I saw Brokeback Mountain a few nights ago
and it occurred to me that, with this movie,
Ang Lee may have totally mastered
the landscape of repression.
His eye for the slightest nuance, and his
willingness to give silence time to speak
create a portrait of longing and regret so
fiercely profound I am unable to write any
sort of rational 'review'.
I LOVED this movie.
This movie broke my heart.
And I think it deserves an honored place
among the classic movies about star-crossed love.
I have been pondering Ang Lee's other films
and I find that repression seems to be a
central theme in each of them.
The father in Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
is unable to express his love for his daughters,
and they cannot be honest about themselves with him.
The Wedding Banquet is based entirely on a sham wedding
between a man who cannot tell his parents he is gay
and a woman who must marry or dhe will be deported.
The Ice Storm - which illustrates so
well the cool, surface perfection of the seventies,
gives us a close-up look at what is really
boiling just below that surface.
Sense and Sensibility takes place in an age
when repression was the norm - and it too is completely
stuffed with characters who must continually hide who
they are and what they truly feel.
I did not see Hulk - but I read enough comics to know
that The Incredible Hulk basically defines what can happen when
tragedy creates a rage one must try to repress, but cannot.
Even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is about repression;
the martial arts master hides his love, the women hide their
ability to fight, everyone is a prisoner in some way or other...
I have not seen Ride With The Devil yet - but I think I will have to
in order to completely develop my theory.
Woah - I had not intended to go on so long about this,
but it's intruguing to me. I wonder how Ang Lee came to have
such insights into the subject.
I had intended to complain (yet again) about the weather,
but I'm too tired. And I am feeling a little touchy about
blogging since I heard some scathing thing on tv about
all the "pathetic hacks on the internet, writing trite crap
no one really ever wants to read..."
However, speaking of trite crap -
the folks on Invasion are making me crazy!
I want a solid hour of show, with a few
more revelations and a lot fewer commercials.
I am thinking I need to save for a Tivo so I
can do more quality viewing in less time -
and never have to see another Oak Barn or
Leptoprin commercial.
bs
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7 comments:
Damn! You did it again! You got that dead on, the whole repression thing. Loved it.
I have three movies at the top of my list...FIRE, HAROLD and MAUDE, and now BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. I saw it twice...not necessarily by choice...and was deeply moved each time.
The first time I saw it was in a theater in an Oregon suburb...the kind where farming trucks outnumber sedans in the parking lot. I went my brother, sister in law, and my aging parents. The audience was quiet through most of the film. At the end there were wet eyes everywhere, but everyone was still quiet.
The second time I saw the movie, I went to Seattle's Capitol Hill (the gay district of Seattle) and the theater was filled with mostly gay men, a number of us lesbians, and a smattering of heterosexuals, two of whom sat behind us. This time there was laughter during the movie (the kissing scene at the end of the stairwell when his wife sees them) and gasps of outrage and sorrow (when they sit by the river and Heath Ledger's character says they can never live together) and then at the end of the film when everyone around us is sobbing, loudly, and the woman behind us cannot control her tears and her friend must hold her and comfort her all through the credits.
That's a powerful film.
As my brother said, "It's so much more powerful to watch a film where the acting matters." And the silence, too because then the audience is very much a part of the film.
I'm not sure I could put only 3 movies at the top of my list...
but for today I'll choose The Piano, Days of Heaven and Brokeback Mountain.
I went with my daughter and her boyfriend to see BBack Mt., and there were only about 9 people in the audience (it was a 10 p.m. showing on a weekday - also in suburbia). There was an older couple, 3-4 older teen girls, a gay couple and my trio.
In the end, we were all in tears.
I am curious how this movie plays in Wyoming...or where I grew up, which is as much like Wyoming as a place can get without actually being Wyoming.
My sister lives near Sandy, Utah - and as you likely know - this movie doesn't play there at all.
bs
I will have to look up Fire, as I am not sure I'm familiar with it.
I haven't seen BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, but I have hear it praised now pretty much daily in the therapy room. It takes someone from outside the culture to be able to notice the possibilities and probablities of this one. "The Ice Storm" is one of my most favorite American films, I've watched it over and over again. Every person has, I think, a collection of movies they'd be willing to watch over and over again.
Mine are: The Ice Storm, The Godfather, Annie Hall, Mississippi Burning, The Conversation, The Stuntman, Pulp Fiction, Eve's' Bayou, and one scene from Chicago wherein John C. Riley sings "Mr. Shadow Man"(but is that really the title?) Oh, and more, but I can't recall right now.
I can't wait to see Brokeback Mountain...and Capote.
Pathetic hacks on the internet writing tripe?!!! See Clear Creek Girl for the final answer to that! Haven't seen BBM yet, but if youse guys reviews are any indication I'd better take my kleenex!
so obviously i have to see this movie. i hear nothing but gut wrenchingly wonderful critiques about it. i do know that when an artist has so much emotion in their lives... especially a specific emotion, its always pouring into their art. you know its good when it makes you laugh so hard you cry or cry so hard you laugh. or be so outraged and angry and you have to walk away to calm down. if it can effect you like this.. then it was worth the creation.
ps ... im hispanic and i had to take a double take on the worde trite because i confused it for tripe and made me think of menudo and now im drooling. mmmm sheep stomach lining. o_0
I am most pleased that you like my story B. Shoe ... and, naturally, I will try to play to your applause in hopes of hearing it again.
I heartily agree with your problem with Invasion. They ought to go to two episodes a week. I think maybe the ranger and his chicky wife should be tossed in the water and partially alienized too ... it seems to help make the characters interesting. I thought the Sheriff was headed for evilsville, but he's back in the mix with black chaps and a white hat. Things were simpler in Zane Gray's day.
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