Baltimore Sun critic Michael Sragow recently revisited Howard Hawks' 1948 western Red River, starring John Wayne and the notor-iously closeted Montgomery Clift, and called it a more striking gay cowboy movie than the "all-too-sane and tasteful" Brokeback. In LA Weekly, writer/critic/gay historian David Ehrenstein called Brokeback a "saddle-packing same-sex equivalent of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
Ehrenstein also clocks off a list of truly groundbreaking "queer films," including works by gay filmmakers Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho), Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine) and Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin). It's similar to what New York Press critic Armond White did when he slammed Brokeback and gave shout-outs to lesser-known films such as Son Frere, A Thousand Clouds of Peace and last year's Loggerheads, made by North Carolina filmmaker Tim Kirkman.
True, there are films that are more captivating and compelling when it comes to capturing gay culture (and thus never get seen, much less hyped). But you've got to give Brokeback props for getting people talking. Hey, I don't see people debating all over the place about Cheaper By The Dozen 2.
Films with touchy subjects are meant to be debated, discussed and dissected -- by the people who see them, of course. If there is a film you don't want to see, like Cheaper by the Dozen 2, it doesn't necessarily mean you hate kids or families or Bonnie Hunt or whatever. It just means you're not interested in seeing it, and you might not be equipped to join the discussion.
And remember, no film is going to single-handedly destroy the moral, traditional fabric of our country. (That's been gone for quite some time now, and for those of you who still think there's one, you're just as in the closet as the two cowboys in the movie.)
Besides, a friend of mine, a man who has been married for 10 years, saw it, liked it and is just fine about the whole thing.
However, he does keep telling me he wishes he knew how to quit me.
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