Brokeback Mountain is NO BIG DEAL

 “Think we’re different?”   ”Yeah we’re gay, remember?”

I watched Brokeback Mountain the other week with my roomate and his girlfriend.  Let me iron this out; I wasn’t giving it the 100% attention, but I like to call it a solid 80%.  Perhaps thats why I’m bitter…but I think I have a point.

For the most part, the movie was well made.  The filming and settings were very beautiful and definetely set a good tone.  The acting was superb, although I didn’t see the greatness of Ledger that everyone was talking about.  He did good, but I wasn’t blown away.  Ang Lee made a good movie regardless.

Now heres my problem with the movie…Every customer I talk to at Blockbuster about this movie has the discussion with me about how it’s so touching and sad and yada yada.  Albeit, the story is sad.  But let me pose this…IF you did the same movie with a male-female relationship, would it be the same movie?  Would everyone be making a big deal out of a female-male coincidental relationship that isn’t allowed?  I understand that the whole “gay” thing is what makes the tragedy, but should that be allowance for it’s popularity? Is it’s success just based on a cultural uncomfort?  Is that why this movie is so “great”?

There isn’t anything new about this movie.  Ang Lee uses the same cinematic methods in his earlier work, specifically The Ice Storm.  The whole gay-cowboy thing can be chalked up in Midnight Cowboy  and slightly Urban Cowboy.  What I’m posing is that the movie, albeit legitmately good and tragic, is blown into this huge deal because the main characters are gay.  Would I have liked it more if it was a heterosexual relationship? Probably not.  More relatable maybe, but still just kind of a dull narrative about lost loves who can never be together.  Been there, done that.

Yeah so the movie is “gay” and they “sleep together”.  It’s uncomfortable.  That’s the only reason it’s effective.  But if you strip it down (I swear to god no pun intended), it is a very done story.  This narrative isn’t new.  It’s a new spin on an old concept.  It isn’t original; it’s different in how it makes us feel uncomfortable about the relationship.

Look, go see it if you want, I’m not saying don’t do it.  But the movie isn’t that big of a deal.  The whole buzz was generated because it’s “gay”, not for any other reason. It’s an old story with this new twist; not a milestone of film-making regardless of its cultural context. Crash deservedly won Best Picture because of the originality of its vision; this was an untold story through the eyes of everyday events. Brokeback spurned itself off an old theme, and dragged it around because being “gay” made it suddenly original. The Academy got it right this year.

Brokeback Mountain is a solid movie.  For all aspects of film-making, this movie is good in almost all categories.  But it isn’t a milestone; it isn’t original; it’s an old story with new dressing.