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"Brokeback" is a shrewdly crafted "prestige" picture aimed like a heat-seeking missile at the same female viewers who made "Queer as Folk" a cable hit. The movie is not daring, or edgy, or even particularly controversial. It's not about "gay liberation" or the radical politics that would transform self and society. What it is is a well-closeted romance, replete with studly leads smooching and muttering about "feelings" in ways sure to set aflutter those feminine hearts longing for a soft-core version of hot man-to-man action.
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I don't mean to deny other readings, but I found this surprisingly true in own life. I love my little 13 year old cousin Kelly, and we always talk about movies during the drive to grandmother's house on Christmas. She has an enormous range, thanks to her parents (who love movies and won't let TV in the house) and is a very smart girl, but her regulating interest in any film seems to be how cute the guy is who's starring. So when I asked her what was the best movie she'd seen lately and she said Brokeback I was taken aback for a second. And then it suddenly hit me, and I said "You just love this movie because you're in love with Jake Gyllenhaal and you love watching him make out and you don't believe for a second he's gay." And this seemed so obvious to her she was wondering what point I was working up to. It was embarassing only the way talking about boys she has crushes on is embarassing.
And I have to say, my first reaction was to feel there was something progressive in this for young heterosexual girls, if not for grown up gay men. And perhaps when her cohort grows up, and forms half the world men inhabit, maybe they'll be that much less homophobia for them to have to deal with.
Michael