Some Critics' Movie Columns

I have been following the noise over Brokeback Mountain with some amusement, knowing whatwever they say it will all make Annie Proulx money. Suffice to say that I owe her many things, not least that by teaching me to TEACH writing she also taught me much about analyzing writing and so made mine better.

I probably shouldn't be writing this because, living where I do, I haven't even seen the movie yet-- it most likely won't come to Socorro County (not as much because of the gay content as because only the biggest box- office moneymakers-- think Star Wars-- or kids' films do); so we will have to travel the hundred miles to Albuquerque or wait until DVD. But I know the story well, I know Annie was at least pleased enough with the screenplay to collaborate on a book about it, and I suspect that I can tell if reviewers understand what is going on or not. Oh, and I like Ang Lee!

I think the most perceptive (and very favorable) review I have yet read is the one by Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News, who is-- perhaps a surprise for some coastal readers-- young, Catholic, conservative, and southern, here. (He also has a book coming out attempting to reconcile "green" values and conservative ones, which should at least be interesting, and which has the first subtitle I have ever seen too long to fit on Amazon).

Dreher has so many good things to say that you should definitely read his whole essay, but here are a few quotes:

"What gets lost in the culture-war blitzkrieg over homosexuality are the complex and ambiguous truths that real people live and struggle with. Art that reduces messy humanity to slogans and arguments is not art at all, but sentimentality, kitsch, anti-art – in a word, propaganda. "

"Intrigued, I found on the Internet a link to the Annie Proulx short story on which the movie is based and was shocked by how good it was, especially at embodying the "concrete details of life that make actual the mystery of our position here on earth" – Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor's description of what true artistry does. Though director Ang Lee's tranquil style fails to capture the daemonic wildness of Ms. Proulx's version, I came away from the film thinking, this is not for everybody, but it really is a work of art. "

"It is impossible to watch this movie and think that all would be well with Jack and Ennis if only we'd legalize gay marriage. It is also impossible to watch this movie and not grieve for them in their suffering, even while raging over the suffering that these poor country kids who grew up unloved cause for their families. As the film grapples with Ennis' pain, confusion and cruelty, different levels of meaning unspool – social, moral, spiritual and erotic. I In the end, Brokeback Mountain is not about the need to normalize homosexuality , or "about" anything other than the tragic human condition. "

"To the frustration of ideologues, artists like Annie Proulx and Ang Lee undertake a journey to those depths and return to tell the truth about what they've seen – which is not necessarily what any of us wants to hear. As Ms. O'Connor taught, "Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction." "

"Or read it. Or watch it. "

Cant add a thing to that. Most favorable reviews, like this intelligent one by Lee Harris on the libertarian site Tech central, seem to think that its theme is that it's all society's fault, for one reason or another. Such views deny the innate complexity and tragedy of human relations; though Harris does have some interesting things to say, I don't buy the "homosexuality is a construct" deal from either the left or the right.

Finally, I cant resist quoting this absolutely hilarious if unfair review, titled "So long, but thanks for all the sheep" . How can you resist an essay with these lines:

"It is worth mentioning that Jack marries a woman who doesn't so much age over the next twenty years as start wearing a succession of ever larger poodles on her head. In the circumstances can one blame him for driving to Mexico in order to pick up male prostitutes? Much can be forgiven a man whose wife has poodles instead of a coiffeur, and whose ability in bed can (and is) summed up in the phrase,"She's great at selling combine harvesters"."