10 Years Today

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Brokeback Mountain.

It's hard to believe it has been that long, and at the same time it seems a lifetime ago.  We praised the progress that had been made at that time.  Looking at today we see how far we've come -and much further we need to go.

Brokeback was groundbreaking when it came out, now it is one of  most iconic LGBTQ film of all time. Even those who never saw the movie, know about Brokeback.

At the heart of it, a love story that all can relate to, trapped in a time and place full of prejudice, hatred and non-acceptance of what Ennis and Jack shared.  Today in America, same sex couples have the same rights as all couples.

It was Heath's finest performance, and a performance of Jake's that resonated from his truth.

 It can never be recreated but is capture for the ages.

Brokeback was much more than a movie,  it was moment on the timeline of progress.

 Happy Hanukkah

The Importance of Being Ennis (and Jack)

Vulture.com (an off shoot of New York Magazine) listed the 30 Most Important Sex Scenes in Movie History.  And all the scenes you thought would be there are, and some you might have not considered, but the order might be a little unexpected because of how they fall in importance.

Looking at the Top Ten:

10. Do The Right Thing

 9. Brokeback Mountain
It’s not explicit in any way shape or form, but the sight of two male movie stars going at it came as quite a shock to audiences in 2005 — even though everybody already knew what the film would be about. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal both give the performances of their careers in this Ang Lee masterpiece, and the moment when they first fall into each other’s arms is remarkable for the way it balances the confusion of the two characters with the fact that they seem to know exactly what it is they need to do, spit-lube and all.

8. In the Realm of the Senses
7. Love & Basketball
6. Y Tu Mama Tambien
5. Bound
4. Coming Home
3. Last Tango in Paris
2. Out of Sight
1. Don’t Look Now

While time and distance seems to grow from Brokeback, there is no question that it had a impact both on and off screen. It will always stand ready for Jake to return  to.

Pictured Past

Back when they were promoting BBM,  Jake and Heath were featured in Entertainment Weekly.

The picture take by Martin Schoeller that you didn't get to see was this:

This previously unpublished photo is part of  Schoeller’s Retrospective Exhibition, at the Hasted Kraeutler gallery and run Nov. 13, 2014 - Jan. 3, 2015.

Schoeller says he included this photo of Brokeback Mountain stars, because it so perfectly captured their easygoing friendship.

Past, Present, Future

In Jake's interview with the LA Times in addition to the comments about family and reflecting on his life at 30 and where he sees himself at 60. (Family, kids)

He did something he doesn't do too very often , he spoke about Heath.  And with great admiration.

"I work with actors, and I've made a conscious effort to work with people who are more talented than me, because I think they bring out your best work. Heath was always full of massive charisma and great skill, and he really took his time to listen to himself and find that. And I have great admiration for that." 

 

Heath left an impression on Jake personally and professionally that he will carry with him for the rest of his life.

Did anyone notice what Jake left out of this interview?  He talks about a future,  but notice he never mentions who he is sharing it with, and  mention of  the word wife.

So who is he going to have this messy family with?

Oscar Wild

OMG's Oscar Edition

It's all about Oscar - and it might get some people grouchy. Let's open up a little can of ...

The Curious Case of Zodiac

While Benjamin Button is visual stunning and the special effects in digitalization, aging and transformations are leading the way, and it has that trademark golden light of a Fincher film, is it really better than Zodiac? Is the Academy correcting a mistake but not recognizing what I think, was a better movie, from performances to the storyline in Zodiac, by overnominating Benjamin Button with 13 nominations? Did Pitt have a better performance than RDJ did in Zodiac? Shouldn't he lose points for what he uses as a Louisana accent? Did Jake lose out again because he played it with a quietness that some overlook, as not as inspiring, but really looking at it with a critical eye, constraint as an actor is even harder. (The less is more theory) Was it the lack of closure in the ending? Was it that Zodiac is designed not to be watched once but several times to get the whole thing? And isn't really Button really Forest Gump meets Cher in a "If I Could Turn Back Time" montage?

Hollywood has a history of right wrongs have they know they've blown it. Are they recognizing Fincher now because they know they screwed him before?

And then there's Heath.


While the Joker is an incredible performance on its own no doubt, this nomination and very possible win for Heath, seems to be recognizing the entire body of his work.

Now not everything Heath did hit the high mark, (Four Feathers?) but he how found himself in roles that transformed him. While most here would say BBM, you have to remember his role in Monster's Ball. That was the first role that really showed something different from what Hollywood wanted him to become and caught a different kind of attention. This was a serious contender in Hollywood not just for the way he looked on screen. Then his performance in Brokeback too both him and his acting to another level, and held Hollywood in his hand. Why didn't he win? Why didn't Jake? Why didn't BBM take it all? And in between Ennis and the Joker - Heath traveled from Casanova to a drug addict, from the frivalous to the deadly serious. Think ahead 10, 15, 20 years? What will people remember Heath for - wil it be Ennis Del Mar or The Joker? Now think about what this award is for - now ask yourself - is Hollywood honoring him for just one role? And if so, which one really?
More to think about:

Has the Oscar gold dulled? There is the Oscar curse. But does a nomination or a win really bring the level of work that you think it does? An interesting article in Variety.

Is the expectation of the public and the media outrun the reality of what Hollywood is churning out? Or it the way Hollywood runs itself that creates its own problems?


Now for something fun:

You can say yes to the dress and there is nothing better than playing fashion police, but then there's ... actual broadcast.

Yes Wolverine doing the Oscars is something special, but just in case there is a lull or two, how about some Oscar Bingo to pass the time.

Oscar Bingo

Who ever wins or loses, take a moment and remember what you love about movies. Remember that first movie you saw, the first movie that captured your imagination or the first that brought your tears. That's what it's really about.

Sorry for delay - I was watching Moonlight Mile - and Ebert was right - Jake should have gotten a nomination for it. I forget how amazing he is in it.

Star in Stripes

Top Ten Reason Jakey was at the Doctor's:

10. I'll show you. I have long arm syndrome too!

9. He said his shirts give him a rash, well let's just see about that.

8. Tricky beanie removal it's knitted itself into my head

7. Damn Bend and Snap, I bent and it snapped.

6. The doctor, the dentist, the optometrist, oh my!

5. Need more lollipops, hope they don't give stupid stickers.

4. 2 snotty noses four germy hands lots of drool

3. No I didn't pull a Hillary Duff! and it's not a "scorpion" bite

2. Damn insurance. Doesn't physical by the son of Dr. count for anything?

1. No really I have a toothache !


To Heath:

We remember your spirit and know it lives on in your films, in the hearts of fans, friends and family and most importantly in your beautiful Matilda.


Congratulations to Matilda, Heath's family and friends as they celebrate his nomination for the Academy Awards.

Write On - Write Off

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but apparently not for Annie Proulx. In article in the UK's Independent, despite the success of Brokeback Mountain, it has according to Proulx become "the source of constant irritation in my private life".

How so? It appears that Proulx is being sent "pornish" (her words) mail by fans offering their interpretations of the story, yes that's right Fan Fiction. While the fans see the story of Jack and Ennis a spring board of inspiration, Proulx sees the fan fiction differently.

"There are countless people out there who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an unbearably disappointing story. They constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for 'fixing' the story. They certainly don't get the message that if you can't fix it, you've got to stand it."

In a way you can understand, say you've won a Pulitzer prize, a National Book Award, and a PEN/Faulkner award and have 7 books under your belt and you're getting daily rewrites of probably now the famous story you've written. The people who sent it mean no harm they are just excited and inspired by your work, but they expect you to be as excited as they are or maybe say oh this so much better than mine, I wish I could have thought of it. Annie Proulx is not that. She is a nonsense kind of person , that's not saying she's simplistic, oh the contrary, Proulx is as complex or even more so than the characters she creates.

She doesn't really like to do interviews, she's not is an entertainer, she's not a star. If she wanted to be and if the publisher got what they wanted she would be. But that's not Annie. She's writer who just wants to write. A storyteller who needs to tell the story, just like many of the fans of her work are. She's happier on her ranch writing than talking about what she wrote. She is more about the stories she writes speaking for themselves.

You'd think after all this she would move away from the Wyoming setting to give a break from the comparisons and comments but she is going back for one more time for her new collection of nine stories, Fine Just the Way It Is, based on the lives of the women on the ranches. "In a real sense, women on ranches are secondary citizens. But many, if not most, would be furious if you said that out straight, They see themselves as mythic Western women." She did say this is the last time she would visit Wyoming as a setting for her stories, saying she didn't want to be known too closely associated with only one region.

But does Annie's comments mean that writers shouldn't write fan fiction anymore? Any great work inspires many and that's what this does. There will always be fan fiction writers, writing and exploring the answers and solutions that they would like to see. Writing is a exercise of the mind and soul and that is what is for many Brokeback writers.


***********************

A little BBM and Annie moment from an interview on Bookslut.com

Annie gave Heath public praise for his performance as Ennis. It always made you wonder if she singled him out.

"You said earlier that you were pleased with Heath Ledger's performance. Did you feel that way about the whole cast?

The whole cast was magnificent. There wasn't anything not to be thrilled with, in anyone's performance. They were all extraordinary. And by singling out Heath Ledger, I didn't mean to slight Jake Gyllenhaal in the least, because he's an extraordinarily versatile, quicksilver, accomplished actor. Really, quite marvelous. And I think he went from Brokeback to Jarhead, and that is the kind of jump that is, like, "Oh, really?" And he did both with ease. Very expert ease.

All of the actors were just superb."

Tour de Force

Anarchy, chaos, terror - a transformation into darkness is what flickers across the screen when watching Heath in his lastest and maybe his greatest role. Talk has been his role is a Oscar contender, and the first time in 30 years that an Oscar could be presented posthumously.

Intense, twisted, maniacal. Demented, crazed, funny, unpredictable a powder keg in a turned out suit. The meltdown of morals and order dressed up for society. Creating more fear than any villian has ever on screen. Heath said he found inspiration in Sid Vicious and the clown-faced thugs of A Clockwork Orange; their roots based in anarchy. That disregard for everything and all things without any remorse is what creates the terror, that there is nothing holding them back or tying them down.

Heath performance was that there was no holding back there was only all out and everything he had and more. He gave it all. He was a star on the rise, projecting higher and higher and his death and this last role as the Joker has taken him beyond that and into mythical proportions.
The irony is that Heath is feted for the most menacing and violent role of his career in contrast of the gentleness of the actor who portrayed him. But what greater compliment as an actor.

But the greatest irony is that some one so young and full of life is no longer here.

Back to Brokeback

Always a little reluctant to write about Brokeback, not because it is not loved but that is almost loved too much. So much passion and emotion tied to this movie that the feeling is that a simple post will never meet the feeling and fervor of fans.
But several recent mentions, led to this post.


Heath Ledger finds and keeps the shirts Jake Gyllenhaal had saved from their first trip to Brokeback Mountain (2005) was named one of the New 25 Romantic Gestures in The New Movie classics list in Entertainment Weekly recently. It was only behind Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey's dance in Dirty Dancing, Robert Redford washing Meryl Streep's hair in Out of Africa, and John Cusack playing Peter Gabriel outside Ione Skyes window in Say Anything. All of these moment are iconic in the pantheons of romantic movies, and Brokeback is no different. In a way it has after all this time achieved the shift from gay cowboy more to classic love story, just the way Ang and the rest of the cast saw it to be when it was made. Some felt that way from the beginning but now more are shifting as well. Brokeback is will be forever a classic love story in cinema history.

This week will be another big week for Brokeback. Why now? This Friday at 9pm, after the GLAAD media awards, will be the U.S. network premiere on Bravo, a cable channel and part of parent company NBC.

What will be edited out for television? Is Bravo a test run for it to be seen on NBC? Or this NBC's solution putting it on Bravo instead on NBC?

One thing it is, is a chance to reach an audience who was too scared to go to the movie or rent the video. Putting it on network TV, in whatever form, may reach that one person, that one teen who may need it most to realize that " love is a force of nature."

The Take on Jake

As the news about Heath unfolded over the past days, thoughts turned not only to his family, Michelle, and Matilda but for many here, to Jake as well.

TMZ. com has reported as of last night ( January 23rd)

Jake Gyllenhaal has yet to be seen or heard from since the death of his close friend, Heath Ledger -- and people on the set of his new film are working hard to keep it that way.

Gyllenhaal is in New Mexico, currently filming his new movie, "Brothers." We're told there are no plans to shut down production, but Jake is very upset and doesn't want to talk to the media -- so the set has been closed to non-crew members and extra security has been hired.

Knowing how Brokeback brought so many fans together, for those who made it, it must have created an even more special bond. Jake's thoughts must be filled with sorrow over the loss of Heath, and concern for both Michelle and his goddaughter Matilda.


It's good that the cast and crew of Brothers have rallied around Jake, protecting him from the onslaught of the media so that he can have time to reflect, renew, and find strength to give. Sure that he is also turning to his own family and Austin for support. It is times like these that people draw close to those they love.