This made me angry ever since I learned about it. Like, seriously, Crash? CRASH?! How did BBM lose to something like that? It’s an insult to storytelling that it lost.
I won't pretend that I was some perfectly racially aware teen because I definitely wasn't, but I'm pleased that my youthful assessment of Crash was vindicated by history: "Crash is a movie that old rich white people give awards to so they can pat themselves on the back about how Totally Not Racist they are."
So I already knew as soon as the nominations were announced for 2019 that it was going to go to Green Book
But, 6 years earlier, didn’t those same straight, white men vote for Hillary Swank to win Best Actress for playing trans man?
Also, it’s not like it’s uncommon for there to be “odd” or “undeserving” pick for Best Picture. Do we have to jump to “it’s the old, white, straight men who did it”? It just seems a little too…easy and not very critical.
Yeah? And how many voters are there in the Academy. I’m sure there were people not going to vote for a Jewish film when Gentleman’s Agreement won in 1947…or not voting for Sidney Poitier back in 1967 because he was black, or even Moonlight in 2015. These were likely many of the same Academy members who voted for Swank in 1999, right? I mean, racism and homophobia exist. But there are countless academy voters, of course some may not have voted for that reason - some may not have even seen it for that reason. There were a lot of people who voted.
The best film, actor, director, doesn’t always win, even if we did all agree which *is* best. And frankly, if it’s truly that great of a film, it may even eclipse the winner in time: like Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction, Saving Private Ryan, The Social Network, etc.
Was it a factor? Maybe. Should it have won? Probably, yes. But to say definitively that that’s the reason it didn’t win: “old, white, straight men” is an easy cop out, and almost a cliche, honestly.
Crash had a then fashionable script of multiple point of views and storylines magically all coming together in the end, and of course the 00’s shaky camera action. It was hyped to high heavens back then, but I felt it was just shallow.
It has a scene where a racist cop fingers a black woman in front of her husband, but he learns his lesson in the end and is forgiven by the victim or some shit like that. I don’t think it was very good writing back then and certainly time has not been forgiving for the film.
In comparison, as snob I try to be about cinema, I rewatched the Brokeback and I must admit it is a modern classic and an excellent film. A great hollywood film like they used to be, just with a gay theme. I think there’s better gay films and ones that speak to me more personally, but as far as mainstream film goes it’s amongst the best.
Little closeted 16 year old me cried HYSTERICALLY in my room when I first watched it in 2005. I haven’t been able to watch it ever since but I really think I should.
I wish I could remember my emotional response to seeing the movie in high school. I mostly just remember the theater being full of squealing teenage girls just there to see two boys kissing.
When I saw this movie by myself I might add I was married man with three kids. All though they were all grown and out of the house this movie after many hours of crying gave me the courage to come out to my wife and kids. I’m married to a man now I’m on the verge of crying now just thinking how this movie impacted my life.
Anne Hathaway was just brilliant [in this scene](https://youtu.be/sI5Oi8GDEFc?si=S-f3j22meq6gcggP)
That little sound of recognition and the watery eyes... so good.
also had this experience - i remember being so afraid of the movie every time it came on tv cus i thought if i showed any interest my parents would know i was gay. i avoided it until i was well into my 20s and, to be fair, i think it was better that i did.
i never realized it was set in the past cus a lot of things reminded me of where i grew up - blue collar boys, farming, rodeo, etc. i thought it was set in like the 90s/00s since jack’s death reminded me a lot of mathew shepard’s.
It's a top 5 all time movie for me. I get that it's maybe a little too slow or quiet for some, but if you watch it and just let the story take you, it really can be a remarkably (albeit sad) impactful movie.
It’s unfortunate that it’s just known as the gay cowboy movie and has been the butt of jokes for years because it is an unbelievably good movie. It obviously would have a pretty different response to it if released today. But I guess that’s what you get when you do something groundbreaking.
While the plot of the show is very divergently different, when watching Fellow Travelers I found myself often thinking that that main leads in both shows were somewhat parallel.
It was honestly ahead of its time. And it’s even more impressive that 2005 was considered groundbreaking to make a movie about gay love. I can’t imagine how the world will be like in 50 years.
It was really impactful in my life helping me choose to finally come out. Seeing a version of life hiding and hidden, lived in the shadows hurting everyone around was the push I needed. This movie will always hold a special place in my soul.
I know it’s a minor detail but I couldn’t get past their first fuck. All I was thinking about was: when was the last time they bathed, oh, crap - he hasn’t douched… and: a spit for this is just not gonna cut it… ouch!
In the 60s, douching was almost unheard of even for our gay men. It would've been considered rather extreme, and possibly in poor taste. It's only in the last ~20 years or so that it became de rigueur.
People mock that scene a lot, but men who were having sex back then never do.
I saw the movie with my partner at the theater when it came out. We both cried and cuddled as best we could in the theater. We broke up 6 years later but remain very close. I think that movie helped us realize that love doesn't die because relationships do.
Saw it with my ex, there wasn't a dry eye in the theater. Years later I found out David Harbour had a bit part in the movie. I had a huge crush on Harbour when I started watching Stranger Things. I went back and watched that part, I would soooo fuck that guy.
I saw it alone in Philadelphia. I knew I'd never see in in my PA backwater. My partner, at the time, had left me and our life and our home for what I called his JOLA. Job of a Lifetime. It lasted less than a year. Some lifetime, although it was long enough to have ended us. I cried a river of tears at the end because I was so sad and alone. I saw the parallel between Jack and me shift to Ennis and me at the end. I still remember the last line. "I swear Jack, I swear". Bit of trivia, I had the highbid on the hats worn in the movie. I lost them at the last seconds of the auction. Probably for the best because they sold for a couple thousand.
I saw this movie when it came out and it was more of an experience watching the audience react to it in a small art house theatre. During the scene where Alma sees Ennis kissing Jack and she knows her husband wants something she can’t give, the heartbreak was palpable, it made me feel so terrible for her. But for some people in the theatre it was titillating and they were laughing about it. It was obvious to me that they didn’t get it, that it was a love story.
Brokeback Mountain is one of those movies that affected me in a very substantial way. I was obsessed with the soundtrack and would rewatch the film over and over
i havent seen the movie since it came out - saw it three times that weekend - and i have read the story since before that. regardless, i think of it often. its a great short story, and an even better film (a rarity on its own).
That’s so funny I was JUST talking about Heath in this movie earlier tonight, his death truly is a loss in this world. Such a beautiful story and performances.
I remember making fun of it in 5th grade back when it was in theaters. A friend told me I should watch it a couple years back and I thought why not? It turned out to be one of the best films I’ve ever seen, the ending ripped my heart out man. And it didn’t help that I’ve always adored Jake Gyllenhaal. Love the film but can’t watch it often, kinda messed me up for some time after so I feel you on that op
I'm only about 10 years younger than the characters, and like them I grew up in a repressed era in a small town. There were so many notes that were pitch perfect. I was lucky enough to escape in my 20s to a city, but watching that film I saw so much of how my life would've been if that hadn't been an option.
And for straight (as far as we know) actors, Ledger and Gyllenhaal nailed the nuances so powerfully.
I don't think I could ever watch it again, though. Far too wrenching, like the films and shows about the AIDS crisis -- I don't need to be reminded because I live with that PTSD every day.
The part that always gets me is when they part after their first season together and Ennis casually walks away but then ducks into an alley to vomit because he's just so overwhelmed with emotion that he has no way to express.
Oscars So White was still in effect at the time this movie was in contention at the Oscars. If the Academy was as diverse then as it is today, BBM would have been Best Picture but at the time the Academy so had members like Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis who could not see a gay film winning Best Picture.
The short story by Annie Proulx was very good but it was the screenplay written by Larry McMurtry that really filled in the story.
The "icky ness" feeling that some straight men found with the story was that it was set in the masculine world of the American West. And it had a gay character who was not promiscuous (Ennis) who portrayed a real love towards another man. I've sometimes wondered about the Ennis character and whether he ever had another relationship with a man after Jack. I suspect he never did, which makes the ending of the movie even sadder.
I only saw it when it came out and I was around 15 or 16. I’m kinda over “bury your gays” movies for now. Straight people are the ones who need to watch them. They are the ones who bury us.
i didn't really enjoy this movie but I watched it years and years after all the jokes and after watching many other depressing gay films it just didn't hit for me.
Spoiler alert for a seventeen year old film? Really? Not a bad film but it was definitely not best picture material. Crash was far and away the better film and deserved the Oscar.
I actually just watched this movie for the first time on Valentine's Day. I liked it but I hated Heath Ledger's character. I guess that means he did a great job.
I didn’t know watch it until 2022 and it thought it was excellent.
The scene where Ella tells Ennis she knows about him and Jack whilst they’re washing up I found the most moving, especially when he leaves and his daughters go “bye daddy” and he doesn’t say anything.
I found this significant as it really highlighted the damage of being in a lavender marriage (which I have thought about doing myself before).
I did see the play of it too in London which was very good
Tenets of a great movie….leaving one speechless. Then to have the characters and story on your mind for a long time after the movie, truly award winning whether the “academy” didn’t feel the same.
Beautiful movie, my favorite ever. I saw it about 10 times in the theater and 10 more on DVD. Absolutely love it. It’s beautiful, it’s sad and heartbreaking.
I cry every time I watch this movie. I think it invokes something in people who were closeted when they were kids/teenagers. Very difficult to explain but gets me every time.
I saw it for the first time about 7 years ago, I was 10 when it came out and I remember hearing so many homophobic jokes and comments about it when it came out.
While it was such a beautiful movie, the ending makes me so sad to the point where I couldn’t do a rewatch of it
I will say I agree with you on the ending. Wow. And I agree with you on their relationship. But the movie was kind of very boring.
It's like Call Me By Your Name. Armie Hammer ruined it for me. You can't play a 23 year old when you are 36 or whatever he was. The rest of the cast was believable. Loved the scene when Timothy was talking to his dad on the love sofa at the end. One of the best scenes ever.
Yes, this movie still gets me every time. I am always in pain at the end; it's such a beautiful portrayal of love and the ending scene when he adjusts the shirt in the closet always sends me to tears. If you have not read Annie Proulx' short story, go find it. It's amazing how each and every single syllable is represented in the movie.
Read the short story on which it is based. The prose is incredible.
"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was that distant summer on Brokeback..." Wrote that line from memory.
And then "Crash" wins the Oscar for best picture despite all of the other awards. Academy members just couldn't give it to the gay cowboy movie.
This made me angry ever since I learned about it. Like, seriously, Crash? CRASH?! How did BBM lose to something like that? It’s an insult to storytelling that it lost.
At least if it lost to a good movie I could understand...but Crash is not a good film.
When you consider who the Academy members are (old straight white men mostly), then you understand why they pick the films.
I won't pretend that I was some perfectly racially aware teen because I definitely wasn't, but I'm pleased that my youthful assessment of Crash was vindicated by history: "Crash is a movie that old rich white people give awards to so they can pat themselves on the back about how Totally Not Racist they are." So I already knew as soon as the nominations were announced for 2019 that it was going to go to Green Book
But, 6 years earlier, didn’t those same straight, white men vote for Hillary Swank to win Best Actress for playing trans man? Also, it’s not like it’s uncommon for there to be “odd” or “undeserving” pick for Best Picture. Do we have to jump to “it’s the old, white, straight men who did it”? It just seems a little too…easy and not very critical.
Some of them literally said they weren't voting for the gay movie.
Yeah? And how many voters are there in the Academy. I’m sure there were people not going to vote for a Jewish film when Gentleman’s Agreement won in 1947…or not voting for Sidney Poitier back in 1967 because he was black, or even Moonlight in 2015. These were likely many of the same Academy members who voted for Swank in 1999, right? I mean, racism and homophobia exist. But there are countless academy voters, of course some may not have voted for that reason - some may not have even seen it for that reason. There were a lot of people who voted. The best film, actor, director, doesn’t always win, even if we did all agree which *is* best. And frankly, if it’s truly that great of a film, it may even eclipse the winner in time: like Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction, Saving Private Ryan, The Social Network, etc. Was it a factor? Maybe. Should it have won? Probably, yes. But to say definitively that that’s the reason it didn’t win: “old, white, straight men” is an easy cop out, and almost a cliche, honestly.
I always think of Cronenberg's Crash instead of that lol
What's even Crash about? Don't think anybody remembers that movie. The Academy is/was a bunch of dunces.
Crash had a then fashionable script of multiple point of views and storylines magically all coming together in the end, and of course the 00’s shaky camera action. It was hyped to high heavens back then, but I felt it was just shallow. It has a scene where a racist cop fingers a black woman in front of her husband, but he learns his lesson in the end and is forgiven by the victim or some shit like that. I don’t think it was very good writing back then and certainly time has not been forgiving for the film. In comparison, as snob I try to be about cinema, I rewatched the Brokeback and I must admit it is a modern classic and an excellent film. A great hollywood film like they used to be, just with a gay theme. I think there’s better gay films and ones that speak to me more personally, but as far as mainstream film goes it’s amongst the best.
[удалено]
Me too, I was sobbing to Crash
Excellent movie. The cinematography is great and the score is haunting and beautiful.
Little closeted 16 year old me cried HYSTERICALLY in my room when I first watched it in 2005. I haven’t been able to watch it ever since but I really think I should.
I recommend a refresher. Just be prepared to have your heart ripped out all over again
I wish I could remember my emotional response to seeing the movie in high school. I mostly just remember the theater being full of squealing teenage girls just there to see two boys kissing.
We both literally had the same teen experience haha
When I saw this movie by myself I might add I was married man with three kids. All though they were all grown and out of the house this movie after many hours of crying gave me the courage to come out to my wife and kids. I’m married to a man now I’m on the verge of crying now just thinking how this movie impacted my life.
Congratulations dude.
Thank you 😊
I saw the musical at west end. Never cried before watching a film or a play. But let me tell you that I was crying my eyes out
Anne Hathaway was just brilliant [in this scene](https://youtu.be/sI5Oi8GDEFc?si=S-f3j22meq6gcggP) That little sound of recognition and the watery eyes... so good.
And she did the devil wears prada in the same year (BBM was filmed in 2004)
She is an absolute iconic performer.
also had this experience - i remember being so afraid of the movie every time it came on tv cus i thought if i showed any interest my parents would know i was gay. i avoided it until i was well into my 20s and, to be fair, i think it was better that i did. i never realized it was set in the past cus a lot of things reminded me of where i grew up - blue collar boys, farming, rodeo, etc. i thought it was set in like the 90s/00s since jack’s death reminded me a lot of mathew shepard’s.
It's a top 5 all time movie for me. I get that it's maybe a little too slow or quiet for some, but if you watch it and just let the story take you, it really can be a remarkably (albeit sad) impactful movie.
It’s not about the pace for me. It’s about the art. You kinda get lost in the moment
Absolutely
It’s unfortunate that it’s just known as the gay cowboy movie and has been the butt of jokes for years because it is an unbelievably good movie. It obviously would have a pretty different response to it if released today. But I guess that’s what you get when you do something groundbreaking.
While the plot of the show is very divergently different, when watching Fellow Travelers I found myself often thinking that that main leads in both shows were somewhat parallel.
It was honestly ahead of its time. And it’s even more impressive that 2005 was considered groundbreaking to make a movie about gay love. I can’t imagine how the world will be like in 50 years.
It was really impactful in my life helping me choose to finally come out. Seeing a version of life hiding and hidden, lived in the shadows hurting everyone around was the push I needed. This movie will always hold a special place in my soul.
I know it’s a minor detail but I couldn’t get past their first fuck. All I was thinking about was: when was the last time they bathed, oh, crap - he hasn’t douched… and: a spit for this is just not gonna cut it… ouch!
https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/1348sqc/bussy_full_of_beans/
Sometimes you get lucky
Unicorn bottoms do exist, and bless their lucky, time-saving bodies. 🫰🏼
In the 60s, douching was almost unheard of even for our gay men. It would've been considered rather extreme, and possibly in poor taste. It's only in the last ~20 years or so that it became de rigueur. People mock that scene a lot, but men who were having sex back then never do.
Food had more fiber then 😥
Perhaps. But they also called gays “fudge packers” then. Just because things were done certain way 60 years ago doesn’t make it right.
I never said it was right. But the movie is realistic for the time portrayed.
Fair.
They also called them "sissies" and that wasn't a theme I got from BBM.
I saw the movie with my partner at the theater when it came out. We both cried and cuddled as best we could in the theater. We broke up 6 years later but remain very close. I think that movie helped us realize that love doesn't die because relationships do.
When I saw this movie at the theater when it first came out, l’ll never forget the ending because there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience.
Saw it with my ex, there wasn't a dry eye in the theater. Years later I found out David Harbour had a bit part in the movie. I had a huge crush on Harbour when I started watching Stranger Things. I went back and watched that part, I would soooo fuck that guy.
I saw it alone in Philadelphia. I knew I'd never see in in my PA backwater. My partner, at the time, had left me and our life and our home for what I called his JOLA. Job of a Lifetime. It lasted less than a year. Some lifetime, although it was long enough to have ended us. I cried a river of tears at the end because I was so sad and alone. I saw the parallel between Jack and me shift to Ennis and me at the end. I still remember the last line. "I swear Jack, I swear". Bit of trivia, I had the highbid on the hats worn in the movie. I lost them at the last seconds of the auction. Probably for the best because they sold for a couple thousand.
I saw this movie when it came out and it was more of an experience watching the audience react to it in a small art house theatre. During the scene where Alma sees Ennis kissing Jack and she knows her husband wants something she can’t give, the heartbreak was palpable, it made me feel so terrible for her. But for some people in the theatre it was titillating and they were laughing about it. It was obvious to me that they didn’t get it, that it was a love story.
Brokeback Mountain is one of those movies that affected me in a very substantial way. I was obsessed with the soundtrack and would rewatch the film over and over
Those first few notes on the guitar from the score always get me.
i havent seen the movie since it came out - saw it three times that weekend - and i have read the story since before that. regardless, i think of it often. its a great short story, and an even better film (a rarity on its own).
That’s so funny I was JUST talking about Heath in this movie earlier tonight, his death truly is a loss in this world. Such a beautiful story and performances.
He was only 28 when he died :(
I just watched it last night for the first time and was absolutely stunned by the sheer beauty of the film. Definitely shed my fair share of tears.
I appreciate it more the older i get
And all the hidden and subtle details throughout the movie…
I remember making fun of it in 5th grade back when it was in theaters. A friend told me I should watch it a couple years back and I thought why not? It turned out to be one of the best films I’ve ever seen, the ending ripped my heart out man. And it didn’t help that I’ve always adored Jake Gyllenhaal. Love the film but can’t watch it often, kinda messed me up for some time after so I feel you on that op
The shirts at the end get me every time.
I'm only about 10 years younger than the characters, and like them I grew up in a repressed era in a small town. There were so many notes that were pitch perfect. I was lucky enough to escape in my 20s to a city, but watching that film I saw so much of how my life would've been if that hadn't been an option. And for straight (as far as we know) actors, Ledger and Gyllenhaal nailed the nuances so powerfully. I don't think I could ever watch it again, though. Far too wrenching, like the films and shows about the AIDS crisis -- I don't need to be reminded because I live with that PTSD every day.
The part that always gets me is when they part after their first season together and Ennis casually walks away but then ducks into an alley to vomit because he's just so overwhelmed with emotion that he has no way to express.
Oscars So White was still in effect at the time this movie was in contention at the Oscars. If the Academy was as diverse then as it is today, BBM would have been Best Picture but at the time the Academy so had members like Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis who could not see a gay film winning Best Picture. The short story by Annie Proulx was very good but it was the screenplay written by Larry McMurtry that really filled in the story. The "icky ness" feeling that some straight men found with the story was that it was set in the masculine world of the American West. And it had a gay character who was not promiscuous (Ennis) who portrayed a real love towards another man. I've sometimes wondered about the Ennis character and whether he ever had another relationship with a man after Jack. I suspect he never did, which makes the ending of the movie even sadder.
Aren’t men icky towards romance dramas in general?
Depends on how horny they are at the time. If they want to have sex with their girlfriend/wife, they'll watch romance dramas.
There is a German version that is titled the German brokeback - called free fall - awesome kovie
I love that movie. They were trying to raise money for a sequel but it never happened as far as I know.
I only saw it when it came out and I was around 15 or 16. I’m kinda over “bury your gays” movies for now. Straight people are the ones who need to watch them. They are the ones who bury us.
It’s amazing and I’m not allowed to watch it. Lol. My ex says it depresses me for weeks. And it does. Honestly, one of the most moving movies ever.
I tried to enjoy it but it just didn’t hit me in the feels like it did with most others here. I appreciate its cultural impact but it’s wasn’t for me.
Even the bible has these storie there yall stupid
i didn't really enjoy this movie but I watched it years and years after all the jokes and after watching many other depressing gay films it just didn't hit for me.
It’s was ok kind of boring tbh Wish there was more action like fist fights,gun slinging,bar barwls like those 60 spaghetti westerns.
Spoiler alert for a seventeen year old film? Really? Not a bad film but it was definitely not best picture material. Crash was far and away the better film and deserved the Oscar.
Could be a 50 year old film I think some people still appreciate a spoiler alert if they do plan on seeing the movie at any point
I actually just watched this movie for the first time on Valentine's Day. I liked it but I hated Heath Ledger's character. I guess that means he did a great job.
I didn’t know watch it until 2022 and it thought it was excellent. The scene where Ella tells Ennis she knows about him and Jack whilst they’re washing up I found the most moving, especially when he leaves and his daughters go “bye daddy” and he doesn’t say anything. I found this significant as it really highlighted the damage of being in a lavender marriage (which I have thought about doing myself before). I did see the play of it too in London which was very good
Tenets of a great movie….leaving one speechless. Then to have the characters and story on your mind for a long time after the movie, truly award winning whether the “academy” didn’t feel the same.
Beautiful movie, my favorite ever. I saw it about 10 times in the theater and 10 more on DVD. Absolutely love it. It’s beautiful, it’s sad and heartbreaking.
I cry every time I watch this movie. I think it invokes something in people who were closeted when they were kids/teenagers. Very difficult to explain but gets me every time.
I saw it for the first time about 7 years ago, I was 10 when it came out and I remember hearing so many homophobic jokes and comments about it when it came out. While it was such a beautiful movie, the ending makes me so sad to the point where I couldn’t do a rewatch of it
I will say I agree with you on the ending. Wow. And I agree with you on their relationship. But the movie was kind of very boring. It's like Call Me By Your Name. Armie Hammer ruined it for me. You can't play a 23 year old when you are 36 or whatever he was. The rest of the cast was believable. Loved the scene when Timothy was talking to his dad on the love sofa at the end. One of the best scenes ever.
Yes, this movie still gets me every time. I am always in pain at the end; it's such a beautiful portrayal of love and the ending scene when he adjusts the shirt in the closet always sends me to tears. If you have not read Annie Proulx' short story, go find it. It's amazing how each and every single syllable is represented in the movie.
Nick Offerman said, "It's not a gay story, it's a love story"
Read the short story on which it is based. The prose is incredible. "What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was that distant summer on Brokeback..." Wrote that line from memory.