"Anti-gay right-wingers can flap their wrists in worry all they want about Hollywood's supposed homosexual agenda, but it's nice to see middle America paying to hear LGBT stories and being moved by what they see."
"It was a gay, gay, gay, gay night" according to Time magazine. Films with gay themes and characters did very well at this year's Golden Globes. "Brokeback Mountain" took home four awards, while "Capote" and "Transamerica" also nabbed wins.
"Brokeback Mountain" won for best dramatic picture, best director, best screenplay and best song. Phillip Seymour Hoffman nabbed a best actor award for his portrayal of the gay author Truman Capote. "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman took home a best actress honor for her portrayal of a male to female transsexual in "Transamerica," which opens this weekend.
The buzz about all of these films has been loud, but no film has netted the amount of press attention and "will anybody go see it" speculation than "Brokeback Mountain." In fact, BTL asked "will it sell?" when the film graced our cover last month. The answer is a resounding "yes," and not just in cities like New York, Detroit and San Francisco.
Jack Garner of the Gannett News Service called the film a "powerful film with broad appeal." He wrote, "For filmgoers open to the experience, 'Brokeback Mountain' is a deeply heartfelt and marvelously acted love story, with a surprisingly broad appeal and a resonance that stays with filmgoers long after viewing."
That's not to say some people aren't a little uncomfortable. Even Leonard Pitts, who has written some incredibly positive columns on gay issues, expressed his unease in his Jan. 9 column. "I find myself wondering if this primeval revulsion doesn't speak less to our antipathy toward homosexuality than to our fears about masculinity," he wrote. "I mean, while a movie about two women in love would surely be controversial, I doubt it would present the visceral threat 'Brokeback Mountain' does for some of us."
But he did see it. And he liked it.
No word on if comedian Larry David has seen the film. His Jan. 1 editorial in the New York Times poked fun at his own squeamishness.
"I just know if I saw that movie, the voice inside my head that delights in torturing me would have a field day," he wrote. "'You like those cowboys, don't you? They're kind of cute. Go ahead, admit it, they're cute. You can't fool me, gay man. Go ahead, stop fighting it. You're gay! You're gay!'"
Not that there's anything wrong with that, he added. He has nothing against gays. In fact, he's kind of jealous of them. "Gay guys always seem like they're having a great time," he wrote. "At the Christmas party I went to, they were the only ones who sang. Boy that looked like fun. I would love to sing, but this weighty, self-conscious heterosexuality I'm saddled with won't permit it."
Thankfully many straight guys are managing to overcome their insecurities. In fact, it's been reported that "Brokeback" is a popular date movie for gay and straight couples alike.
Of course, right-wing opposition to the film is ramping up. The success of "Brokeback" seems to have caught the anti-gay industry off guard.
"'Brokeback Mountain' is the biggest, boldest attempt yet by Hollywood to gain sympathy, if not outright support, for those practicing the homosexual lifestyle," screamed the Christian Broadcasting Network.
According to CBN News, "Brokeback" is part of a "well-planned propaganda campaign at work – a campaign laid out all the way back in the 1980s."
Actually, it was the right-wing power grab that took off in the 80s.
Anti-gay right-wingers can flap their wrists in worry all they want about Hollywood's supposed homosexual agenda, but it's nice to see middle America paying to hear LGBT stories and being moved by what they see.
