Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

I have watched with interest the sensation attending the release of the film version of Annie Proulx's short story Brokeback Mountain. The story itself caused a buzz after it was originally published in the New Yorker. The story is set in the early 1960s. It's a spare story about two ranch hands, Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar, who, one summer, share work as sheepherders. Both men had hardscrabble upbringings with very little hope for their futures. During the course of the summer, they begin a sexual relationship. When the summer's work ends, they go their separate ways, get married, have families, but they stay in touch and, over the years, they arrange occasions where they can get together and have sex. They both understand theirs is a love affair, however rough and secretive. As their domestic relationships turn sour and fall apart, they have a discussion about living together and setting up a small ranch. But Ennis tells Jack that he couldn't do it. When he was a boy, Ennis knew of two men who lived together on their ranch. Ennis recalls: "They found Earl dead in an irrigation ditch. They took a tire iron to him, spurred him up, drug him around by his dick until it pulled off, just bloody pulp." We should remind ourselves that Brokeback Mountain is not far from were Matthew Shepard was murdered, also execution-style. So it is a completely strategic decision not to set up home together, even if they would like to; doing so could be life threatening. With so little going for them, they are denied the one thing that might provide them with satisfaction. This is the indictment of the story.

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The two actors in the movie version are very good-looking; I suspect Proulx had plainer-looking men in mind and it might have made for a different picture if director Ang Lee had cast rougher, weathered men. But Movie-Land has its own logic.

It will be interesting to watch how the film rolls out. It first opened in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and opened big, the highest gross per screen of any film this year. But what about other venues? The suburban Cineplex? Is it a woman's picture or a man's? A local religious homophobe predicted that audiences would be disgusted watching two men make love. Well, everyone's a critic, and, at any rate, he can always go to see a Mel Gibson movie. Apparently the studio wants this product talked of as a love story not "the gay cowboy" movie. But is it a love story? If it's anything like the short story, it's really a love story denied. What really would be a challenge to film is a story in which the two ranch hands can settle down and live reasonably happy lives.

Past rewritten

Such an atmosphere is the set-up in two films from Wolfe Video. Big Eden came out a few years ago; Almost Normal is new. In Big Eden, a lonely New York artist returns to his small Montana hometown to care for his ailing grandfather. The trick-- which does arrive in an "Aha!" moment-- is that there is no homophobia in Big Eden. Everyone is warm and supportive. A charming film-- with lots of cooking in it (one extra DVD feature is a listing of the recipes used in the cinematic culinary). Almost Normal takes a 40-year-old back in time, back to his old high school but with a slight change-- everyone's gay! No bullies, no teasing or gay-baiting. Imagine such a place! There are other teenage woes, of course, but presuming the absence of homophobia is such a liberating idea.

When I worked as a projectionist at a drive-in movie theater years ago, I had a colleague named John, who worked the nights I had off. John personally resented the anti-gay interludes that seemed so prevalent in the films of the mid-1970s (or at least in the movies that wound up on the drive-in screens, lots of action pictures, cop chases, gang violence, that sort of thing). While watching the film, John would put little pieces of paper marking the start and finish of a homophobic scene. While rewinding the film, John would carefully snip out the offensive sequence and store it on a spare reel. In no time, he had acquired quite a collection of anti-gay slurs and violence in contemporary film. I recall telling author Vito Russo about this collection (I met him when he was on tour for his book Celluloid Closet). Vito's eyes lit up and he told me: "I have to have that!" Alas, this was not to be. It would have been nice if John could have done the same thing to the whole world.

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com