Brokeback Mountain. So I've been hearing about this movie for months. I'm a Entertainment Weekly subscriber and they can't shut up about it, I get articles about it in my screenwriting magazines and listserves, I've heard the awards and read the stories. And most of the time I am dissuaded by the hype. I try not to put too much stock into what the critic's have to say. But I was curious about this multiple-Oscar contender. So a friend and I snuck our diet pop and fat-free popcorn in to an afternoon screening today and watched. And laughed. And cried. And felt such immense empathy for these characters. All of them. Jack Twist and Ennis DelMar. The wives. The children. The parents. I was amazed at how much I was pulled into their world. Sometimes that happens with movies, sometimes it doesn't. It did today in such a big way.
And it wasn't just the characters, it was their story, their lives, the world they inhabited, the words they said and didn't say. This movie is an interpersonal communication dream. I'm going to tell all my students to watch it. They could write a book on it instead of just a paper.
I want to say so much more about this movie. My friend and I sat in the car after just gushing and theorizing and smiling in amazement. This film deserves to win awards. This is why we go to the movies. This is why I write movies. To make people feel, think, imagine. Movies that cause us to question and go outside of ourselves are exciting to me. We see too many these days that do the opposite, that beg us to be content, that push us to the point of not remembering what the characters did or said or cared about. This movie is the complete opposite.
The most important thing I want to say is "Go see this movie." Go with an open mind, with an attitude of imagination and a commitment to experiencing this story. (Yes, for those of you who've taken a communication class with me - those are the three requirements for empathy!)
Take your friends, go with your significant other, attend an afternoon screening alone like the two other women who were in the theater with us. Just go. And enjoy all that Brokeback Mountain says. And doesn't say.