Sunday, January 22, 2006

My review of "Brokeback Mountain"

At first, I vowed NOT to see "Brokeback Mountain," because I resented feeling obligated to do so. I like to discover movies on my own, thank you very much, instead of having Hollywood shove them down my throat. For instance, I didn't see "Schindler's List" until YEARS after it came out.
But this weekend, I caved. I felt I needed to see "Brokeback Mountain" since it is now part of the cultural zeitgeist. I am all about the cultural zeitgeist.
So here is what I thought:
There are a lot of sheep in this movie. LOTS of sheep. In fact, the sheep took up like the first 30 minutes. There is a lot of wrestling in this movie. Since the characters are so repressed, they tend to wrestle and smack one another as a form of foreplay. Later, there is punching in the mouth. So sheep, wrestling and punching take up a good chunk of the fist part of the movie.
Nice scenery. Good acting. Compelling story. But eh, I am not so sure it is THE best movie of the year. I saw "Munich," "Cinderella Man" and "Capote" and thought they were all better.
"Brokeback Mountain" breaks a lot of ground and all that. It is also quite depressing so don't go see it in a melancholy mood. It deserves the hype its getting, but again, I am not so sure it is THE best movie of the year.
The sheep would probably disagree.

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