Review on Brokeback Mountain

http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/30938.html

Instead of finding a more academic view on Brokeback Mountain, much like Becky and Christine, i wanted to find a review from a LGBT website which could address the issues faced in the film from a more personal perspective. A reviewer from the LGBT community isn't as quick to praise the film due to risk of offending anyone, so i believe them to give a more impartial point of view.

I found this review on a independent gay forum which gives a very academic take on Brokeback Mountain. It is known that a portion of the gay community thought Brokeback Mountain too heterosexual, and downplays the fact that it is a film about two men falling in love, but this review differs. The author, Dale Carpenter, says that "There's much to admire in this film. Ennis and Jack bust stereotypes of gay men. They aren't effeminate. When they meet, they are modern “cowboys” who live on profanity, fighting, country music, beer, and hard work for low pay. Yet their masculinity is also not the posed hyper-masculinity of leather, Levi, and uniform fetish scenes". Carpenter gives the impression that he has realised the film is a love story, albeit a rather contrived and reckless one, not just about 'Gay Cowboys'.

Carpenter also talks about the main protagonists shirking their responsibilities throughout the film. Right from the offset, the two men neglect their duties of looking after sheep to indulge in hedonistic pursuits and this continues for all of the film. The men regularly leave behind wives, families, jobs to go on 'fishing trips' causing catastrophic consequences - Ennis' divorce, Jack's death.

Ultimately, this review isn't gushing on about the bravery of Ang Lee to take on such a story, nor does it once mention how hard it must have been for the actors to fulfill gay roles because it is against their sexuality, it purely concentrates on the content and how two men have neglected all the had to pursue each other and their relationships. I believe this to be a much better way of looking at the film then focusing on its homosexual connotations.



On the other side, i have found this post from a Christian Website on their take on Brokeback Mountain. Coincidentaly, Brokeback Mountain was released around the same time as America was revising its laws on gay mariage. The topic, however already controversial, was inadvertantly helped by the films release.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/brokebackmountain.html