The Malcontent

Brokeback Galloping to DVD

What should land in my e-mail today, but the press release heralding the upcoming DVD of Brokeback Mountain.

Academy Award nominees Heath Ledger (The Patriot, Lords of Dogtown) and Jake Gyllenhaal** (Jarhead, Donnie Darko) star in the seminal film, Brokeback Mountain, the sweeping epic of two men who forge an intense, secretive bond, available on DVD from Universal Studios Home Entertainment April 4, 2006.  Ang Lee’s (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) skillfully nuanced direction, which earned him an Academy Award®, shapes Brokeback Mountain into a landmark story that is powerfully affecting. Also starring Academy Award® nominee for Best Supporting Actress Michelle Williams (The Station Agent, Prozac Nation) and Anne Hathaway (Princess Diaries, Ella Enchanted), this must-own DVD unfolds against the raw beauty and splendor of the American West.

Given the rapid turnover from big screen to home theater, there seems to be little in the way of extras.

• On Being A Cowboy
• Directing From the Heart: Ang Lee
• From Script to Screen: Interviews with Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
• Sharing the Story: The Making of Brokeback Mountain

We expect there will be supplemental features in a more extensive, later release. Still, if you're jonesing for your next Brokeback fix, you can head on over to Amazon and hope they update the pre-order page in the near future.

Oscar Clippings: Brokeback

Very slim pickings in this category, as the gay film of the year drowned in snubsville. When the vistas of Alberta, Canada lost out to Memoirs of a Geisha in cinematography, it was a foregone conclusion the rompin, stompin cowboys weren't going to be on the business end of Hollywood love. They were on the business end of another sort of "affection."

Still, there were moments, from the red carpet, to the western montage, to the three wins that salvaged the night ever so barely.

So, here I present to you the most relevant Brokeback Mountain related highlights of the evening.

[Watch video – 9:47, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 9:47, WMV format, low bandwidth]

By Popular Demand (and a Plea) ...

"I'm a little teapot ..."

Apparently some of y'all are just a wee bit obsessed with this whole "Brokeback Mountain" thing.

The requests have been pouring in for more, more, more of anything that is even remotely Brokeback-related.

On Friday we posted highlights of Oprah's interview with the cast.  But you wanted the whole thing, and here it is:

[Watch video – 24:52, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 24:52, WMV format, low bandwidth]

The picture accompanying this post, of course, comes not from that interview, but from Sunday night's Screen Actors Guild Awards.  As I mentioned yesterday, I kind of lost interest in pulling any SAG Awards clips when I found out that "Brokeback" had been shut out.

Ah, but some of you were interested even in the brief glimpse we got of Jake and Heath presenting BBM's nomination for "Outstanding Movie Cast."  You say jump, MalcoVision asks, "How high?"

But what was it with those two?  Were they nervous?  Hopped up on something?  I thought Heath especially was inappropriately giddy, even giggling through Jake's scripted comments about "tragedy."  And with that bizarre pose he had struck, I expected him to show us his, uh, "spout."

[Watch video – 2:02, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 2:02, WMV format, low bandwidth]

PLEASE READ THIS:

You probably wouldn't notice this if I didn't tell you, but the discerning eye will discover that the largest of the four clips linked above is hosted on a different server than the others.  That is because, as I have been warning for a while now, I have completely tapped out MalcoVision's ISP.  There should be enough bandwidth for the clips that are already there, but I have exhausted our storage space and had to scramble to find another alternative.

That, of course, meant another substantial investment in this site.

I can't think of another blog (at least one that is run part-time, and as a hobby) that requires the kind of investment in hardware, software and server space that The Malcontent has made.  We do it because we enjoy it, and because we want to provide a sort of virtual "hearth" for the gay community and our allies.

It is still my intent never to put a "tip jar" on this site.  But I do want The Malcontent to continue as a worthwhile home to the advertisers who help defray some of our costs.

So PLEASE, if you enjoy this site at all, and especially if you are a regular reader, make a mental note to click on our advertisers' ads on a regular basis.  If you keep them happy, they'll keep us happy, and the bandwidth spigots will continue to flow.

And while I have your attention, why not show them some love right now?:

The New School Bachelor's Program: "Design your own path of study, choosing from a wide range of courses, and building on all the important things you've achieved so far. "

David Rich Fitness Naked.com: "Imagine having two of the hottest DNA and Playgirl cover models teach you their secrets to developing a body that looks great naked."

Jeff Cook for Congress: "Put your voice in Congress."  And consider sending a little scratch his way too.

Fat Old Jewish Guy Who Lives In The Projects: "He's entertaining and angering at times too. 200+ visitors a day can't be wrong, right?"

And last, but most certainly not least, Gay.com: "Find a Valentine's date and SAVE over 50% when you subscribe to Gay.com Premium Personals. Meet hot guys online. Millions of active members."

This concludes the Public Service Announcement.

Oprah Goes Brokeback (UPDATED AGAIN)

Living in Chicago, it goes without saying that Oprah is our queen. When not berating authors who've duped her highness, she's also airing her show in my hometown long before it reaches the rest of the country.

As a result, we get to bring to you something of a MalcoVision exclusive. This morning, the stars of Brokeback Mountain graced the most famous couch in America to discuss the movie, making the sex scenes, gay marriage, stereotypes, and working through homophobia.

See what Jake Gyllenhaal did the night before getting naked with Heath, and what Heath had to offer.

Video clips deleted at demand of Jeffrey Friedman, attorney for Oprah Winfrey

---

UPDATE:

In the show's second half, Oprah brought out Tyler Perry and his alter ego, Madea Simmons, to promote the upcoming movie "Madea's Family Reunion," which is scheduled for release on Feb. 24.

Video clips deleted at demand of Jeffrey Friedman, attorney for Oprah Winfrey

Much more on Tyler/Madea at Rod 2.0 ...

Jay & Jake

Straight-vague hottie Jake Gyllenhaal was on "The Tonight Show" on Friday night.

Jay Leno kicked things off with a clip of Jake's appearance on the Food Network's "Molto Mario."  (We knew he was smokin', but who knew that he cooks too?  Ah, the perfect guy.)

Of course, they also talked about Jake's SAG nomination for that movie that I promised not to obsess over for the time being.  (I didn't promise not obsess over its stars.)

Whatever good Brokeback Mountain is doing to soften Middle America's views of gays must surely be amplified by this winsome, boy-next-door leading man and the No. 1 late-night talk show host discussing homophobia, and the message behind what Jake calls "the most beautiful story I'd ever read":

LENO: I read that this is the number-one date movie in America. …You know, teenagers tend to be pretty homophobic, a lot of them.  And they go, ‘I’m not going to that!  I’m not going to that movie!  I’ll turn gay when I come out!"  So the fact that it’s the number-one movie is pretty cool.

Very cool indeed.

[Watch video – 11:40, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 11:40, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Run, Run Now.

This is a little disturbing. Life imitates . . . ok, well, I wouldn't call The Day After Tomorrow art, but near enough.

*Antarctic ice shelf the size of Rhode Island breaks off into ocean.

*New Delhi is hit by freak winter weather.

*Scientists find the North Atlantic current is weakening.

Finally. Cuddling with Jake Gyllenhaal is no longer simply a desire or fantasy: it is now a survival imperative.

"Brokeback" Review: A Rebuttal

Everybody and their gay dog has seen and reviewed "Brokeback Mountain," it seems.  Because Focus Features is not yet turned onto the opinion-shaping powerhouse that is The Malcontent, I had to wait and pay my $10.75 (plus $1.50 Fandango service fee) like everyone else.

And most people, with certain contrarian exceptions, seem to like it quite a bit (Tomato-Meter rating of 87, at this writing.)  Count me in the majority this time.  I found it a beautiful and touching picture of forbidden love that struck a lot of chords with me personally.

Despite predictions, my own included, that straight people would shun the film, the audience I was part of last night appeared to be only 10 to 20 percent gay men.  There were countless straight couples in the packed theater.

These people apparently didn't get the memo from "MovieGuide.org."  The website, a project of an outift that calls itself the "Christian Film & Television Commission (CFTC)," predicts nothing less than Armageddon if God-fearing Americans so much as step foot in a theater where "Brokeback" is playing.  (This is the same group that sets up the current box-office battle between a giant ape and Aslan of Narnia as "King Kong vs. The King of Kings."  Care to guess which side they're on?)

I knew I could count on MovieGuide for a risibly hyperbolic review, so my own take on "Brokeback" will come in the form of a rebuttal to them.

Now Playing

There's something to be said for Box Office Mojo's truth in advertising:

Redefining Homophobia

In a society where homosexuals have historically held little to no real influence, where marginalization, bigotry, and discrimination still permeate many levels of the social order, there is a temptation to grasp any vestige of power, to use what gifts we possess to assert ourselves, to feel empowered.

On Bravo's recent Great Things About Being Queer, number fourteen on the list named the ability to scare straight people as one of the great joys of our sexuality and position in society. There is a secret pleasure in knowing you can unleash the forces of your homosexuality on heterosexuals, perhaps make them feel as uncomfortable as they might have made you feel over the years, perform a little instant karmic vengeance in a petty but satisfying way.

Along this train of thought, some gay men are reveling in watching heterosexual males squirm at the prospect of two gay cowboys leaving the horses to the stables and riding each other instead. When Mickey Kaus stated he did not want to see this film because he is heterosexual, he noted:

If a gay man, say, goes to see "Wuthering Heights," there is at least one romantic lead of the sex he's interested in! In "Brokeback Mountain," neither of the two romantic leads is of a sex I'm interested in ... My wild hypothesis is that more people will go see a movie if it features an actor or actress they find attractive! If heterosexual men in heartland America don't flock to see "Brokeback Mountain" it's not because they're bigoted. It's because they're heterosexual.

Citizen Cain responded:

Got that? Kaus isn't interested in Brokeback Mountain only because he wants to see women when he goes to the movies. But it's not, NOT, because he's homophobic.

Cain goes on to poke holes in Kaus' argument with plenty of disingenuous strawmen, but that isn't what interests me here.

What is fascinating is how certain sections of the gay movement have decided the goalposts of tolerance and acceptance must be further moved to satisfy an insatiable need for validation. It is no longer acceptable that gays be tolerated and accepted in the abstract. Now heterosexual males are not allowed to be uncomfortable in graphic depictions of man on man action or else they're homophobic.

This is a dangerous and patently stupid attitude for gay men to take if they care at all for the near future of gay rights in this country.

Sometimes a Movie is Just a Movie

There is a little back and forth happening in the blogosphere over the imminent wide release of Brokeback Mountain.

Mickey Kaus claimed to have no interest because he's a heterosexual (scroll down), Andrew Sullivan archly implied . . . something about this, and Ace of Spades took issue.

Here's the trick - it's only a movie.

Brokeback Leads The Globe Noms

Seven nominations to be exact. Among them:

Best Actor - Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actress - Michelle Williams
Best Director - Ang Lee
Best Screenplay
Best Original Score
Best Original Song - "A Love That Never Grows Old" by Emmylou Harris
Best Dramatic Picture

Oscar Loves Gay Cowboys Who Play Straight

These are strong heterosexual men, damnit. Ann Althouse discovers something terribly curious about Brokeback Mountain's Oscar campaign.

Notice anything? How about this one? And most absurdly. Here's the whole set of Oscar ads. Compare those to the original movie poster.

Gay cowboys? I don't know anything about gay cowboys. Have you heard anything about gay cowboys? Of course not. Don't be silly. These are obviously family men in a movie about a lapse in judgement. Whiskey may be implicated. Other than that, these cowboys (and actors) estan muy macho. Virile even. They loves them some vagina.

Good lord.

h/t (yet again) Dan, who reads the Internets so I don't have to.

Why Brokeback Will Bomb

Note: Update appended at end of post ...

Way back about seven years ago, I was engaged to be married to a woman.  (Shocking, I know.)  We were together for a total of about three years, before and during the engagement.

She is a great woman, actually, as kind and decent as they come.  We're still actually surprisingly close, especially given everything we've been through.  She might even be reading this now.

As you can guess, from all my talk about my husband, things obviously didn't work out between us.  The realization that my attraction to men was quite a bit more than a passing fancy was what ultimately did us in, a fact I revealed to her at the time.

But what I don't think I told my ex-fiancée was when I really knew, or at least began to know, that I was probably beginning a journey that would later end with peace about my sexuality, despite the immense pain it caused her (and others).

A Brokeback Documentary

In a last burst of publicity before Brokeback Mountain hits theaters this Friday, Logo recently ran a documentary about the making of the film. Though Mal may be off in a land far away, Malco-Vision is still here to keep you company.

In these highlights you'll find a synopsis, interviews with the stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, director Ang Lee, and the writers of the film. There are also plenty of shirtless scenes, kissing scenes, kissing while shirtless scenes . . . ahem. More than enough to tide over any hard-core Brokeback Mountain fan until the film's final theatrical release.

[Watch video – 9:04, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 9:04, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Brokeback-o-Meter

The excitement continues to build in advance of the Brokeback Mountain premiere (limited release Dec. 9, everywhere Dec. 16.)

In anticipation, I have added a temporary feature to the right sidebar: the "Tomato Meter" reading for Brokeback, as calculated by RottenTomatoes.com.  (The score is basically just a numerical average of all critics' reviews for a movie, on a scale of 1-100.)

While the critics and wild horses quite literally won't keep me from seeing Brokeback, I am curious to track the buzz in advance of Oscar season.

Also: See Andy's indispensable guide to all things Brokeback.

Newsweek Stokes Brokeback Mountain Oscar Buzz

Newsweek calls Jake Gyllenhaal's turn in Brokeback Mountain his "most powerful performance ever" and says the movie has "reignited" Heath Ledger's career, adding fuel to the growing Oscar buzz around the film.

Gyllenhaal, for his part, says Brokeback gives interesting insight into the male psyche:

After seeing the movie, Gyllenhaal says, male reporters will enter a room to interview him and almost always follow the same routine. "They come in and they're all, like, 'I just want you to know I'm straight'," he says, and laughs. If they've been moved by the film, he says, they often rationalize it by saying things like "Well, it's really more of a friendship." No, it isn't. "It's a love story," Gyllenhaal says. "They're two men having sex. There's nothing hidden there."

Meanwhile, producer James Schmaus says the inspiration for the movie's marketing and posters came not from the Western genre, but borrows from the approach taken by romances like Titanic.

He adds that the movie has already broken even through the sale of international distribution rights.

"I Enjoy Being Naked"

No, not me, although that statement may or may not be true where I am concerned.  No, that headline quote comes from Jake Gyllenhaal on last night's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien."

Right out of the box, Conan asked about the famous "Santa hat" scene from Jarhead.  "Powerful scene," Conan joked.

"I show a little ass, so people respond to that somewhere.  ... I enjoy being naked," Jake said.

Umm, yes, Jake.  I, for one, know where I respond to it.

See the full interview here:

[Watch video - 8:24, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video - 8:24, WMV format, low bandwidth]

BTW, sorry for the light posting from me today.  This is actually a day off for me ...

Howdy!

I'm not a cowboy, but I have watched the trailer for Brokeback Mountain more than is natural (watched, obsessed over, shared with the local priests - spot the difference, eh?). I have a minor thing for Heath Ledger, you see. At least, his attornies have advised me to keep it a minor thing, using strange terms like "incarceration" and "electroshock therapy" to underscore their point. They're a rather stringent lot.

Suffice to say, I'm pretty psyched to be here. I've always admired Malcontent's style, and I'm hoping I complement him decently, even if I do think he might be going all Fistandantilus on me =)

I don't plan on being overtly political at all times like I have been on my previous blog. This is a good opportunity to look at the wider culture, explore trends, and wonder why my friends don't send me gifts of men with ginormous penises like those folks do in Rome.

So, yeah. I'm Robbie, a mid-twenty something from Chicago. Good to meetcha.

At this point, I'd distract everyone with several steamy pics of Iker Casillas, but Mal needs to learn me all the html yet.

Raincheck. I promise. Hold me to it.

Finally, Actual Men

The trailer for Brokeback Mountain is finally making its way across the net (scroll down to the first comment after the link).

I must admit, when I first heard they were making a feature film out of this material, I wondered how they could make it work. Part of a collection by Annie Proulx, the original story is brief and full of a kind of writing as spare as rural Wyoming - it doesn't rely on ornamentation to be beautiful while still capturing deeper human truths.

When I heard Ang Lee would be helming the film, I sighed in relief. Not only is this a director familiar with gay material (The Wedding Banquet), but he is also a reverse Oliver Stone. Lee is a film-maker who never seems less than earnest. While someone like Stone uses homosexuality as a cheap vehicle for sensationalism and psuedo-controversy (see: Alexander), Lee always seems content to let his camera and characters speak for themselves. In this film, I think we can expect to see the sexuality of the characters subtly folded into their personalities, rather than propped like a gaudy piece of jewelry meant to draw the eye and shock the senses.

That alone is reason enough to see it, but there is something else here:

First Look: Brokeback Mountain

OK, well, it wasn't a trailer per se, but Entertainment Tonight delivered a sneak peek at Brokeback Mountain that was nicely salted with clips.

However, if you're looking for anything even mildly homoerotic, the screen grab at right is about as close as it gets.  You'll have to wait for the actual movie for the hot cow-poke action.  (It also should go without saying that there was no sign of Heath's tackle anywhere in sight [NSFW].)

The actual trailer will be tacked onto prints of The Constant Gardener, which has a release date of Aug. 26.

[Watch video -- 6.7mb, WMV format]