a shift in scope and tenor so profound as to signal a new era.
In this Oscar race, no film's pedigree is more impeccable than Brokeback Mountain. Affectionately known as "The Gay Cowboy Movie", the film is based on Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx's moving, nuanced short story (found here in its entirety, so a spoiler alert is in order) from her collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories. The screenplay was written by Proulx and her fellow Pulitzer winner, Larry McMurtry (of Lonesome Dove fame). The production is helmed by Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, and Sense and Sensibility. The film's trailer showcases its hot young stars, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, to great effect. Even the tender, country-inflected soundtrack (offered here) is written by critical darling Gustavo Santaolalla. Early reviews are overwhelmingly positive; the only real complaint appears to be that Ang Lee's direction suffers from a surfeit of good taste. Brokeback Mountain may well be the film to beat at this
year's Oscars.
Initially slated to be directed by Gus Van Sant, the film bounced around Hollywood for several years, gaining a cult reputation as the best picture no one was making, before winding up in Lee's hands. Since then, it's been snubbed by the Cannes Film Festival, become the darling of the Toronto Film Festival, and won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. It recently received four Independent Spirit Award nominations, which have in the past been excellent predictors for Oscar nominations.
But can a film that's been termed "the gay Gone With the Wind" make it in American multiplexes? This year alone, films such as Capote, Mysterious Skin, and Transamerica have explored a panoply of gay issues and have been rewarded with glowing critical reviews but lackluster box office.
Few American icons are as enduring and sacrosanct as the Western cowboy. Brokeback Mountain is set to topple a beloved ideal, and even though gay rodeo is a fixture in middle America, many traditionalists are uncomfortable with the idea of homosexual cowboys. In a bid apparently calculated to alarm his red state readers, Matt Drudge recently dug through a Casper Star-Tribune article to ferret out an appropriately homophobic quote from Wyoming playwright Sandy Dixon:
Kaycee playwright Sandy Dixon doesn't care to open her mind to the story line of "Brokeback Mountain," she said. A lifelong Wyomingite, Dixon said she has never encountered a gay cowboy, and doesn't think it's right for Proulx and Hollywood to portray Wyoming as a state with gay cowboys. Her message to the writers of "Brokeback Mountain" is this: "Don't try and take what we had, which was wonderful -- the cowboys that settled the state and made it what it was -- don't ruin that image just to sell a book." She added, "There's nothing better than plain old cowboys and the plain old history without embellishing it to suit everyone." Regarding the reaction of Wyoming people to the film, Dixon said it depends on the viewer: "Those that want to make a queer story out of it, they will, and those that know real cowboys will say it's all hogwash."
It's perplexing (and not a little disheartening) to see the polarized reactions to Brokeback Mountain. For every awed, respectful review there's a corresponding adolescent sniggerfest: Do they eat pudding? Why didn't they call it 'Bareback Mountin'? One film reviewer wrote frankly about the "yuck factor" for hetero men when confronted with the idea of two men making love on screen ("America likes her gay cowboys standing on stage with others in costume, singing "YMCA." Beyond kitsch, beyond sentimentality, the reality is yucky."). Another recent article appeared to be pandering to homophobia by quoting Jake Gyllenhaal as saying that he "(doesn't) really remember" his love scenes with Ledger.
Conversely, some critics seem to think the film's marketing is schizophrenic. A Village Voice article muses that the film is the "straightest movie to come out of Hollywood in years", a reference to the marketing ploy of appealing to straight women as a traditional love story. Still another writer slams the film for not being gay enough: "In their attempt to market the film to women as a generic love story, they are rewriting a beautiful story and alienating the core audience: gay people."
And on a much more somber note, author Annie Proulx is well aware that her home state of Wyoming, where the story and book are set, is also the scene of Matthew Shepard's murder (Proulx was called for jury duty on that case but did not serve). "When the story first appeared, Proulx was bombarded with angry letters saying there wasn't such a thing as a gay cowboy, and other letters saying, 'Thanks for telling my story'. A year later, Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was murdered." The film itself is informed and haunted by protagonist Jack Twist's childhood memory of a gay lynching, and both of the lead characters live in fear of being found out by their wives and families.
The film opens in wide release on December 8, but sneak previews have been shown in several cities. Have any Plasticians seen the film yet? If not, do many of you have plans to see it next weekend? Finally, what are your predictions about its performance in the red states? Can Brokeback Mountain ride roughshod over ingrained American homophobia to come out on top at the box office?
From the Chicago Tribune
MOVIES
Lee Sees His 'Brokeback Mountain' As A Unifying Force
December 4, 2005
By Robert K. Elder, Tribune staff reporter
After a recent sneak preview of Ang Lee's gay-themed western "Brokeback Mountain," the filmmaker and his longtime producer James Schamus took questions in the University of Chicago's dimly lit Max Palevsky Cinema.
"Is there a film or films that set the precedent for this movie?" one audience member asked.
"`The Bridges of Madison County,'" Schamus replied without missing a beat.
He said this as a joke, but the audience didn't laugh immediately -- perhaps with good reason. The two movies, after all, target similar audiences.
"Like all great love stories, our first, but not our only, audience is women," Schamus elaborated later. "For upscale movies, it is often women who are the arbiters of what to see -- which doesn't mean men don't like movies like `Titanic' and `Casablanca,' just that they initially watch them often at the behest of their wives and girlfriends."
In a time when pundits are telling us the Red State politics and morality rule the land -- and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry -- "Brokeback Mountain" is an unlikely movie released in a tense cultural climate. Yet Lee, Schamus and Focus Features are banking on the interest -- and emotions -- of a wider audience, following the precedent of "Philadelphia" and the comedy "In & Out."
Based on the Annie Proulx short story, "Brokeback Mountain" (opening Dec. 16) stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, Wyoming cowboys who fall in love during a 1963 summer job herding sheep at isolated altitudes. Despite separate lives, wives and temperaments, the two maintain a clandestine, decades-long romance.
With few screenings since it took top honors at the Venice Film Festival in September, the $13 million film is already generating Oscar buzz, particularly in the best picture, director and actor categories. Ledger, in particular, is drawing attention for his tortured, tight-lipped performance as Ennis.
"Heath says this is the most macho roll he's ever taken," Lee said the next day over breakfast. "But think about it, and he's right. Right after this, he went to play Casanova, where he put on makeup every day. It's not a very macho role."
Like his producer Schamus, Lee lives in New York state with his family. Both middle-aged, both married with children, they seem like an unlikely duo to produce what one writer has called the "Gay `Gone W ith the Wind.'" Lee said he never even heard homosexuality talked about openly until he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1976.
But when Lee read Proulx's short story after filming "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," it haunted him.
"I cried at the end. When it comes to crying, I'm a tough customer," Lee said. "I had to get it off my chest somehow."
Lee, the quieter of the two, is graying at the temples and defers to Schamus' enthusiasm. Professorial and bespectacled, Schamus proves that you can wear a bow tie, swear charmingly and still be a respected academic. (Schamus teaches film theory and history at Columbia University, in addition to his duties as co-president of Focus Features.)
Themes of alienation
The pair's ninth feature together covers familiar thematic ground. Though the Taiwan native's chameleon-like style and outsider's eye allowed him to genre-hop among Jane Austen ("Sense and Sensibility"), family drama ("The Ice Storm") and comic book movies ("Hulk"), each carries themes of alienation and repressed emotion.
But "Brokeback" is as much about the characters' own homophobia as it is about any social condemnation.
In town recently to speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival, author Proulx said of the film, "For once gay people are not shown as comic characters. . . . [They are] two ordinary human beings wrestling with problems they simply don't have the experience or the education to control or understand."
It's a polarizing time in American culture. While a slate of anti-gay referendums work their way through state governments, TV's "Will & Grace," "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and "Queer As Folk" remain popular entertainment.
In the past, mainstream gay features on the big screen have been scarce. But this year alone, both Bennett Miller's "Capote" and Neil Jordan's "Breakfast on Pluto" center themselves on lead homosexual characters.
Yet "Brokeback" signifies something different, a test of the country's acceptance of an alternative take on a beloved western icon: the cowboy.
Screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry ("The Last Picture Show," "Lonesome Dove") saw promise in Proulx's story, which first appeared in the New Yorker in 1997. They optioned it and wrote a screenplay, though it took years to get the movie off the ground. Film rights changed hands. Scott Rudin tried to produce it with director Gus Van Sant ("Good Will Hunting"). Joel Schumacher ("The Phantom of the Opera") was attached briefly.
The film became somewhat of a "hot potato," Proulx said. Her tragic short story seemed prescient when, in 1998, 21-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard was tortured and murdered outside Laramie, Wyo., near Proulx's home in Centennial. (Proulx was called for jury duty in the trial but did not serve.)
More time passed. Lee emerged from the mammoth production of "Hulk" and was looking for a smaller, more intimate project. Was "Brokeback Mountain" still available? Schamus, who co-wrote almost all of Lee's previous features before being named co-president of Focus Features, found himself in the position to green light a picture he couldn't make as an independent producer.
"I didn't feel a resistance, I didn't feel a change . . . some kind of `Now is the time to make it; the world is ready!'" Schamus said. "I was kind of like, `OK, we'll make it for a low budget, we'll be very conservative and have a very specific marketing plan.'"
Integral to that plan was targeting the "fourth quadrant," also known as the "women 35 and older" demographic -- the "Pride & Prejudice" audience. But initially, Lee and Schamus were concerned with the reaction of just one person: Proulx herself.
"Here's this guy, born in Taiwan, who just came from doing `The Hulk,'" remembered Proulx, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel "The Shipping News." "I was terrified. I was sure it would be watered down and made acceptable to the general public."
`It's a seamless join'
Even Lee said, "What do I know about gay ranch hands in Wyoming?"
But after meetings in New York and a dinner of Rocky Mountain Oysters (bull testicles) with Lee in Wyoming, Proulx's fears were assuaged.
"The story is intact, the language and characters are intact. . . . It's a seamless join," Proulx said of McMurtry and Ossana's adaptation. As for Lee, she added: "The fact that he got that essence of the rural West is still amazing to me."
But Lee's vision of the West has met with some resistance.
Wyoming playwright Sandy Dixon told The Casper Star-Tribune last month she never met a gay cowboy and thought the movie was damaging to the cowboy image. "[T]hose that know real cowboys will say it's all hogwash," she said.
Schamus' response: "That woman has met more gay people than she is capable of counting; she just has no idea."
For background, Proulx interviewed a gay rancher for the story, although at the time, she had no idea of his sexual orientation. Proulx said she continues to get letters saying, "You've told my story."
Several states have gay rodeo associations, and "Brokeback" is receiving support from a pair of country music icons. Willie Nelson and Steve Earle provide new recordings for the soundtrack. "It legitimizes us a little bit," Lee said.
The backlash thus far has been minimal, though pointed. Conservative news blogger Matt Drudge posted a story titled "Hollywood Rocked: `Gay Cowboy' Movie Becomes an Oscar Frontrunner" and refers to "explicit gay sex scenes" in the film.
"I don't know why people say that," Lee said. "For the gay community, it's not explicit. It's suggested. But I think we devote a lot of realism to it. I don't think I'm even close to explicit."
But for Lee, focusing on sexual relationships misses the point.
"To me, it's a story about the illusion of love. That transcends being gay and being a cowboy and all that," Lee said. "Because they don't know what love is, they spend the next 20 years trying to catch it."
Lee is aware that he has made a controversial film, even though he usually shies away from conflict.
"My character is very afraid of offending or hurting anyone. It's my first nature, probably, to avoid confrontation," he said. "But I do like to challenge, to examine conflict. Inner conflict, particularly. You have to go there to examine humanity. Otherwise, we cover ourselves up."
In other words, Lee sees his movie as a unifying -- rather than dividing -- force. "It helps us understand, brings us together," he said. "I hope this movie has that kind of effect." -
I got clips of L word
actually the scenes are quite sensual except for a few ones with dildos invovled
mia kirshner is hot