When a film generates a long, completely Off-Topic post on an opera newsgroup that doesn't especially permit Off Topic, and then gets cited by The Sun "newspaper" as a must-see film, you know it's time to mosey on down to the Ritzy.
I found it profoundly shocking.
I never realised that sheep exist and are herded in the USA. I don't think that Roast Lamb features very highly in the American diet.
I had enjoyed Shipping News, a previous film made from the writings of Annie Proulx. Note to self: read some Annie Proulx.
I have read a jokey reference to it as 'Bareback Mountain'. Hint, it wasn't in The Sun. But, actually, I think that's unfair.
I would suppose - despite all our supposed gay-tolerant credentials - a film about male gay sex would be unappealing to mainstream film-going audiences. But, actually, that wasn't what it was about. And the fact that the early evening showing was filled to capacity is no indication of anything. One couldn't exactly call the Ritzy audience as 'mainstream' despite its transformation in the fifteen years I have resided in these parts from pure Arthouse to intelligent-mainstream cinema. Heck, people were queuing and imploring for returns for "Time of the Gypsies" part of the Gypsy Film Festival...
So what was Brokeback Mountain about? Certainly not about sex, although there was some. Was it about love? I'm not sure. I suppose what came out most forcibly was the inability of Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) to communicate. not merely that he was a man of few words, but, to me, he also failed to do the listening part of the communication. Often we think that communication is about articulating our thoughts and feelings. We forget that it's equally about listening to the needs of others. And because Ennis wasn't able to understand that other people have emotional needs, he was unable to reach his own emotional potential, and thus, unable to reach the necessary level of happiness.
I'm not sure what it was really about. Probably worth seeing again, or reading the book. And if it couldn't have a happy ending, at least it had a redemptive ending. I think.
Perhaps the most profound thought it left me with was regarding the passage of time. I first moved to SouthLondon fifteen years ago. At that time, fifteen years seemed like an eternity - I would have been looking back to my eight-yera-old self. Yet, it seems like the blink of an eye. I haven't changed in that time - have I? There are people I have known throughout that period who seem to be recent acquaintances. It is too easy to let the years pass by with increasing speed, failing to take the opportunities that life presents. Not the career/success/money opportunities, but the people options.
I wonder how the film has gone down with the Religious Nutcases. I'm sure they absolutely hate it. More fool them...
