In which we are stunned...

[jesshartley]

I can't remember the last time I just gawked at my computer screen.

This is the most unusual (for Hollywood) topic I've seen come out on the big screen in... well, maybe in my entire life.

It's also fairly stunning to me that there is a segment of American life that is so normal and yet the idea that Hollywood would touch it shocks me. (the fact that it would shock me, shocks me, if that makes any sense.)

Serial killers, sure they'd make a movie about that. Child molesters, sure. Death, destruction, sex (hetero or lesbian), you can get that at almost any theater. But dealing with a comraderie and friendship that spans a lifetime between two men who are also lovers? I could not have seen Hollywood touching that. What does that say about us, about our views as an audience, about what is acceptable and what is obscene? It's thought provoking.

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/mf/frame?theme=minfo&lid=wmv-56-p.1379017-0,wmv-100-p.1379018-0,wmv-300-p.1379019-0,wmv-700-p.1379020-0&id=1808403312&f=1808403312&mspid=1808723306&type=t

I am so going to see this.

Comments

Another avenue

[carnaleminence.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen Gods & Monsters? Hollywood produced that and it's certainly not lightweight about older men, sexuality and American views on certain things.

Re: Another avenue

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Likewise I was going to mention this film, though it does have other catches to it - the subject matter, the mystery of his death, and there isn't a loving fully realized gay relationship in Gods & Monsters, so it's not quite an equal comparison. But such a great film! :)

[shetala.livejournal.com]

Me too. It's so going to make me cry.

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

When the premise was first described to me, I was certain that it was a "gay" remake of an old classic, Same Time, Next Year with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. Having checked out IMDB I see that that is not the case. In some ways I'm surprised, because it sounds like they're handling the film in a very honest and elegant manner. But it also has some unsurprising roots, which might be why it's getting made. Ang Lee is directing. Pulitzer Prize winner author Annie Proulx, who wrote The Shipping News, is the author of the short story that it is based on. And with all the controversy regarding gay marriage and relationships, the timing couldn't be better for pulling in audiences.

less than jake?

[jcomer2001.livejournal.com]

I was amazed when I heard about it some time ago, but hadn't seen the trailer till you pointed it out. Thanks. The image of the shirt in the closet is unchanged from the story.

This is far more profound and framebreaking than Gods and Monsters because it's not about Some Decadent Old Queen lusting after a Hot Young Thing; it's two cowboys who are lovers. I genuinely hope that it works as a film; Gylenhaal is a superb actor and a truly beautiful man.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Didn't Tom Hanks in Philadelphia kinda cover this? *shrug* been forever since I watched it, but I believe it was 'on the topic of'.
-=Jeff=-

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

I didn't see Philadelphia, but no, not from what I understand.

Philadelphia was the story of a gay man struggling to have his rights recognized.

This is the story of two men who become friends and lovers, then go on to have families who never know about this side of them, and the things they deal with both as young men and later in life; juggling the macho "cowboy" image, the family man role, and their own obvious love for each other in a society that says such things don't exist, that gay men are only drag queens or effeminate metropolites.

[sheriffjoe.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read the story by Annie Proulx, it is an absolute MUST. The depth of character and the feeling she instills that you are so much a part of what's happening is amazing. Buzz in the circuits are already mentioning Gyllenhall and Ledger in the same breath as Oscar. And, in the hands of a director like Ang Lee, who has an obvious passion for the material, I have no doubts it will be a huge hit of a film. Deservedly so.