"The long-awaited film version of writer Annie Proulx's cowboy love story, Brokeback Mountain , opened December 9 to long lines of moviegoers in three cities. By the end of the weekend it had broken box-office records and carried home some of the first major prizes of the year-end season.
Open only in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—five theaters total—the Focus Features film raked in more than half a million dollars, for an average of $109,000 per location, the highest per-screen average for any movie released in 2005. That was more money in three days than the grand total grossed by such gay-inclusive 2005 films as Cote d'Azur, The Dying Gaul , and Gus Van Sant's Last Days . Van Sant was one of the directors who tried to get Brokeback made in the late 1990s and early 2000s, without success.
"This is an astonishing accomplishment and a real testament to how this film is connecting with audiences," said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "Brokeback Mountain is truly a remarkable event, and its journey and impact are just beginning."
Directed by Ang Lee (The Wedding Banquet, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as cowboys who meet on the titular mountain in 1963, where they spend a summer together herding sheep and discovering a mutual attraction they can't resist. The film covers the subsequent 20 years of their lives as they continue their secret affair through marriages, long distance, and fear of societal condemnation.
The critical reception to the movie has been glowing since its debut in September at the Toronto Film Festival, where it won the top prize, and on Saturday the Los Angeles Film Critics Association named it the best film of the year. The group also gave Lee the Best Director prize. Gyllenhaal and Ledger did not win acting honors from the Los Angeles critics; that went to another actor in a gay role, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote in the film Capote. (Advocate.com)"
"Oscar hopefuls Brokeback Mountain and Memoirs of a Geisha opened in only a handful of US cities, ahead of wider releases later this month." BBC Cinema News
Last edited by wowpow on Tue 13 Dec, 2005 7:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
The New York Times has dubbed Heath Ledger's portrayal of a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain as equal to the greatest movie performances by Marlon Brando and Sean Penn.
The stunning endorsement, along with many other exceptional reviews, comes at a crucial time for the Australian and could carry him to the best actor Oscar at the Academy Awards on March 5.
The awards season has just begun in Hollywood, so studios are looking to build momentum for their hopefuls before the Oscars.
"Mr Ledger magically and mysteriously disappears beneath the skin of his lean, sinewy character," NY Times critic Stephen Holden wrote.
"It is a great screen performance, as good as the best of Marlon Brando and Sean Penn."
Another highly respected US film critic, Peter Travers, also bubbled about Ledger's portrayal of Ennis Del Mar, a Wyoming ranch hand who falls in love with another ranch hand, played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
"Ledger's magnificent performance is an acting miracle," Travers wrote.
"He seems to tear it from his insides. Ledger doesn't just know how Ennis moves, speaks and listens; he knows how he breathes.
"To see him inhale the scent of a shirt hanging in Jack's closet is to take measure of the pain of love lost."
Ledger's reviews for Brokeback Mountain are in contrast to the boos critics yelled at him for recent roles in Brothers Grimm and Ned Kelly.
Brokeback Mountain opened in selected cinemas in the US on Friday and is scheduled to open in Australia on January 26.
While the film has received some early support in minor awards, the first big test for Ledger comes on Wednesday when the Golden Globes nominations are announced.
Despite being judged by just 80 or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) - in comparison the Oscars are judged by about 6,000 voters - the Golden Globes are given enormous weight in Hollywood.
A Golden Globe nomination and win are used by the film studios and distributors to flog a film over the Christmas holidays.
A Golden Globe snub can halt a film or actor's Oscar campaign in its tracks.
Australia has three strong chances in the Globes' best actor in a drama category with Ledger, Eric Bana (Munich) and Russell Crowe (Cinderella Man).
Bana's Munich is directed by Steven Spielberg, a favourite of the HFPA and the Academy.
Munich, about the 1972 terrorist attack on the Munich Olympics which killed 11 Israeli athletes, is Spielberg's first heavy drama since 1993's Schindler's List, which won him a Globe and Oscar.
Bana plays an Israeli Mossad agent charged with tracking down and assassinating the Palestinian terrorists.
Viewers of early Munich screenings gave Bana's performance a mixed review and said it was nowhere near the quality of Ledger's performance.
Of great interest will be if Crowe gains a nod from Golden Globes voters.
The New Zealand-born actor's phone throwing incident in a Manhattan hotel foyer could cost him a Globe nomination and a chance to fire up his Oscar campaign.
Universal Pictures has not given up, filling major US newspapers with large ads plugging Crowe's role as Depression-era heavyweight boxing champion, James Braddock.
Naomi Watts is Australia's only strong chance for an actress nomination for King Kong.
Watts, playing the actress Ann Darrow who falls for a giant gorilla, gave a performance "played with heart and panache", according to the Chicago Tribune.
Other potential Australian Globes film nominees include Geoffrey Rush for his supporting role in Munich, Toni Collette for supporting actress in In Her Shoes, and Roger Donaldson for directing Anthony Hopkins in The World's Fastest Indian.
The Golden Globes also honour television.
Julian McMahon was nominated for best actor in a drama series last year for Nip/Tuck and this year is a strong chance to get another invite. He will likely face up with Without a Trace's Anthony LaPaglia.
"Exclusive outtakes from our interview with movie star Jake Gyllenhaal—who plays a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.
Bruce Shenitz
In the October issue of Out, we mentioned that there would be nude photos from Brokeback Mountain on Out.com. It turns out that these photos were unofficial, and thus cannot be placed on this Web site. We apologize for misleading any of the magazine’s readers.
Two years ago, Out named Jake Gyllenhaal as “Hottest Straight Guy We Wish Was Gay.” Well, he hasn’t jumped the fence, but he is playing a gay cowboy in the movie Brokeback Mountain, which opens in December. We profile Jake in our October issue, and below are exclusive outtakes from the interview, which took place in New York City.
This has been a busy year for you, with three major movies [Proof, Jarhead, and Brokeback Mountain] coming out. What are you doing in New York?
I’ve had the past couple of months off. I finished filming this movie Jarhead, and then I sort of took time off. I’ve been hanging out with my friends. I haven’t really made it out to Martha’s Vineyard that often. I sort of grew up there. All my best friends grew up there. It’s a place we all go, or try to get back to wherever we are. I’ve grown up there.
Silom wrote:I keep mispronouncing it "Bareback Mountain". It must be my Freudian slip.
Me too!! :lol:
But I'm off to see it tonight. Review tomorrow.
LOTS of gay cowboys here in BC ... "they" have a huge travelling rodeo which moves into these parts every so often. It's my impression (not confirmed!) that those boys stuff their bandanas down the front of ridiculously tight Levis (actually "Wranglers" so I've been told) for some reason. These dudes don't know the meaning of "loose fitting".
Silom wrote:I keep mispronouncing it "Bareback Mountain". It must be my Freudian slip.
You are perhaps think of Borodin's classic Night on Bare Mountain?
“Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.” - Seneca
Silom wrote:I keep mispronouncing it "Bareback Mountain". It must be my Freudian slip.
You are perhaps thinking of Borodin's classic Night on Bare Mountain?
Ten Degrees of Seperation:
Night on Bald (Bare) Mountain was written by Modest Moussorgsky (Not Alexander Borodin. Borodin wrote Prince Igor.). Modest is better known for the Sanitary Napkin named for him; after which was named a Duchess well known for baring her mountain.
However; Moussorgsky once spent a bare night on Borodin.
Nikolay (AKA: Nickle Lay; He only charged five cents--Times were tough.) Rimsky-Korsekov wrote an opera about that night: Le Coq d'Or, Choreography bu Michel Fokine. Fokine! Fokine? "No, just watching television!"
Leno tonight: Ang Lee's next movie is about two gay plumbers who fall in love.
It's called Buttcrack Mountain. :oops:
`....Now I know how Joan of Arc felt,
As the flames rose to her Roman nose,
And her Walkman started to melt....'
'Bigmouth Strikes Again'
****************************************
Now reading: China Boy - By Gus Lee (Because I love the name, Gus.
****************************************
Only Irish coffee provides, in a single glass, the four essential food groups: alcohol, coffee, sugar and fat.
Edith wrote:Night on Bald (Bare) Mountain was written by Modest Moussorgsky (Not Alexander Borodin. Borodin wrote Prince Igor.)
I stand corrected. Bald Mountain, eh? Must have been named after oneself. I do have a cousin who was deeply disappointed to find that Lord of the Rings was not a cinematic piece of gay pornography
“Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.” - Seneca
No wonder Hedda can't stand you Edith :lol: ... is nothing sacred!?
Anyway, damnit but I guess Vancouver is not the Gay Central I thought it was, the damn movie isn't even playing here yet. I was all set last night ... what a hick town.
Have to make do with the ads I guess ... here's one with a nice sideways bucking basket (on Heath Ledger). Not the greatest side-on of Jake ... he looks better up close & personal.
homintern wrote: I stand corrected. Bald Mountain, eh? Must have been named after oneself. I do have a cousin who was deeply disappointed to find that Lord of the Rings was not a cinematic piece of gay pornography
Sorry did not mean to differ: some translations say, "Bare," some say, "Bald." Therefore, you can say you have a piece (Of music) named for you. :D
BTW: One of 'those' rings was the only wedding band I ever had!...And the cheap SOB gave me an imitation (Unborn naugahide.) leather one! Not that I should complain: it was a double-ring ceremony--But mine had to be cut off: he was even to cheap to spring for one with snaps!...But he was a ten: divorce number ten. I dumped the other twenty-two. In South Dakota. A long drive but there's a lot of deep pits there.
PS:
Smiles, I didn't claim credit for Buttcrack Mountain--And, yes, nothing is sacred. Umm...Hedda?... Hedda who?
PPS:
There was an earlier gay cowboy movie--But maybe one had to be gay to spot the relationship between John Wayne & Montgomery Clift in Red River. (Though it's been told, those who worked with them spoted the off-screen 'goings on.')
A gay mag (Advocate?) ran an article claiming Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid were lovers--But after seeing their photos the first thing that came to mind was, 'Love would have to be blind!'
And then you turn the page--And there's a photo of the real-life Emma! Suddenly the story wasn't so ludicrous: that old broad could cook naked in a logging camp full of serial rapists!
`....Now I know how Joan of Arc felt,
As the flames rose to her Roman nose,
And her Walkman started to melt....'
'Bigmouth Strikes Again'
****************************************
Now reading: China Boy - By Gus Lee (Because I love the name, Gus.
****************************************
Only Irish coffee provides, in a single glass, the four essential food groups: alcohol, coffee, sugar and fat.
"We didn't want to sit there and go through the motions. The rest was just convincing ourselves of the love and committing to it 100%. Anything less wouldn't have done justice to the story."
—Heath Ledger on his role
in Brokeback Mountain,
The Advocate, January 17, 2006
Heath Ledger wrote:We didn't want to sit there and go through the motions
Oh, so it's "scat" movie :lol:
“Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.” - Seneca
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