Brokeback Beefing Up [Hits #1 For The Entire Country]

[ruggerson]

So, what happened to the rightwingers contention that Brokeback wouldn't play in the Heartland?

Read it and weep, bigots.

http://www.variety.com/VR1117936467.html


Posted: Thurs., Jan. 19, 2006, 5:10pm PT

'Brokeback' beefing up
Cowboy pic rides Globe win at B.O.

By BEN FRITZ

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Brokeback Mountain' got a boost from its Golden Globe win.

Who says the Golden Globes don't matter?

Jumping off a big win at the kudofest Monday and helped by an otherwise weak field, "Brokeback Mountain" garnered the impressive achievement of a solid No. 1 win at the box office Tuesday and Wednesday despite playing just 682 theaters. With about $740,000 both days, Focus' cowboy love story beat "Glory Road," which was on 2,222 playdates, by approximately $50,000 Tuesday and $100,000 Wednesday.

That puts "Brokeback" in a very strong position as it expands this weekend to 1,194 playdates -- a significant boost from the 800-900 Focus was planning before the Globes victories.

Also bowing, and considered a lock for the top weekend spot, is Sony Screen GemsScreen Gems' "Underworld: Evolution." Indie distribdistrib Rocky Mountain Films will be aiming for a Christian niche with "End of the Spear," while New Line puts Terence Malick's "The New World" in a small wide run and Warner Independent debuts Albert Brooks' comedy "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" in limited release.

[rodeodance]

1. and many of the RW talk shows are angry about this show. too bad.

[Tight_rope]

51. This reminds me of Fahrenheit 911. Boy those repukes made Moore rich!

I saw the movie 3 times!

[Erika]

2. We'll see it this weekend

Yeah, the right wing fringe said they would boycott the show and its sponsors to stop it dead in its tracks.

Nice to see the results of their efforts.

[gauguin57]

6. Seeing it this weekend? Take lots of Kleenex.

Great movie. But, if you have a soul, you'll cry your eyes out.

[Radio_Lady]

7. It's sad, but I just got a lump in my throat, remembering all the --

unrequited, inexpressable loves in my life.

Perhaps it will touch you the way it did me. It's essential to sit close and get all the dialogue you can -- because there isn't much.

In peace,

Radio_Lady (Movie reviewer in Oregon)

[tmooses]

10. Yes Radio_Lady I was watching Brokeback here in Oregon with my wife

and quietly thinking back over my life of those who I had been so incredibly close to- and now don't even know if they are alive. Life can be so bittersweet.

[Radio_Lady]

11. The week following the preview of this film, I got word that a man

I worked with in the 1950s had a massive stroke and was near death. He passed away right after the New Year started. It's the first time someone I knew for decades and had a big "crush" on -- has died. I'm 66 years old, he was almost 81 at the time of his death. I hope he didn't suffer. Makes the movie all the more poignant for those of us who have a racked up a few years. Photo of the two of us in the 1950s. RIP, Skipper.

Radio_Lady in Oregon

[Skittles]

12. Awwwwwww.....Radio lady

*SNIFF*......those long-lost loves, they never leave our hearts

[ruggerson]

16. What's amazing

is how this film seems to be touching a universal chord in a lot of folks. Pretty impressive testament to the power of good movie making.

[rocktivity]

36. Remember what the right wing fringe did to The Dixie Chicks?

They got "Dixie chicked" so bad, they sold four million albums AND sold out their tour!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Dr Fate]

3. Dumb-ass RWers gave this movie soooo much free advertising!!!

The producers as well as Gay advocacy groups should send them all thank-you notes.

They always do this!!! Some Liberals made the same mistake with "Passion of Christ"...

[wordpix]

18. my thoughts, too-RW has done a lot to get this film to the the people

[Tight_rope]

52. And don't forget Fahrenheit 911!....

Michael Moore got rich because of these fools.

[Brundle_Fly]

4. oh no!

its the gay-i-fication of america!

to quote standard religious right larry king guest.

[Radio_Lady]

8. Who said that?

[goclark]

30. Do Freepers believe that

people that are not gay will turn gay if they watch the movie?

[boilinmad]

32. Obviously...

...your average RW christian fundamentalist male is having a heck of a time suppressing his desires, and making that CHOICE to begin living that homosexual life that he so desperately wants to avoid, considering all these temptations being hurled upon him........Right?:crazy:

[goclark]

45. They believe that they are hiding it and it is

so hard for them to live all the lies they live.

[Felix Mala]

59. I read a blog this a.m. where they said Americans are sick of

having this stuff "shoved down their throats by Hollywood." Funny, I don't see how millions of people voluntarily buying tickets to watch a movie is the same as having it shoved down their throats.

[JackieO]

5. whoa

that's an awesome movie, it deserves to be popular

[Radio_Lady]

9. Exactly. It's a wonderful movie. Make you cry and/or think.

It's love where you find it.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[xchrom]

13. maybe they should consider the public's need for something other

than a vin diesal bang-bang-shoot-em-up epic?

the public may actually have been desiring a good story well told.

it gave them something different to chew on than the fare they have been spoon fed for so many years?

a movie where gay folk are neither good or bad -- but just folk -- having their story told.

what a concept.

[NVMojo]

14. I wish I didn't live in the middle of nowhere in Bushland ...the dvd can't

come out any sooner ...guess I'll have to wait. And I am glad this movie did so well!

[xchrom]

15. it's remarkably good.

all the good hype about it -- i was prepared to be disappointed.

and i wasn't one bit -- but i like movies that show the little details of peoples live without answering all your questions.

it's a movie that will stick with you --

[The Roux Comes First]

23. Come on out to the Soviet of Washington

Don't get me wrong. I'm delighted to have what sounds like a potentially reality-based and thoughtful voter planted in the land of the red (and home of the afraid). But I count no fewer than 21 theaters in the Seattle area alone showing Brokeback this weekend. Just caught it myself this afternoon. First time in my life I ever noticed a male in seat next to me frantically digging for handkerchief as the movie ended!

I thought it a great movie, one I will want to see again. I admit to personal mixed reaction to early lovemaking scenes, which had at least a bit of implausible quality to them and I would think could be a challenge to many males raised in societies where intolerance and narrow-mindedness are the rule. That would include me here in North America, and presumably millions throughout the world. In terms of the movie line it was essential to get the homosexuality out there promptly and bluntly I guess, but it did come on a bit like that hailstorm. One crack of thunder and here we go!

One of the things that will draw me to another viewing is that I did not find the primary love-interest entirely convincing and want to see what I might have missed. It may mark me as a sour old curmudgeon, but I think it is more a matter of our culture not yet having enough symbolism and metaphorical context for homosexual bonding.

Anyway, gripping entertainment, terrific camera work, blending euphoric tear-making mountain scenery and gloomy tear-making flatland squalor. Find a way to escape to the land of enlightment.

[Felix Mala]

60. Maybe some group could sponsor special screenings in the

darker parts of the continent.

[smtpgirl]

34. Gee

Brokeback is maybe a love story. Doesn't matter who the lovers are. Why can't it be just about LOVE!!!

[Beausoir]

17. It opens in tiny Brainerd, MN tonight!

My husband and I will attend the first screening.

I already drove 120 miles last weekend to see it and am so happy that my little conservative town is showing it. (We are the town that wouldn't allow peace protesters to match in our FOurth Of July Parade. The ACLU stepped in and sued and all the town planners had to attend cultural diversity courses. Lol.)

Already, there are letters to the editor about what a "sick" movie it is.

This movie is anything but sick. It is a tender and heartbreaking story of true love.

Republicans are truly sick and evil.

[Radio_Lady]

19. Thanks for your update, Beausoir. I saw some of the letters on-line.

In the publicity business, even BAD publicity is good (most of the time!) :)

This movie is proving itself day by day, person by person. They were lined up two deep on Saturday, 01/21/06 to see this movie in Tualatin, Oregon. People are convincing each other to see it -- it seems to be working.

[rodeodance]

26. Hi Land of the infamous Humpadome.

I used to live in Mpls. knew a couple who once lived and Brainard. There are letters in the 'big' town I live in now also. But not many.
Keep well.

[Scout1071]

20. For those who have seen the movie, did anyone see a trailer before

about a lesbian love story? Looked interesting, but cannot recall the title.

[bigwillq]

21. That's awesome!

:bounce: :toast: :woohoo:

[truth2power]

22. I saw it tonight. An extraordinary film....

The theater was full. One couple walked out about a half hour in. Other than that, I think it was well received.

[LiberteToujours]

24. It was good ...

I just have one complaint about the current popularity of gay in the media. Why are they so afraid to actually cast a GAY person in a gay role? I hardly think that the acting world is lacking for homosexuals. So why the need to use straight actors? I can tell you why: it's because mainsteam America is still afraid of seeing two men be passionate with each other. We can only deal with it if it's "only acting".

Also, as a gay man myself, I can tell you that the first sex scene was the most outrageously impossible thing I've ever seen. If they'd used gay actors I'm sure they could have told the director that themselves.

[rodeodance]

25. It is opening up a lots of minds that no RW garbage can shut down--

The people in general are way ahead of the RW this on (and that is why they are coming out so hard, loud and mean on this movie).

[Hell Hath No Fury]

27. It's not that Hollywood isn't

interested in casting gay men as gay characters, the problem is finding gay men willing to take these kinds of roles. How many out gay Hollywood actors can you name? I mean A-list actors? Not a hell of a lot. I remember the outrage that there was only one gay man cast in a primary role in "Longtime Companion". The director said that he couldn't get any more gay male actors to take on the roles because of the stigma that is often generated when an actor takes on a gay role -- play gay and you ARE gay in the public's mind from then on. That happened to Richard Gere ("Bent"), and River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves ("My Own Private Idaho"). Not much has changes since then. Sadly, too many gay actors refuse to take on gay roles because they feel it will kill their careers.

[jackpan1260]

29. I think the movie is more effective by having heteros play the leads

I think one of the points of the movie is that you never know who is going to have feelings like that. If they got two guys from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to play the leads, it would have been much less powerful.

Plus, if Jake G and Heath L played the roles well, what's the problem?

[smtpgirl]

35. yeah to your post

from a butch, thanks for the great movie

[Bridget Burke]

39. If only gay actors could play gay rolls....

Then only straight actors should play straight roles. Which would be the end of theater, movies & TV as we know them.

[LostinVA]

43. I think it's because so few actors are out, and they wanted

two decent male actors who were decent draws. And, from what I've read, many closeted make actors run like hell away from gay roles. Just my opinion...

[mondo joe]

46. So should only straight actors play straight roles?

I think your gripe is silly. We got two actors who did a fine job. I don't care if they're straight or gay -- it is ACTING after all.

[VirginiaDem]

28. It's doing well for a number of important, positive reasons:

First, the heartland may be deep red, but it has many millions of blue residents who are making a point to see this movie on principle. This includes some straight guys who might have otherwise thought twice about going. This was easy enough to fill up the relatively limited number of seats available for its first few weeks.

Second, it's an amazing movie on several different fronts--it deserves all the praise it's getting and more. I used to spend a lot of time on ranches as a kid and the cowboy and rancher stuff was perfect. If Heath Ledger doesn't win best actor it will be a crime. Larry McMurtry was perfectly chosen to write the screenplay.

The story is universally understood--two people in love who are torn apart and can't reunite. It's a brutal heartbreaker.

It's perfectly suited to its time and place vis-a-vis controversy and topic: it pushes the envelope enough to generate interest and controversy without going too far. Which is not to say that movies about gay cowboys have to star Hollywood straight guys and not show too much humping but because it didn't it was able to draw in people who otherwise might have said "I support that and all but I'll give it a pass."

Driving home from the theater yesterday I really thought we have hit some kind of cultural milestone.

IMO

[Lisa]

31. speaking of Larry McMurtry -- Bush is supposedly a fan of his ...

After gushing about how much he enjoyed "Lonesome Dove", Bush can't take it back now without looking fickle, if not outright hypocritical! (I really loved "Duane's Depressed", and am delighted that McMurtry could be winning some big awards thanks to "Brokeback Mountain", if the Golden Globes are any indication.)

[Bridget Burke]

40. McMurtrey's Lonesome Dove is a great novel.

But much of his earlier work is quite different. Horseman Pass By (filmed as Hud) & The Last Picture Show are unromantic views of the modern West. And McMurtrey's set many of his novels in urban Texas, as well.

Besides, I'll bet Bush never read Lonesome Dove. He may have watched the miniseries.

[Lisa]

48. but I like the unromantic stuff too ...

Call me weird, but I enjoy it when authors take a more critical look at settings which have been partially formed (in reality, and in our imaginations) with romantic ideals. Margaret Atwood's take on the Canadian wilderness, for example.

Agree with you on Bush's "reading". I can well imagine him watching some of the TV adaptation (until he got bored), and then demanded that Laura give him "the good-parts version".

[Bridget Burke]

49. I like most of McMurtrey's fiction....

Especially the urban stories--several set in my own city, Houston. McMurtrey was still teaching at Rice when I was a freshman at University of Houston. His pal Ken Kesey dropped by on his bus trip.

McMurtrey developed his writing skills on the earlier novels--& essays & screenplays. The he showed what he could do with Lonesome Dove--which included adaptations of real events from the Old Days. (The TV adaptation was excellent.)

Some journalists compared Bush to a "McMurtrey character." People at DU were offended--he was NOT like any of the characters in Lonesome Dove. But Bush could have fit in to one of the other novels, featuring the seamy side of River Oaks.

[Lisa]

54. McMurtry does a great job of describing some rather pitiful characters

For example, what eventually happens to Sonny from "The Last Picture Show". Ironically, the actor who portrayed him in the movie, and in the "Texasville" adaptation, also played Bush on Comedy Central and in that excruciating "DC 9/11" would-be propaganda flick.

Yes -- I could imagine McMurtry doing a wonderful portrait of Bush in his declining years.

[Bridget Burke]

57. His son James is doing good work as a singer/songwriter

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore.

Lots more here: www.jamesmcmurtry.com/

[Felix Mala]

62. This isn't so much a gay movie, just as Million Dollar Baby wasn't

really a boxing movie. It's a simple human story with overwhelmingly good acting and a good script. People would watch paint scraping or leaf raking if the acting and dialogue were as good.

[rocktivity]

33. During the football game today, they played the now-classic commercial

of the football-playing horses waiting on a zebra to review a instant replay video. Then you see a pair of cowboys watching from a fence, and one grumbles, "This referee is a jackass." I immediately thought of Brokeback Mountain and laughed for an entirely different reason--I don't think anyone will ever look at two cowboys in the same way ever again! But I doubt if I'll go see it: as a straight, single, over-forty woman, a movie about male lovers sounds like it would be the OPPOSITE of entertaining!

;)
rocknation

[EndElectoral]

37. Great movie..a cowboy from Texas and one from Wyoming..just like Prez/VP

[goclark]

50. ROTFL ! right

Georgie really should really shut up on this issue.

Bet he watched it a hundred times.

[Hyernel]

38. Pudding sales skyrocketing!

[otohara]

53. ?????

what does this mean?

[Shakespeare]

55. South Park reference. n/t

[stepnw1f]

41. This Must be a Homophobe's Nightmare... that's whole GOP

I guess nobody cares about what the right wing really says. LOL!

[graywarrior]

42. Saw it last night. More interesting than the movie was

the mix of the crowd. Mostly straight seniors and it with two shows going at the same time, the lines for tickets were long. Theater has been showing the movie 6 times per day since it opened, all packed.

[Javaman]

44. I saw it, eh, it was okay. Nothing special. Frankly, I don't know what the

fuss is all about.

Personally, I thought it overly long, it was more a travel-log than anything. I think if you cut it down to just the story, it would have been just over an hour long.
I never ever got the feeling of chemistry between the two actors.

I think, in my opinion, what should have been done is: rather than have two straight actors playing gay men, have two real gay actors playing the parts.

Several of my friends who happen to be gay said the same thing. That they also didn't get the feeling that there was ever a "connection" between the actors.

One friend said, "It's straight America's introduction to gay life". I thought that was aptly put.

All in all, I certainly don't think it's academy award material let alone a nomination, but as in the past, controversy sometimes out shines good.

My two cents.

[graywarrior]

47. It was ok.

[hippiegranny]

61. My partner agrees with you -

she did not feel any chemistry between the leads either. She felt too that it was a straight person's movie about gay people.


Me? I loved it. I was touched and completely amazed at all the things it made me feel. We are still debating it and neither of us is backing down!

[Felix Mala]

63. When I saw it there were lots of older couples, but young couple, too.

(Straight couples, that is.) There were also different races represented. We were late and sat in the 2nd row and it was in the most republican town in the most republican state in the midwest.

[wicket]

56. Right-wing bigot I know predicted that Brokeback wouldn't make any money

I'll have to ask him how that crow is tasting! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[eyepaddle]

58. Excellent news

I am much to poor to see movies at the moment, but I am glad that this one is surpassing expectations.

Let's hear more tripe about how "fundamentally conservative" America is.