Topic: Brokeback from the pulpit

[Jennis]

From
Jennis.x



Brokeback from the pulpit
   
   
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain.

Apr 22 2006

"Do you know what it's about?," asks the young video clerk, glancing at the rental copy of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Rated 14A 135 mins.) on the counter.
"Yeah, it's, uh -" I falter.

"The only reason I ask is that some people took it out without knowing what it was about and complained the next day when they brought it back."

I look at her dumbfounded. How could they not know? It won all those Oscars (and has been the subject of endless quips in late night talk show monologues.)

Even my conservative church-going sister is familiar with this drama about the secretive long-term relationship between a laconic ranch hand (Heath Ledger) and a rodeo cowboy (Jake Gyllenhaal) which begins in the summer of 1963. Of course, she lives in Alberta, which doubles for Wyoming in the movie. She says director Ang Lee makes great use of the area's gorgeous natural scenery and is both well-acted and moving although she found the love scenes between the two men "a little too graphic" for her tastes.

As a middle-aged heterosexual male I approached the subject matter with some trepidation as well but by the end of the film I had to admit the emotions invoked make a convincing case for the argument that true love can transcend gender and societal norms and arouse feelings of pain and longing as intense as any union of soul and body.

Still, I wanted a more objective opinion and having admired Rev. Murray Groom's deft balance of the sacred and the secular in his monthly Jazz Vespers sermonettes at Sylvan United Church, I asked him to give us his take on the film.
"It's an excellent movie, well deserving of the awards it has received, and raises serious questions about homophobia in America (and Canada). My sense is that many men assume it's a 'gay' movie and are inclined to avoid it as a result. After seeing it, I'd describe it as a movie about men and their relationships - with their wives, with their children, their in-laws, their parents and most significantly, with each other.

"How do men care for those they love, including other men, even without being gay? It's an important question that every man needs to examine.

"There's lots of Christian imagery in the movie, from the relationship of the shepherd and the sheep to the confession of sin at the wedding ("forgive us our trespasses...").

"The more subtle point (I think) is the various allusions to the killing of Matthew Shepherd (a young Christian man, by the way) in rural Wyoming in 1998, who was strung up like a crucifix by his attackers.

"The overriding image is that Brokeback Mountain is a holy mountain, where brothers live in harmony, but at a cost. For one character at least it is heaven on Earth, a place for which he offers a heart-rending prayer of thanksgiving."

Rick dennis
 
Link to original source

http://www.cowichannewsleader.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=9&cat=44&id=634280&more=


 

[proulxfan]

Jennis,

Beautiful! Thank you so much for posting this. I have had the feeling, since my third viewing of the film, that there is a very spiritual dimension to BBM's "message". Someone on another thread mentioned the three telephone poles in the opening shots where Ennis gets out of the tractor trailer, and remarked on their possibly representing the three crosses where Jesus was crucified. Given what I have since learned about Ang Lee's statements about worshiping a deity, to use his words, I was skeptical about this, yet I still can't help but wonder...
And the shots involving Ennis and Jack working as shepherds also seems to have spiritual overtones. But I digress (as per usual!). Thanks again for sharing this.

[frances]

Jennis,

Someone on another thread mentioned the three telephone poles in the opening shots where Ennis gets out of the tractor trailer, and remarked on their possibly representing the three crosses where Jesus was crucified.

Although I found that put very interesting, I must agree with proulfax being skeptical about this.

Anyway...thank you Jennis for the article. I like, in particualr, these lines :

"My sense is that many men assume it's a 'gay' movie and are inclined to avoid it as a result. After seeing it, I'd describe it as a movie about men and their relationships - with their wives, with their children, their in-laws, their parents and most significantly, with each other"
"How do men care for those they love, including other men, even without being gay? It's an important question that every man needs to examine.

[Jennis]

Jennis,

Someone on another thread mentioned the three telephone poles in the opening shots where Ennis gets out of the tractor trailer, and remarked on their possibly representing the three crosses where Jesus was crucified.

Although I found that put very interesting, I must agree with proulfax being skeptical about this.

Anyway...thank you Jennis for the article. I like, in particualr, these lines :

"My sense is that many men assume it's a 'gay' movie and are inclined to avoid it as a result. After seeing it, I'd describe it as a movie about men and their relationships - with their wives, with their children, their in-laws, their parents and most significantly, with each other"
"How do men care for those they love, including other men, even without being gay? It's an important question that every man needs to examine.

Frances,what you quoted me as saying,i didn't actually say?Anyway,glad you like the article.
Hugs
Jennis.x

[tpe]

Indeed, interesting.

Thanks Jennis for posting it.

As for the 3 crosses, I must admit that now I am sceptical.  But it is an interesting coincidence, especially coming from the beginning of the movie...


(OOT: Jennis, I ordered 'The Man who walked Between the Towers'.  I'll tell you my impressions on hearing just Gyllenhaal's voice for a change, arther than seeing him onscreen...  (See thread created by frances)).

[Jennis]

Indeed, interesting.

Thanks Jennis for posting it.

As for the 3 crosses, I must admit that now I am sceptical.  But it is an interesting coincidence, especially coming from the beginning of the movie...


(OOT: Jennis, I ordered 'The Man who walked Between the Towers'.  I'll tell you my impressions on hearing just Gyllenhaal's voice for a change, arther than seeing him onscreen...  (See thread created by frances)).

Hello my sweetie,I didn't quote the three crosses btw.Seems to be some confusion with another post,but like you say it's an interesting article.
Re: Towers.I will head over there now.
Sent you a pm as well.
Hugs
Jennis.x

[tpe]

Indeed, interesting.

Thanks Jennis for posting it.

As for the 3 crosses, I must admit that now I am sceptical.  But it is an interesting coincidence, especially coming from the beginning of the movie...


(OOT: Jennis, I ordered 'The Man who walked Between the Towers'.  I'll tell you my impressions on hearing just Gyllenhaal's voice for a change, arther than seeing him onscreen...  (See thread created by frances)).

Hello my sweetie,I didn't quote the three crosses btw.Seems to be some confusion with another post,but like you say it's an interesting article.
Re: Towers.I will head over there now.
Sent you a pm as well.
Hugs
Jennis.x

Truth be told, I was the heretic who brought up the subject of the 3 crosses last January...

(OOT: I can't wait to get Towers.  It makes me feel like a teacher getting her semestral packet!)

[TJ]

In regard to "Matthew Shepherd (a young Christian man)," there are people who are Holy Spirit-filled Christians, including Pentecostals and Charismatics, in lots of churches whose sexual orienation is also exclusively homosexual. Since they are in the closet as far as the other members of the churches are concerned, those other members believe there are no homosexuals in their churches at all.

Back in the Spring of 1994, the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma was deciding whether to add "sexual orientation" to its city charter in regard to employment and hiring independent contractors and it would be included with the clause about discrimination.

The city's Human Rights Commission was in charge of the town meeting hearings where members of the community could voice their opinions. One just had to sign up in advance before the meeting started to get a chance to speak.

A non-denominational Pentecostal preacher stood up and introduced himself as the pastor of a congregation outside of the city limits and he spoke as the pastor of the church. While he had a right to say what he wanted in the fourm as a resident of the actual City of Tulsa, he had no right to use his job nor his church's doctrine as a reason to object.

Several other preachers and some of their wives even spoke before I did. Most of them claimed, "We don't have any homosexuals in our churches; because homosexuality is contrary to what we believe."

When I stood up, I made my own comments and I said that in regard to claim of "no homosexual in my church" that in some case I knew better than that because I had met some of their members who were openly gay away from their churches. You should have seen the shocked looks on their faces.

Back about 10 years ago, I was watching a live early Victory Christian Center's Sunday Morning worship service televised from Oral Roberts University's Mabee Center. Billy Joe Daugherty is the pastor and somehow he got off on the topic of how to recognize homosexuals and the "spirit of homosexuality." Billy Joe gave a long laundry list of things one should be able to recognize in homosexuals.

After he got through, I said to the TV, "Billy Joe, if what you said was true, you would recognize that there are at least two men behind those TV cameras who are openly gay when they are not in your church services." That service as at 8:30 am.

I went to the Family of Faith MCC in Tulsa that morning for the regular Sunday worship service. Well, at that church were two guys who had been manning the cameras earlier that morning. I had a laugh with one of them, David, about what Billy Joe said. Victory CC used the ORU TV production facilities to broadcast their worship services. The person in charge of the facilities was an employee of ORU and he did know the sexual orientation of some of the guys who were volunteer camera operators for VCC; but, he didn't care.