Brokeback Mountain Challenges Culture and Hollywood
The first tremors that Brokeback Mountain was coming out of the celloid closet began in late January 2006, as the film went into major distribution nationwide. After a slow roll-out and strong word of mouth, many people who thought they would never vote for two men kissing as MTV’s hottest kiss did witness the idea of two people in love who just happened to be of the same gender.
Those that came away after seeing BBM the first or the fifth time reported that the movie was raw, haunting and ground breaking. The first weeks after many saw the movie, just mentioning Jack Twist or Ennis del Mar brought tears to eyes of those reflecting on their experience with the movie. I had never seen this type of reaction to a film by such a broad range of Americans. Scores moved by the movie, bought the book, by Annie Proulex. Not very often can a movie tell a story as well or better than a book, but many people felt director Ang Lee did and won an Academy Award for BBM. But other BBM nominees were left out on awards night, and homophobia was the mantra of BBM devotees, including thousands who posted daily on David Cullen’s BBM forum.
Seldom in recent history has a film touched the emotions of a cross section of people world wide. It takes something very different or special to speak to so many. Love though is universal, and love triumphed in a big way over many other issues raised in BBM. Even movie reviewers got side-tracked by saying the main characters were sheep herders not cowboys, filmgoers rarely talked about such surface distractions that the reviewers debated for weeks. And some reviewers in a delayed response weeks after their original review, either corrected or retracted it. That was really new to American culture, the media rethought themselves.
It is to early to know if there will be a permanent shift in culture and societies perspective on same gender relationships. One thing I know for sure and Health Ledger was right on the money when it was reported that he said:”It was definitely like walking on the moon for the first time, but it wasn’t the butt of a mule. I was kissing a human being with a soul.” Heath Ledger on kissing Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain. Thank goodness Brokeback Mountain let people rediscover their soul.
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Mark Nash’s fourth real estate book, “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home” (2005), and working as a real estate broker in Chicago are the foundation for his consumer-centric real estate perspective which has been featured on ABC-TV, Associated Press,CBS The Early Show, Bloomberg TV, Bottom Line Magazine.CNN-TV, Chicago Sun Times & Tribune, Fidelity Investor’s Weekly, MarketWatch, HGTVpro.com, MSNBC.com, Smart Money Magazine,The New York Times, Realty Times, Universal Press Syndicate and USA Today. |
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The Weather Man (DVD) Review
Ignored by the Academy Awards, The Weather Man struck a chord with certain critics and audience members. Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski took the reins of this film which attempts to imitate American Beauty (1999) in its probing dissection of the emptiness of the American pop culture and its emphasis on materialism, fame, and artificially constructed measures of “success”. Writer Steve Conrad creates a world in which the title character lives in utter emotional depression despite having all the outward “success indicators” society craves. Oftentimes funny, The Weather Man is nevertheless a disappointment. The dialogue is often strained, and one leaves with the impression that the film tried too hard to exhibit the symbolism and depth of an American classic. It’s ironic, because the very societal acclaim it seems to condemn leads to its own downfall when the film tries to create memorable one-liners and symbolism that just don’t work…
The Weather Man follows the life of local Chicago weather man Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) who lives an ideal life by traditional American standards of success. His salary is in the mid-six figures. He only works two hours a day, and his job requires no thought. He can be right; he can be wrong. It doesn’t really matter. Meanwhile, he’s been short-listed as a prime candidate for the most desirable weather man job in the world, lead weather guy for Hello America, a nationally syndicated mourning show on one of the major networks. By most people’s standard, Dave has it made. But reality is a totally different picture.
In Dave’s world, he’s constantly haunted by his own father’s success and his desire to live up to expectations and gain fatherly approval. Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine) is a celebrated American author who won the Pulitzer Prize at age 33, a man respected by almost everyone in the world. But Dave’s inability to meet his father’s high expectations strains their relationship. In the meantime, Dave and his wife Noreen (Hope Davis) have recently divorced, his daughter Shelly (Gemmenne de la Pena) has taken up smoking and is enduring the pains of teenage adolescence, and his son Michael is the target of a child-molesting counselor. Throw in a bout of a depression due to lack of a substantive life purpose and Dave is really living the American nightmare. But the Hello America job gives Dave a reason for pause as he debates what course his life should take…
Snubbed by critics, I’ll have to agree that The Weather Man is not the film it held the promise of being. It simply tries too hard to provide deep meaning where a little less flair will do the job. The dialogue is a perfect example. It oftentimes seems that the writers were trying to reverse engineer a sort of memorable dialogue situation similar to the famous “quarter-pounder with cheese” exchange from Pulp Fiction. The result is an awkward and tiresome display of such lines as What is that?… It’s a frosty… What’s a frosty? Why would they hit you with a frosty? The audience is left with the feeling that it’s supposed to be captivated by such linguistics, but the result is the exact opposite. Nevertheless, the film is saved by a number of hilarious scenes such as Dave’s pathetic attempt at a spontaneous moment when he pelts his ex-wife with a snowball, the innumerable moments when Dave is bludgeoned with fast food, and one exchange of dialogue which does work when Robert defines the term “camel toe” for his son. Overall, The Weather Man is a decent night’s entertainment, and the film is not completely without value despite its feeble attempt to follow in the footsteps of American Beauty. One just expects more from veteran actors like Cage and Caine…
About the Author
Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The Weather Man (DVD).