I don't think it's THAT gay... but the article is really good, indeed

Exactly. Is it a landmark? Yes. But it's also a universal love story, since forbidden love stories have been around since ever and all human beings can identify with that.. it's just that this time, it's not just adultery or social-economic issues, different cultures, etc. ..

Brokeback Mountain vs. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon


9th weekend


Brokeback Mountain $6,003,544 -8.2% 2,089 +435 $2,873 $60,102,890

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon $6,816,527 +34.7% 1,163 +295 $5,861 $52,982,874


Brokeback is still winning (now with a 7 million difference), but CTHD was in a little more than a half of BBM's theaters at this time..

The way I've always felt is that the story is not universal. You know being kept apart because of gay prejudice is exclusive to just gay people.

But the themes are not. Feelings are universal. Loving someone but not being able to be with the, everyone can relate to, just like most people would be able to relate to loss or happyness, or...

Thank you for posting this. Finally, a REAL review that tells it like it is! I have been kinda upset by the marketing campaign for the film. I have always felt the marketing "needs to come out of the closet." This revew took the words right out of my mouth.

"Did you hear the one about 'Brokeback'?"

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/ ... index.html

The DVD date seems to be April 4th, according to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?v=glance&n=130

Why are they in such a rush
4 months seems to be where the norm is headed but for huge Oscar players released in the last quarter of the year, the wait is usually much longer. And this would probably hinder its chances at $100m.
Edit: Actually if it were to reach $100m after that date, it should be pretty close to it anyway, like mid $90ms or maybe a Best Pic win will have affected it more than I expect and it will have crossed it by then.

Then again, I do want to buy it as soon as I can
Can't wait to see what specifications it has. Although it's too wishful, it would be amazing to have all 4 cast-members commentary.

April 4th? Crap, it's probably a bare-bones DVD. There are people who want real extras and commentaries, and April 4 is too soon for that. There isn't even time to print up the "Academy Award Winner for.." DVD covers.

Well at least it's better than the March 7 date reported earlier. They could still postpone it if they feel they can squeeze a few extra pennies out after the Oscars.

i read pennies as penises. sounded funny.

Freudian slip there bABA? You shuould see a shrink about that

That link doesn't work. I also did a search for Brokeback Mountain DVD and nothing returned...

Yeah, nothing comes up on Amazon for it.

As much as I love the film and look forward to owning it, and April 4th is my B-Day , I still hope they don't release it until the end of June and it gets an awesome 2-Disc special edition loaded with features. It will be barebones if it comes out too soon, and I don't want that. I'd be enraged! And I'd be f-ing pissed at Focus for being such morons!



Ugh! Comments on EW on the noms are annoying. I hate all of the BM negativity and Crash love.


Here are some:


From Zach:

Basically, i have yet to see Brokeback Mountain and im sure its a lovely tale, but to be completely honest, Homosexuality is something in this world that hasnt been quite accepted yet. But "Crash" is by far the best movie in this years categories, something thats true everyday on these streets, not just L.A. I just dont think two guys making out should be awarded, dont get me wrong im not against homosexuality. "Crash" focuses on real issues and has definitely seen me thinking twice of the prejudice ways the world has.


And homophobia isn't a real issue? It's way more of an issue than racism is in this day and age. It's not nearly as acceptable to people for someone to say something racist, but people dismiss homophobic comments all of the time. It's more acceptable to be homophboic. Brokeback Mountain is more important than Crash, and it's something that mainstream audiences will see anyway without a Best Picture win. Brokeback Mountain has to work harder for its audience.


From Wayne:

I have watched a LOT of movies in the past few years and I think that there have been few that made me feel like Crash did. I know it was a social film, but that did not stop it from taking the characters and making you care for each and every on of them. Everyone in this movie was so multi-dimensional that you truly had to watch the film several times to catch all of the small nuances. It should have dominated the Oscars instead of Brokeback Mountain. I am not against movies like BBM, but I can't see how this could be considered a superior movie. This, in my opinion is one of the reasons why so many people think that there is a "gay" agenda in Hollywood. BBM was a good movie, but "epic", I don't think so. You could relate to so many of the characters in Crash but seriously, how do you relate to the guys in BBM if you're a heterosexual male and why do have to be a homophobe if you don't. Sounds like we're a reverse double standard to me.


Umm, I can relate to heterosexuals and I'm gay. You don't have to be gay to relate to the movie. I think a lot of straight guys would be able to if they give the movie a chance. I, on the other hand, couldn't relate to the thinly-written characters in Crash. There wasn't much to them. There are so many that nobody gets too much screentime.


From KC:

I'm pulling for a Crash victory. It just moved me more than any other film last year. Just brilliant in every way.




From Ron:

In my opinion, Brokeback Mountain is the best movie I've ever seen. Never before have I been so affected by a film. I think that when the dust settles it will be a classic. While I felt the others were not even close, I did like Capote next best, and Munich was pretty good. Crash was formulaic and mediocre at best...I'm still surprised it was nominated, but Walk The Line wasn't. As far as Best Actor goes, I think the momentum is with Philip Seymour Hoffman. He really did do a great job, but I'll go to the grave knowing that Heath Ledger gave the best performance of the group. What Hoffman did was expert mimckry, while Ledger breathed life into a character that was but a few lines from a short story. Brokeback author Annie Proulx even admitted that he knew the character better than she did.




I don't see how a real film fan could not see BM as "epic" and brilliantly well-done. It is quite amazing; a sweeping love story that has Best Picture written all over it. It's an instant classic.

I'm not even going to touch his statement Crash focusing on real issues, but the bolded text is by far the most immature, uninformed, homophobic, and insulting comment I have heard all throughout the season. I'm not in rage. I just understand how immature someone would have to be to write that. How old is this guy seriously?




Who is to say that it is harder to bring to life an oiginal character than it is to ressurect and inhabit one that already existed?
How I hate people who separate "impersonations" from acting. they are ALL the same thing. I actually think what Philip Seymour Hoffman had to do was slightly harder than what Heath Ledger had to do. By saying that, I'm not saying Hoffman was better. Ledger infused so much depth and reality into that character. Heath LEdger surpassed the requirement for the role and completely made the character. It's hard to judge, yes, because they are two completely different forms of acting but that doesn't mean we have to discriminate against one of the types. As far as I'm concerned, PSH is as good as it gets for acting the part of an already existing person and Heath LEdger is as good as it gets for bringing an original character to life.

We live in a society that is not only heterosexist, but also homophobic. Anyone who thinks homosexuality isn't a collective hindrance to those who are (and that they're being awarded for it!) simply doesn't understand the basic social structure we live in. I'm tired of hearing this nonsense about Brokeback Mountain riding a wave of political correctness, that other films are being undeservingly overlooked because of it, and just the general masked (or unmasked) contemptuousness towards what the movie's about. Next year we'll have five completely non-homosexual related movies nominated for best picture, so just bare with it for a few more months.

Sorry. Try now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005 ... ance&n=130

Michelle Williams was lovely on Leno! Michelle and Anne do a better job promoting the movie than Jake or Heath, though Heath at least seems nice and isn't as dull and annoying as Jake. It's just that Heath is kind of shy. The girls need to be out promoting the film more. Hell, Linda Cardinelli needs to be on a talk show and promote it too. She was really good in the film.

Anyway, nice job Michelle! I love her!

I'm going to see Brokeback again tomorrow, finally. I've been wanting to see it again since I saw it the first time (during its second weekend of release), so I'm really looking forward to this.

Last week and this coming weekend have proven to be weaker then I expected. The nominations don't seem to be having much of an impact, probably the least ever. The PTA won't be much higher then $2,000 so it should start losing a significant number of theaters. It probably won't be able to stay wide through the nominations. Not releasing it on DVD March 7th will prove to be a massive mistake give how well it would have sold with the date. I see it finishing at 80m-85m.

Remember that after a bad weekend, you said the movie was going to make $35M tops with a BP win...

I actually think It should have $80-85M by Oscar night ( Sideways did $23M between the weekend after noms and Oscar night. BBM is doing better, specially in weekdays). And then, depending on how It goes, It could approach $100M.

Yeah, after that sucky Christmas weekend I greatly underestimated the way it would do the two weeks after that.

However, since then over a month I've been closer the whole way then the consensus. My derby really needed it with my T&I, and Grandma's Boy predictions. In any case, I think my main point about it not benefiting much from the Oscars has been proven with the way it's done since the nominations.



It's not holding like Sideways though. It's down 30% from last Wednesday which is unusual for an Oscar film that just expanded to say the least. It will get worse by Friday with the theater situation, so, it will be under 4.5m this weekend. Then it simply will lose theaters. Given the way it's going right now it really might just drop into limited release and a weekend gross under $1 million by Oscar time.

It's not just this movie though, the Oscar BO this year is really poor. It's actually much worse for the others.

I wasn´t doubting your ability as a predictor. It´s just that you have jumped the gun a bit before with BBM, so It could happen again. Maybe.

Sideways dropped 23% the same day, last year. And you have to consider in the case of BBM the fact that the drop is coming from the day after noms were announced. And Sideways was doing 385K compared to BBM´s 590K. Even if BBM loses ground on the weekends - still to be seen - it´s doing much more on the weekdays.

And Sideways didn´t get much a boost after Oscar night - cause It just won screenplay. What if BBM wins 4, 5 oscars?

Brokeback is rated M/12 in here... I'm in shock..

this CCE (our MPAA) is always full of surprises... lol



I don't know if you guys heard in the news about the 2 women wanting to get married in here... of course they didn't manage to do it, but now the subject is one of the main topics of discussion... we'll see how this goes..


(Oh, and I also think the movie is now being underestimated... but time will tell )