Contradictions and vindications

Rating: 2/10 (2 March 2006)

sometimes it becomes a hard task trying to find out what lies beneath the surface of a film dealing with gay issues. Me being gay myself I may have more of a hard time trying to uncover the hidden, real intentions, because I believe the only way to accomplish this is by putting aside one's own vindications. This might be quite an issue for gay activists and for those common straight people whose passive acceptance/no real understanding of other's gay identity goes far beyond critical rationality. Ang Lee tries to permeate the message of gay love between two lads with muscles and a beautiful mountain scenery (Canadian mountains! Ang, I guess you never heard of the existence of - some even handsome - Canadian cowboys?). That's way too easy. Basically, it really seems that the whole plot was based on:
1) sexual unrestraint So it's not love, it's passion. It's two testosteronic machos who can't wait to meet each other and do fireworks with their hormones under the stars. It's a great picture, really, but at one condition: that you clearly acknowledge that it's a result of passion, of masculine, wonderful passion. Seeing it as love is a fraud.
2) "I didn't choose that" attitude Who cares? It is likely that their respective wives wouldn't choose them, had they been told the truth right from the start. Fear and social ostracism aren't good enough as an excuse to ruin or sadden a woman's life. And this, regardless of a woman wanting a husband just to respond to a biological, ancestral call or for real love. And you see, this is even more true when one, as a gay, feels the very same need to answer his biological, ancestral needs... It is somewhat hard to conceive a married couple where both or one of the twos lie and/or hide things. Could it be that life can even be used in order to grow and become mature adults? And how can this be accomplished if fear prevents honesty from blooming out of our hearts? Whatever the result, even divorce, is better than living in secret (and she finally divorced, in fact). Ennis' wife wasn't maybe a very open minded woman but one thing is for sure: she would have loved her husband to be more nice to her and hug her even outside of the bed. There's a lot of wives willing to deal with their husband's homosexuality but they don't do it for free.
3) my suffering is more important than all yours Yes, Ang Lee seemed so prone to quite exclusively focus on the love of these two guys and this is dishonest. The probably widespread view that it was all about love still has to be proved. They were not very talkative, not one scene showing even a weak attempt to get known each other deeply, to discuss about life issues. Everything was based on lust, on overwhelming urges, both of which are explained by the mound of desire accrued during so many months wait between a rendez-vous and another. That's the kind of suffering they were experiencing. Something originated by the lack of physical contact. Per se, it's something absolutely natural and it is normal to freak out if you can't express such strong and innate needs. However, no love can be considered as such when the need to express our own nature, for as strong as it can be, leads us to totally ignore who's around us and their feelings, especially when we never tried to open ourselves. This is what turns love into selfishness.
How many in this world repeatedly say and said for centuries that love wins fear, shyness, rage, wars and, may I add, gives our brains a chance to find smart solutions to overcome the difficulties? Now I may not necessarily support this thesis, but it is quite surprising that the so called love joining these two cowboys was so strong, yet at the same time didn't give them not even a sparkle of intuition or push to find a way out. We'll never know, they didn't even try. As I was saying at the beginning, it's way too easy to touch the heart of gay people and offer them all possible vindications, when you talk about true love and make it appear as such by showing muscled bodies, gorgeous faces, sharp eyes, sensual lips and fires burning inside, so to prove how powerful and genuine a homosexual love can be. Thanks for teaching us the obvious, Ang. I too agree. Pity that this wasn't exactly a story about love, and my gay rights, be them to just enjoy pure sex with a man or love him, are worth being represented by someone who can still distinguish between love and passion.