Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Brokeback Mountain / USA / 2005

I don’t know what’s more jaw dropping in this film, the exquisitely shot mountain ranges or Heath Ledger actually acting. A. Lee manages to nail the consistent air of loneliness and melancholy that made the Proulx short story so memorable.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35mm Theatrical Print
11 Dec 2005 2:15 AM | Comments (3)

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1. Conor Dunphy / 28 May 2006 / 3:13 AM / URL

   What Lee failed to do was make a happy ending. The young actor who played opposite Ledger feel in love with a man and a woman. A polygamous relationship ended in untimely death or murder. How much nicer was Spike Lee’s treatment of this plot in She Hate Me? Much I say much.

2. strjh02@moravian.com / 28 May 2006 / 5:27 PM

   I haven’t seen She Hate Me (and certainly don’t intend to – every great filmmaker gets a pass for at least one horrendous movie, and why tarnish Do the Right Thing or 25th Hour?) – but what does the happy ending have to do with anything, really? A) It doesn’t, at least on it’s own, and B) as a faithful adaptation of the short story, what did you expect? DId Clint Eastwood similarly fail in not providing a happy ending to Million Dollar Baby?

3. Conor Dunphy / 30 May 2006 / 6:24 AM / URL

   tragedy is one thing Hollywood is not good at, depending on the director. fumbling is one thing Spike Lee is good at—i’ll give you that.

   by hollywood I mean the american super movies that i have seen. by super i mean nationally distributed. by nationally i mean further than NY, LA, SEA.

   hit the “deck” because i am about to say something about Million Dollar Baby. it was a good tragedy. a pugilist turns in on herself after accomplishing some fine victories and, what’s more, her coach helps her draw to a close. i will not say clint eastwood is a bad director. million dollar baby was a great movie for me.

   but that was not a period piece. ang lee had a more precise project because of the trans-historical nature of the movie. he had to be faithful to the mores of the time as he knows them. and in as far as both protagonists were confused post-Eisenhower Truman babies on the outskirts of JFK’s Camelot, he did a good job of representing their sociological growth and humanity.

   Spike Lee was six years old when the action of Brokeback Mountain began. As an African American he was no doubt familiar with the city and the heaviness of the Eisenhower administration. You may not agree that his portrayal of the same plot all those years later was worthy of ten dollars but you cannot argue that he circumvented Hollywood’s Greco-Roman penchant for suffering heroes. Can you?

   I didn’t know you could tarnish films. Don’t they decompose all by themself!