The latest Hollywood blockbuster Brokeback Mountain has been released and its on the radars of a lot of people. Yesterday Milorad Ivovic published an excellent article discussing some of the issues raised, its well worth the read.
[Edit: 2005-01-13]
It has happened, apparently two North Queensland cinemas are not going to show Brokeback Mountain.
More interesting is a comment by the local Federal Member, saying and I’m paraphrasing here:
There are a very low number of homosexual people in North Queensland, so it won’t annoy many people that it isn’t showing.
Amazingly, he some how knows what the majority of North Queensland’s sexual orientation is and he assumes that only homosexual people would want to see a movie with homosexual people in it. By that token, surely homosexual people don’t go to the movies very often – since there are very few movies which feature a homosexual character, let alone that its part of the main story plot.
One day, maybe some people will grow a brain.
Thanks for the plug :)
I heard about this film on the radio this morning but didn’t really check it out. I agree, that is a really good post about Milorad Ivovic. Especially “the movie should therefore be banned just in case any children who buy a ticket for rape and gun-violence are instead turned gay by watching it.”
As if you couldn’t have seen this coming though. I’ve known people who would never admit they are gay in Whyalla, but as soon as they move to a capital city they’ll begin to admit it. People in small towns tend to be much more conservative than city people (again I’m generalising). For example, most parents in small towns don’t even believe a boy and a girl can be just friends, let alone that it’s not a bad thing to be gay.
If people in these towns actually wanted to watch these movies, they wouldn’t be banned (you’d never see it banned in Sydney for example). I don’t think this is a case of a cinema stopping the public seeing a movie, I think it’s more a case of a cinema not showing a movie they know no one there wants to watch.
If these towns are like every other small town I’ve seen, the statement by that Federal Member was probably quite close to the truth – theres a very low number of homosexual people there, because most of them move to Brisbane to avoid being treated like they have something wrong in their head.
Oh, and I thought it was interesting reading about Alexander the Great. It turns out he had a male lover.
“Gay” didn’t exist in the ancient world, they simply believed that man loves youth and beauty, and since anyone can be beautiful, there’s nothing odd about having a male lover. In fact the wierd thing about Alexander the Greats love life wasn’t that he had a male lover – it’s that the lover was around the same age as him, where most men would prefer someone younger. If it wasn’t for the church, “gay” wouldn’t exist in the first place.
Only quote I found that comes near that was:
“Maybe there are some (gay cowboys) out there but I’ve never heard of ’em,” he said.
“I mean, it’s not a profession that attracts those sort of people.”
From our ol fav BK.
Was that what you were paraphrasing?
Interesting fact is that people in Townsville at least are an extremely transient population. We have a large portion of the military here. Then there is the mining community which is highly transient. And those occupations could be in the city or country. When I worked on the mines people spent time in the city then months in the country on rotation. As for the locals that have always lived here, well I could only go on what I see around me, and they certainly come across as anti-gay.
BTW I lived in Whyalla for 5 years (76-81) Paul. Loved growing up there as a kid. Grade 4/5 teacher was as gay as they come, and never hid the fact.
Andrew,
No that isn’t the comment I was paraphrasing, though that one is just as daft. From memory, the paraphrase above was a pretty accurate representation of what he said.
Al.
No worries, I’m just looking through all the quotes and can’t find it.
Odd thing is, there is a film on at the moment, forgot the name of it for the moment. It has two gay guys in it who adopted a child. And there hasn’t been a word of that.
it’s cos its not a manly cowboy movie. I think their problem with this cowboy thing is that it “cowboy” stuff doesn’t sound like a chick-flick.
The fact that everyone is calling it the “gay cowboy movie” doesn’t seem to register, lol.
Or perhaps maybe the powers that be up here think it might turn the League team gay and might affect their chances of another grandfinal.
The thing that annoys me about this film, is that it takes two hetro actors to play the homo roles. Why not two gay actors?
I’m just wondering if Ned Kelly was gay, perhaps the copper actually yelled out, “Hey his weakness, don’t shoot at the body, shoot from behind.”
Andrew,
The movie you’re thinking of is The Family Stone. Not only are they gay but one of them has a hearing impairment; who would have thought it possible.
Al.
Reminds me of the bit at the start of Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy written by the author describing how he came about the concept. Coming across 3 deaf and dumb people who spoke no English (der) in Austria.