Comment on Broke Back Mountain
Sonya Jones forwarded me the links of some comics inspired by Broke Back Mountain: here, here, and here. I confess that the movie as well as the comics make me uncomfortable, but I wrote to Sonya that at least I would feel somewhat better if they referred to the main characters as sheepherders and not cowboys. Afterall, I seem to have some recollection from the movies that I watched as a kid that cowboys and sheepherders did not get along very well.
Anyway, I will be attending a gun show in Dallas this weekend, and possibly I will get some feedback from some real cowboys.
Anyway, I will be attending a gun show in Dallas this weekend, and possibly I will get some feedback from some real cowboys.
posted by John Lott at 3:26 PM
4 Comments:
Besides the sheep business, the movie is set in 1963 which I think automatically disqualifies it from being a legitimate cowboy movie.
Events that took place in 1963 that disqualify it from being a "Cowboy" Era:
o The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened.
o Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
o The US nuclear submarine Thresher sinks 220 miles east of Cape Cod with all hands - 129 dead
o The Coca-Cola Company debuts its first diet drink, TaB cola.
o Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union
o the Natick Mall opens to the public in Natick, Massachusetts. It is the first enclosed mall in America.
o Vostok 6: Valentina Tereshkova (USSR) becomes the first woman in space.
o Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
o U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and Vice President
o Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley
o March 5 - Patsy Cline, American singer dies
Good point John regarding the difference between cowboys and sheepherders. As I recall from reading western history, there was a lot of animosity between the two. The sheep destroyed the range as they chomped it to close to the ground and killed the grasses and forbs. The litter left by the sheep also turned off the cattle.
I personally think this movie should be banned and burned.
Of course, this was nominated for Best Picture. You could see that coming.
Hollywood is dominated with people with an agenda, and plain entertainment is not on it.
Anthony Hopkins in "World's Fastest Indian" turned in a stellar performance, but will not be recognized by the Academy. The movie just makes audiences cheer and feel good, which automatically makes it ineligible for awards.
I would not waste my money watching two sheepherders look at each other the same way they look at the sheep.
Dean's list of what was generally happening in the world of 1963 has nothing whatever to do with the realities of what was happening in Wyoming during the same time, and is a quizzical observation to make it the first place. The story of BBM rings true, for the most part,then, as now. To what kind of fantasy "Cowboy Era" is Dean referring? Little has changed in places like Wyoming in the past 40 or so years. Ever heard of Matthew Sheppard? What's with people that they feel they must somehow discredit the possibility / reality of two men sleeping in the same tent anyway?
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