Broke The Mountain's Back

My friends have offered up their feelings on the movie "Brokeback Mountain" and now I will, too.

Here are the thoughts that stood out in my mind while watching the movie:

1. Heath Ledger is earning my respect as an actor. He does a great job of seeming like a different person in nearly every movie; compare Brokeback to The Brothers Grimm to all those other teeny bopper movies.

2. Yes, I have an appreciation for acoustic guitar and vivid trips to the mountains.

3. I am not gay. I'm not gonna tell you who or how to love but that doesn't mean I'm gonna celebrate watching some dude take a tour through another dude's chocolate factory. Especially in this movie; You get the feeling that both of the characters had something of a lost childhood but I still expected Ennis to coldcock Jack when first their lips met. And I expected it for awhile after that, too.

4. Uugghh, more kissing? I am REALLY not gay.

5. The characters in the story are likable but I get a little disappointed and lose sympathy for them simply because they are never true to themselves. Ennis is true to a cowboying lifestyle that leaves him impoverished and lonely. He learned long ago the hatred and violence towards gays by the people with whom he chooses to associate. Why not leave those people behind to pursue your true joy in life?

Both characters remain faithful to the end that Greco-Roman wrestling and spooning up in the mountains are the first and second best reasons for living. Yet they both marry girls and have kids. Nobody is honest to eachother. Jack travels to Mexico on occassion to get his fix of man-meat from male prostitutes and Jack's parents tell Ennis that he even made plans once to move to the mountains with some other dude.

So Jack wanted the mountains with a nice guy. Ennis wanted the mountains with Jack but would never allow it to be a permanent thing due to lessons from his youth. I felt really bad for Ennis' wife. Jack's wife obviously wasn't too concerned. They ended up sad and I feel that it was because they weren't willing to work for what they really wanted in life.

As I am writing all of this "Cow Country High" stuff I hope that people can get the sense that I feel like I was part of a special time and place that I would continue forever if I could (not counting the school crap). In that respect, it is easy for me to get drawn into the dream of the gay movie cowboys and just be glad that my heaven isn't nearly so complicated as theirs. It's funny because over the years I thought of the "Cow Country High" stories as a tale of friendship but the more I think ahead of things to come, it seems to be more about freaky guys and their endless desire to nail teenage girls.

Maybe when I put all the stories together in a dimestore novel, I will give it a tagline like: In a world where dudes are ferociously battling to bang teenage girls, a few guys and girls were lavished with magnificence by a remarkable place and supportive friends and neighbors. Gimme a break, I don't have time to think of something clever.

It would have been awesome if this movie had come out when I was attending "Cow Country High" but it probably would have been more trouble than I could handle as I would have no restraint in using the film to annoy straight cowboys.

Overall, it's a pretty good movie but I felt like I needed a counterbalance to the gay stuff. Want to make out, Sugar Beat?