A straight man’s thoughts within a decreasingly taboo society:
I saw Brokeback Mountain for the first time yesterday…for a while I was speechless, because I wasn’t sure what to make of it. If it had been a “normal” (what passes for normal these days?) love story, it would not have been as captivating for me.
Instead, rather than noticing the obvious, I saw such intense, raw and passionate emotion. Truthfully, it was overwhelming…as open as I am to modern choices and preferences, I found myself standing along a moral quandary. My upbringing has instilled in me respect, values and beliefs that help me maintain my openness, my aversity to judging others. Despite all this, I still found within myself a conflict. How can love be so strong between two men that they would intimately eclipse the barriers of a taboo society? Did they not feel as if they were committing sin with each passionate, furious kiss?
My answer came to me after much contemplation–love knows no boundaries. While this may seem cliché, even obvious, there are aspects of love that we choose to believe just, and there are also those we choose to regard as unjust. These perceptions have been instilled within us by family, friends, media, religion all within the umbrella of society.
Brokeback has transformed the image and notion of love as I know it. I truly believe that love and feelings have their own destinies, much like we as individuals do. Love seeks to bind two persons, regardless of their status –be it color, orientation, socioeconomic, cultural & so forth– in life. It is up to us how we choose to deal with our feelings, our perceptions, and most of all our self-image.
I strongly urge you to see the movie, if you haven’t. Read the book as well…
Mindblowing is an understatement.
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i wish they would show brokeback mountain with open captions down here in baton rouge :( i’ve heard plenty good reviews. guess i gotta wait until its out on DVD.
i learned from your blog that there’s a book— have you read it yet? wonder if it’s any different from the movie? like whether or not if some parts were intentionally left out. curious.
Yep, there’s a book - by Anne Proulx. It’s only like 50 pages, though! Read through it in 20 minutes. And I don’t think anything was left out. I could be wrong, though.
In fact, it’s probably impossible to derive a 2.25-hour movie from a 50-page-book and leave something out. Heh.
I read several reviews of the flick before watching it Sunday, and most of them (and my reaction) echoed what you said. This wasn’t a gay movie. It was a love story that involved two men. And a great love story at that, too. Anyone should be able to relate to it. (Or at least be touched by it) I hope everyone does. Brokeback’s heartbreaking passion is impossible to ignore.
But isn’t Brokeback Mountain really a gay movie given its themes of homosexuality and the phenomenon known as the closet?
Here’s one more review for you to read.
Rob, thanks for that link! I’ve heard so many reviews that it was and was not a gay movie! From my perspective, it was.