Published Reviews -- Discuss

[Parenthetical Greg]

Here's a fresh perspective from a heterosexual man!

Cowboys whose friendship, anal sex is misinterpreted as "gay"

I'm wondering if folks aren't familiar with Dateline Hollywood (where this piece of satire appears). If so, folks should probably check out the site's homepage before taking anything seriously. This is The Onion of the entertainment world.

We don't really have a parody thread on the site. This piece obviously isn't a review. Enjoy the chuckle, but we should probably move any "serious" discusion of this phenomenon to a more appropriate thread.

[jack]

'They were respectful of each other’s opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected'

*sigh*

[waynerman]

I appreciated Leonard Pitts's piece in the Salt Lake City Tribune, but I had to wince when he referred to "the nature of man-to-man sex some of us find off-putting." It seems obvious to me that he's referring to anal sex.

It might interest a lot of straight people to know that not all gay men are into anal sex. I certainly haven't been much into it, preferring other means of sexual expression.

Now I don't know...does this observation belong in a different thread??

[lynn]

Now I don't know...does this observation belong in a different thread??

For a general discussion of perceptions of gay men by straight men, perhaps the Phenomenom / Will Brokeback Rock the Culture thread might be a better place..

[sotoalf]

“Brokeback Mountain” is the perfect viewing experience for men who, like me, live perfectly normal lives with a wife and kids despite several dozen experiences that bigots might label “homosexual.”

Erm, anyone unable to spot the irony here needs a sock full of horse manure over their heads.

[lynn]

“Brokeback Mountain” is the perfect viewing experience for men who, like me, live perfectly normal lives with a wife and kids despite several dozen experiences that bigots might label “homosexual.”

Erm, anyone unable to spot the irony here needs a sock full of horse manure over their heads.

Sotoalf, I think we made that point, no personal attacks please...  Let's find a good review to discuss now...

[Scott88]

lol, damn, I really missed the satire.  Oops.

[lynn]

Gene Shalit's son, Peter, responds to GLAAD, defending his father:

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid24216.asp

[lauren]

Yep,  I completely missed the tongue-in-cheek...should have known... .

[jack]

Gene Shalit's son, Peter, responds to GLAAD, defending his father:

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid24216.asp

i had hoped he would respond, one way or the other.

[hepwa]

I'm glad to see Gene Shalit's son defending him, but it doesn't change the fact that he chose the word "predator", which is still inflammatory, in my opinion.  I don't think Gene Shalit is homophobic, I just think he's sloppy.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again, the shark in JAWS was a predator, Jack Twist was not.

[jack]

like hepwa said...

this actually can be resolved by gene shalitt simply stating that he was not aware of how connotatively loaded the term "sexual predator" is.  he might also want to take a look at the issue throught the filter of a standard oppositee sex melodrama.  if he can nonestly say he would have applied the same terminology, i will respectfully disagree, however, i defy him to show the review wherein he did.

peter never addressed the wording, just his dad.

having said that, is there anyone in here who has the ability to contact dr peter shalitt personally, anyone from his area?

jack

[waynerman]

When I saw BBM for the second time last evening, I watched very carefully to see if there was anything about Jack's behavior that might lead one to the conclusion that he was behaving as a sexual predator.

I think it is true that Jack is more aware of himself, more aware of the possibilities that might exist with Ennis, and more outgoing in general when it comes to other men. But I saw nothing of a predatory nature, and I'm disturbed that Jack's behavior, which may be described as being a bit more "savvy" than Ennis's, could be construed that way.

Here in the Midwest, where I live, the topic of "sexual predators" is taken very seriously. The last thing we need is for gay men to be accused of this vice...even if they are fictional characters. And yes, I am more concerned about Jack's reputation than I am about Shalit's, strange as that may seem--because I feel that already this film has had more impact, and stands to make much more, than Shalit's 30+ years of film reviewing.

[lynn]

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/01/09/052110.php

Brokeback Mountain: In the Shadow of the Tire Iron

A long, thoughtful. provocative review contrasting the film with the original short story (he loves the book, less so the movie) Some excerpts:

"As a movie Brokeback Mountain becomes not just a purposefully limited account of two guys taken hold of by a form of lust, and then a consequent love, that can't be accommodated by their lives or even their understanding, it becomes the lyrical-tragical telling of a great, impossible passion that we're seduced into investing with our feelings."

"Whereas Proulx's story is quite specifically about homosexuals, Lee's movie is only technically a gay story. With the richness of its misery the movie plays like any soap opera about a love that cannot be--the weeper mechanism is entirely familiar from hetero movies."

"What the moviemakers thought they were doing, putting it as positively as possible, is showing how two guys could fall in love with each other, but, lacking any conception of how to make room for this love in their lives, the love disrupts, rather than completes, their lives. And I think gay people may experience it tragically, though even they would have to admit it lacks one of the elements of tragedy, in that Ennis and Jack are not responsible for the bad outcome. They're victims, not tragic heroes, and they're not held accountable for anything, not even how they treat their wives, because, we're to understand, they have no choice."

[mountain boy]

... Here in the Midwest, where I live, the topic of "sexual predators" is taken very seriously. The last thing we need is for gay men to be accused of this vice...even if they are fictional characters...

Yeah, Shalit needs to get up and say he recognizes the problem and regrets using that terminology, because it's really loaded for a lot of people.

(Even if it isn't for him?)