No Sympathy for Jack and Ennis

Rating: 1/10 (23 October 2006)

So I avoided this movie for as long as I possibly could but alas I finally succumbed to the wretchedness which is Brokeback Mountain. I honestly cannot understand what all the fuss is about. Actually, I can understand the fuss. It deals with ewwww say it quietly *gayness* -How original! How fabulous! Simply Shocking! Don't get me wrong, this movie has a few things going for it- such as its famous director, pretty scenery, and shock value. But that's where the merits of this disaster end. For starters, I really fail to see when and wear Ang Lee cultivated any notion of a deep, pristine, true love with this couple. Maybe it was my inability to understand a damn word they were saying... perhaps their intense "love" for one another was lost on me in translation. People sing the praises of this amazing love. Where was it? I never saw such a thing. Secondly, people feel so sorrrrrrrry for these guys. Oh poor Jack, poor Ennis. Make me barf. You have to be kidding me. Two poor loving cowboys who just can't be together?!?! What a load of crap. Let's talk about their poor innocent families, that were destroyed by two lousy selfish good for nothing liars. Let's talk about how they were both crappy fathers and failures for husbands. I will say that at least Ennis attempted the right thing, paying child support and putting visits with his daughters before his trite little affair with Jack. Jack, whose moral fabric consists of wrecking homes and shacking up with prostitutes. Jack who is basically lucky to get killed before the 80s got ahold of him. I digress. Let me switch gears for a second and point out what is positive about Brokeback Mountain. This film does a FANTASTIC job of representing everything that is wrong with America. It succeeds in glorifying selfishness, while wrapping up dishonesty, adultery and betrayal in a neat little package and delivering it to an all-to-adoring audience so concerned with being politically correct that they just soak it up, believing this to be acceptable behavior. Where is the accountability? Not on Brokeback Mountain, that's for sure. I am saddened by this movie. But not because of some life-changing, mind blowing love gone awry. I'm saddened by the notion that countless people think that this story is moving and respectable.