And keeping your tequila on the INside of the shot glass, where it belongs!

Damn! That was funny. I can still picture Tony slamming his fists onto the table and the glass "falling" over. LOL!

Damn! That was funny. I can still picture Tony slamming his fists onto the table and the glass "falling" over. LOL!

I'm like a freaking bull in a china shop. Pauls reaction was priceless though. I half expected him to slurp the shot off the table. That shit was expensive.

Just as I am sure NYJoe wouldn't bust a cap in my ass. Though the jury is still out on Joe.

Please rest assured that I wouldn't bust a cap in, on, or about your ass.

Just so I can make myself clear, I don't object to gays, the gay lifestyle, or even films that have gay themes ("Philadelphia" or "The Boys in the Band," for example). Those are legitimate movies portraying subjects that exist in reality. If such movies reach straight America and promote some tolerance and understanding, then they have served a useful purpose. I would favor a film regarding the indefensible murder of a gay in Wyoming by homophobic thugs if it would tend to prevent another such crime from occurring.

On the other hand, when a favorite subject and American icon (the cowboy) is taken and twisted to promote a political agenda, I must object. When gays refer to Brokeback Mountain as "the gay Gone With The Wind," then I must poke fun because someone is taking themselves just a little too seriously, especially when they go one to say, "if you're gay and don't go to see it, you are a bad gay."

I always thought The Village People were a hoot, because I was living in Manhattan when such costumes were popular down in The Village, but I still liked their music and one could imagine worse ambassadors for the gay lifestyle (like Barney Frank, for example).

My question to you would be how do you know that Brokeback Mountain doesn't promote tolerance of gays?

And frankly, I don't think that it's any kind of "Gone with the Wind." Gay or otherwise.

I just saw Brokeback Moutnain on Friday night and I have to say that I managed to enjoy it and was bored silly at the same time.

Having read the short story and the thread posted by Maggers I can say that I expected some flaws.

For starters I have to commend Ang Lee on a brilliantly filmed picture. The scenery, as in most of his films, is the true star. With Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee gave us plush green scenes and desolate deserts that fit so well with the narrative. Each scene beautifully crafted and stunningly filmed.

With HULK, no matter how bad the script may have been, Lee managed yet again to use the scenery to his advantage. In my personal opinion there is not a single director out there who can use the environment to the capacity that Ang Lee can. Simply mesmerizing.

In Brokeback Mountain we get sweeping vistas, sprawling land, blue skies and dusty texas streets. The film has a washed out look which conveys the isolation the two men feel in this film. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, this picture is hypnotizing.

The cast in this picture is top notch, not one poorly acted scene in the entire movie. Surprisingly Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries) and Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek) are competent actors who are miles away from their family-friendly, teens angst-ridden personas. Both actresses are simply amazing though their charcters are at the opposite end of the social spectrum. Both ladies deserve any accolades sent their way.

The subject of the movie is love. No matter how ugly some may deem the act of two men falling in love, the universal theme in above all else love, in it's most true and pure form.

The film is depressing, not a lot of feel-good moments take place, save for a few. When Jack Swift played by Jake Gyllenhall finally stands up to his curmudgeon father-in-law, the audience cheered.

Jake plays Jack Swift to perfection. He is endearing, sweet, and overall a doe-eyed innocent. He comes to terms quickly with who he is but is forced to live by societal norms. Even with a wife and child he looks for the chance to escape to the life that truly allows him to be who he is. It is in this struggle that his friend and lover Ennis Del Mar plays a pivotal role.

Swift can see his life with Ennis, the two of them owning their own ranch and settling down together. His ties to wife and family are constraints, truly ties that bind. The clueless Ann Hathaway is more concerned with keeping up appearances and doesn't seem to care that her husband disappears for days on end. She is unquestioning so long as he is by her side at fancy restaurants/dance halls. Ignorance is bliss.

This brings me to the tragic character played with oscar-caliber performance by Heath Ledger. Ennis Del Mar is a loner, haunted by the visions and hard knock life that he has endured. Ennis keeps everyone at arms length, too afraid to get close to anyone as his past dictates that if he loves someone they will vanish from his life.

He lost his family at an early age but not before his father showed him the body of an old man who was horribly beaten and dragged to his death just for being "different". He lost his brother and sister and was never formally educated. He settles into a life with his wife Alma and three children.

Alma is a perfect companion to Ennis' downtrodden persona. She is a housewife barely making ends meet through her part-time job at the local grocers while Ennis labors away with any blue collar job he can find.

When Ennis and Jack meet atop Brokeback Mountain a friendship is formed over several weeks. They see in each other a stark contrast to their own lives and slowly they begin to feel for each other. Slight nuances show the progession, from stories around a campfire to Ennis finally lowering his tough-guy facade. Eventually the two end up sleeping with each other and from there they spend the next twenty years trying to compromise a relationship.

What works for Jack doesn't necessarily work for Ennis and vice versa. The best they can manage is to see each other when they can, a plan that begins to deteriorate Jack Swift. His longing for somthething substantial can be felt and it is portrayed to heartbreaking effect.

The movie runs long considering the source material and could have been trimmed. What we get in return is a more fleshed out history which makes the tragedy of the film all the more heart-wrenching.

Is Brokeback Mountain a gay cowboy movie? No. It happens to feature men who are cowboys and fall in love. It is not garphic or pornographic. Of the 2 hour and 7 minute movie only 1 minute and change is spent on showing the men "together".

If this film earns any awards it will do so based on its own merit and talent, not because Hollywood loves a controversial film. Brokeback Mountatin is a simple film, beautiful, and sad.

I agree with your critique

To all those who are irritated to say the least regarding Brokeback Mountain- judge the film because you have seen it

and not because you are taking the moralistic/religious/condescending viewpoint that your values are right above all others

The audience I saw it with- more straights than gays (how derogatory to classify human beings in this manner), more old than young and at its end, sadness crept across so many faces


I like to think that people are open minded enough to appreciate a well made film with solid performances all around, a well written screenplay based on a short story coupled with sensitive, nonexpolitative direction..........

for myself, I believe no on should be killed for whom they love

My question to you would be how do you know that Brokeback Mountain doesn't promote tolerance of gays?

And frankly, I don't think that it's any kind of "Gone with the Wind." Gay or otherwise.

Again, you don't promote tolerance by taking a treasured American icon and twisting it into a vehicle for a political message. Take the same story, bring it up to the present, and have the two protagonists marry each other in Boston and live happily ever after. No problem.

Again, you don't promote tolerance by taking a treasured American icon and twisting it into a vehicle for a political message. Take the same story, bring it up to the present, and have the two protagonists marry each other in Boston and live happily ever after. No problem.

The book was in no way a political message and neither is the movie. Again, it's not even a cowboy/western movie. There is nothing in the film or short story that indicates it is a western. Yes, the men are ranch hands but it's their job in this movie, nothing more.

Ang Lee is not even American and he directed this film. He had no vested interest in making a political statement. I hate to tell you this Joe, but gay "cowboys" exist outside of the realm of the Villiage People. Here in Arkansas there are MANY gay people who own farms and ranches, who compete in rodeo and do on and so forth. They are both gay and a cowboy.

Sorry if 1 film has managed to decimate what you consider an American icon, but the film did no such thing. It is a LOVE story, not a western.

Again, you don't promote tolerance by taking a treasured American icon and twisting it into a vehicle for a political message. Take the same story, bring it up to the present, and have the two protagonists marry each other in Boston and live happily ever after. No problem.

I'm interested in hearing what political agenda is being pushed by the film.

Saying there were no gay cowboys is like saying there are no gays in the military or in a locker room and how can anyone prove it anyways. Gays exist throughout history and to think they simply didn't exist in the west is patently absurd.

BTW, I prefer the term hetero to straight.

The guys in "Brokeback Mountain" essentially took the job as sheep herders because there were no other jobs available for unskilled labor. One of the them remains a ranch hand for the rest of his life, again, jobs are scarce, and the other re-joins the rodeo, meets a rodeo girl, marries and leaves cowboying altogether.

There is no ugly twisting in this movie. It's a straightforward tale of people who love and who cannot be together and the pain that brings.

Larry McMurtry, a favorite author of many on this board for his wonderful westerns, won a Golden Globe for his adaptation of the screenplay for "Brokeback Mountain." Just thought that was an interesting factoid.