Cinecast #66: Go Tell It On The Mountain
Brokeback Mountain: If you're tuning in to hear Adam and Sam play devil's advocate to the of heaps of praise that "Brokeback Mountain" is getting, you're going to be disappointed. Your Cinecast hosts may have found parts of the trailer unintentionally amusing, but director Ang Lee's movie -- patient, expertly observed and impeccably acted by a great ensemble cast -- is (you heard it here last) one of the best films of year. Inspiring for the choices its characters don't -- or can't -- make, "Brokeback Mountain" avoids sentimentality and melodrama to deliver a truly powerful story of ill-fated love.
Also on the show, Listener Feedback, Massacre Theatre, and our Top 5 Tragic Love Stories Preview.
Music by Candi Staton ... Cinecast theme music by Age of the Rifle.
Cinecast #66
:33-20:42 - Review: "Brokeback Mountain"
Music: Candi Staton, "I'm Just A Prisoner"
21:42-29:27 - Cinecast News/Notes/Corrections
29:28-41:24 - Listener Feedback (Munich, Top 5 Holiday Movies)
Music: Candi Staton, "I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart"
42:31-45:38 - Massacre Theatre
45:39-54:33 - Top 5 Preview: Tragic Love Stories
Have a comment or Top 5 list you'd like to share? Send us an e-mail at cinecast@cinecastshow.com. Or give us a call at 206-203-CINE and leave a voice message.
5 Comments:
My Own Private Idaho is MUCH better and move moving than Brokeback, which is easily the most overrated movie of 2005.
It's a good love story, nothing more. Heath is great, but Jake is not especially with that Village-People mustache!
I love My Own Private Idaho. I don't think "moving" is a word I would ever associate it with it, however.
Well... you're not the last guys to review it. The other reviewer I read/listen/pay attention to hasn't said anything on the subject. ;)
Sam just used a word to describe Brokeback that I'm not sure I would ever use, and that was "romance." Perhaps we differ in our definition, but when I hear that a story "is a romance," I expect to get a warm fuzzy feeling when I watch it. I expect to rejoice in the emotional completion of the characters, so that I feel like I've been romanced as much as someone on screen. I don't think that could apply less.
Or else, it could be a story "about a romance," which would be somewhat different. It may not try to manipulate me, but the characters could still be treating one another in a sweet, intense way. I'm not sure that that would apply to Brokeback either. Do Jack and Ennis have a romance? Did they ever? They have a longing. They have a connection and a desire. But is that a romance?
Given the number of self-help books that exist which try to explain to us the difference between romance and love, I'm inclined to say no. I don't think they had a romance so much as they simply loved.
In trying to describe to friends what the movie would be like if they saw it, I find that the truest thing I can say is that it's a measured, tragic story about love.
And were one to want to analyze themes, not just the love between Jack and Ennis, but the love or lack of it between their respective wives. And between the men and their children.
There's a moment in My Own Private Idaho where Keanu and River are camping out by fire and it moves me to tears when River and Keanu at long last embrace each other and it shows how much they long to feel connected and feel REAL love.
To me, Brokeback Mountain as an entire movie pales in comparison to that one scene alone in Private Idaho.
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