Alicia and I went to the theatre and saw Brokeback Mountain tonight. It’s a big deal for us to even go to the theatre because neither of us really likes the experience. I think we went once or twice in all of 2005. But this movie has gotten a lot of press, including being featured on Oprah today, which motivated us to see it.
Alicia seems to have really enjoyed it. More than I did anyways. I thought it was a well made movie, but one thing bothered me throughout the whole movie. It bothered me that they portrayed love as something that has to be sexual. Love is not wanting or needing to possess the another person, that is lust. I want to be the kind of person who can love someone, pursue their best, even be affectionate to them, without it being sexual or without one person trying to possess the other. This movie is closer to most people’s realities than my ideals. Hollywood has incredible power, I just wish that would use it to inspire us to rise above our own mess more often.
Of course most of the publicity about the movie focuses on the idea of two masculine men being lovers. I’m not homophobic(I got over that in college), so there wasn’t shock value to it for me. It was sad that they wanted to be together and society made it unacceptable. But it was equally as sad to me that neither of them really learned to love anyone well(although you saw the first hint of it with his daughter at the end).
I like what you have to say, and I agree!