Page 1 / 2 - Home

Our own Joey Guerra waxed emotional, even metaphysical. “At its tender, tragic heart, Brokeback Mountain is a quietly powerful portrait of repression, identity, trust and truth...You’re likely made of stone if something in this haunting film doesn’t move you deeply, make you think or touch your soul.”

Television has also caught Brokeback Fever, too. Ebert & Roeper give Brokeback Mountain two thumps up, with Ebert gushing, “Brokeback Mountain has Oscar nominations written all over it.”  Roeper concurs and advises, “There’s going to be a lot written and said on the talk shows, and whatever, that this is a gay love story. You know what? Get over it! This is a beautiful love story--a beautiful film, with great writing.”

Entertainment Tonight noted, “This may just be Gyllenhaal’s season.  His bravado performance in Jarhead, combined with his risky role as a gay cowpoke opposite Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, has Oscar written all over it.”

So what has Conservative America said and written about the movie that puts the “poke” in cowpoke? Surprisingly little. The right wing’s silence has been deafening. 

Over at movieguide.org, a site run by the Christian Film & Television Commission: a ministry dedicated to redeeming the values of the mass media according to biblical principles, Dr. Ted Baehr doesn’t review Brokeback Mountain, he simply observes, “The elite in Hollywood are giving the movie rave reviews, so expect it to be a big part of next year’s Oscar ceremony on global television.”

Focus on the Family Action Analyst Caleb H. Price remarked, “Hollywood is calling it an achingly beautiful love story. But I don’t see it that way.  You see two characters obsessed with a kind of bondage that they don’t know what to do with…And they both end up experiencing tragic consequences in their lives.”

So where are Conservative America’s boisterous boycotts, condemning commentaries and parading picketers?  Shouldn’t Pat Robertson be blaming the latest natural disaster on God’s displeasure with the release of Brokeback Mountain?

Apparently right-wing Christian groups are hoping to kill Brokeback softly with silence.

According to Robert Knight, director of the Culture & Family Institute at the Concerned Women for America, “This is not The Last Temptation of Christ, which was such an affront that people felt they had to respond. This is something that could be and should be ignored.”

Echoing Knight, Dick Rolfe of the Dove Foundation cautions, “If Christians protest too loudly, they can end up…calling attention to a movie that may otherwise not do too well….we have to be careful not to use our anger strategies to a point where they boomerang on us.”

To this, conservative radio host and movie reviewer, Michael Medved adds, “I could be wrong on this, but I just don’t see a lot of agitation in the cultural conservative community about Brokeback Mountain.”

Will the relative silence of the Christian lambs effectively nip Brokeback Mountain in its box office bud?  Probably not. The silent treatment might work with lesser films such as Making Love and Personal Best.  But the avalanche of critical praise for Brokeback, combined with its festival and film critics’ awards, have pre-heated to perfection the movie’s box office. And Hollywood can hardly resist the temptation to bitch slap conservatives by letting Brokeback Mountain ride into the sunset, and the history books, with an armload of Oscars.

Rather than considering Brokeback to be a gay cowboy movie, reviewers have largely concurred with Big Picture Big Sound critic Adina Konits who sees the film as Ang Lee’s attempt “to understand the mysterious and uncontrollable nature of love.” Others agree with Lee who simply dubs his movie “a great American love story.”

The motion picture industry was built on a foundation of ballyhoo and hyperbole. Even so, our major reviewers use words such as “landmark,” “majestic” and “revelatory” sparingly. They infrequently proclaim any film “practically perfect.” And does anyone remember the New York Times ever dubbing a performance “as good as the best of Brando?”

In its wildest dreams, the gay community could not have imagined a better, more supportive mainstream media response to Brokeback Mountain.

By its near silence, the conservative media have virtually rolled over and played dead for what may well be the best-reviewed motion picture of 2005. At least, for now.

Page 1 / 2 - Home