Trailblazing, but not likely to have many 'followers' on this verboten path

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2006)

What with fifty-thousand-plus attestors and no doubt at least hundreds if not thousands of "comments," my two-cents'-worth likely has already been entered, but, human fallible that I am, I continue to uppoint two conclusions I personally reached, to wit: First, that homophobia is but one facet of human phobias of the sociocultural, psychoemotional, and purely psychological varieties, that, to my mind, at least equal the genetic reflexes of flight or fight. The others, of course, are racial, then "religious," the latter "fundamentalists" constituting mankind's self-destruct today. Fear, of course, stimulates hatreds, which herein are outer-directed, foisted onto the perceived "other." I lay odds that within every homophobe there resides a closet queen. Or someone who fears "he" is. Second, on that assumption, the true "hero" of this tale is Jack, who had the balls to embrace his sexuality, and the "victim" is Ennis, who bought his father's fears and hatreds. And, in the cowardly purchase, sealed his own death-in-life, his final avowal of "I swear to you, Jack," the epitaph far too late and totally inadequate. Authentic "tragedy," in the classic Greek sense. That said, I, personally, found the film "true" and, ultimately, affecting. Would that the 'phobes could be reached herein, but the odds are long indeed. Finally, where is Ossana's co-credit with longtime collaborator Larry?