Have you seen this review? Very nice.
"The Straight Dude’s Guide to ‘Brokeback’"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10342237/

That's a funny review, robyn. I'm glad you linked to it.

I'd been wondering what the movie was about. I don't watch TV all that much so haven't seen any previews. The one internet ad I clicked on didn't give a synopsis.

Sounds like it will be worth watching. Plus, how can you go wrong with Heath Ledger?

Can't really go wrong with Heath Ledger!

Oh, I will agree with you on this one. Reading the short story "Brokeback Mountain" is just a thrilling experience. Oh, that final image, of those shirts. I got chills, the good kind, even though I was reading it in my local laundromat. Like, "Damn, the world is good, when something like this exists in it." The story appeared in the 13 October 1997 issue of the New Yorker, and this was all my friends were talking about for several weeks afterward. (And if not for the Lorrie Moore story that also came out that year, it would have been the best in a pretty good year.) I'm a little fearful of what they'll do to it, in filming it, but very hopeful. I intend to see it in a movie theatre in Chelsea or the Village, because if the movie is any good, I think it will be a very emotional experience for the audience there, which is liable to be composed of a lot of gay men.

sherryfair: which Lorrie Moore story? And, my daughter would give her eyeteeth to go see BBM with you in the Village.

Sara, the year "Brokeback Mountain" came out was a year of miracles and wonders for stories, and if you get your hands on the 1998 O. Henry Awards volume, you will find within one volume Lorrie Moore's "People Like That Are the Only People Here" (that's the one I mean) and also Alice Munro's "The Children Stay." (That's in addition to Proulx's story.) IMHO, women fiction writers should be really proud of what they accomplished within the short story form that year.

I do wish I could take your daughter along to see "Brokeback Mountain" with me downtown. There is something thrilling about seeing really good movies inside a theatre, with the audience reacting all around you. I'm stuck watching things on DVDs far too often, but I still love moviegoing, and with this particular movie, it may be a very memorable moment to see an audience take it to heart.

Very fine collection of links regarding the movie and the cultural phenom, including a link to the text of the short story as printed in the New Yorker, and the two opening paragraphs that appear in the book version:
http://blogs.salon.com/0001137/stories/2005/09/25/brokebackMountain.html

Well, the showing of "Brokeback Mountain" that I'd intended to go to on Sunday night sold out. (In fact, six showings at that particular theatre sold out, mostly it looked like through people buying Web tickets beforehand, so friends & I had to cancel the outing.) So I went to an 11:40 am Monday show, alone, at another theatre, which isn't a popular time to go to the movies ... but still, the theatre was about half full.

My verdict? Yes, this is a good one. Go see it in a theatre if you can. A big screen does the landscapes justice. It's so gorgeous when they are out of doors, you can understand why people would endure the loneliness. Loneliness is in part this movie's theme, I think ... how very badly people need each other. Love is portrayed as an elemental human need, like food after a hard day's work, or a fire in the cold or a tent to shelter in. And the movie also shows how the lack of love or its suppression stunts people, in some way, and also does harm to others around them. It's also a portrait of America, as the best movies are, & gives me an understanding of a particular part of American culture. It's a laconic, low-keyed movie, so those who need a lot of action or a lot of dialogue may not like it. (I'm waiting for the backlash in which people staart saying it's boring. It's not, but it's run more at the pace of real life.) I'm a sucker for Jake Gyllenhaal's blue eyes, beautiful eyelashes and dark hair, particularly when he has got on a blue denim shirt -- but Heath Ledger's performance is simply outstanding. He's the one for whom I ached. My verdict: This movie should be seen because of what it says about people's need to love & be loved. If anyone writes about love & romance, they will find their life's calling affirmed here. There's nothing frivolous or self-indulgent or silly about love in this movie.

sherryfair -- well, we've got troubles on this side of the country too. BBM opens in ONE small theater in Seattle (two hours south of us) -- and they don't presell tickets. Nowhere else in western Washington. My daughter was beside herself with disappointment and fury, and then we finally were able to verify that it is also opening in Vancouver BC on Friday.

So we'll be going over the border, and into downtown Vancouver (horrors).

I hope this kid appreciates me.

Oh, please tell me that 19 of the kidlet's closest friends are still part of this saga... Because, taking your kid and any number of her closest friends OVER THE BORDER to see BBM? That's poetic. (And to think that I reminisce about having to drive 30 miles to buy the first fountain pen of my small-town childhood, not to mention my first copy of Ms magazine. See, this is what fond memories are made of.)

robyn: can't fit 19 kids into my crv, so unless some other brave parent(s) jump in, we're down to four kidlets.

She's very disappointed, but then I agreed that we could stop at the sushi buffet in Chinatown, and that kinda helped.

Re. Willie Nelson releasing "Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other" a reader cited him as being the "cowboy of all cowboys" - I am Texan abpve all things and a lover of classic western swing and C&w; music. I own many a Nelson song, along w/ the other country greats. But no one should ever confuse him to be the cowboy of all cowboys. A: He is a singer not a cowboy. Perhaps your reader doesn't really know what a cowboy is. B: While his music, lyrics, & grittiness appeal to many of us - his longtime history of drug use is about as anti-cowboy as you can get. Don't let the entertainers of the country world confuse the image of a true cowboy persona. Go to South Texas on an early (5am) Monday morning and spend sometime at the local taqueria/coffee shop or feed store to see the real thing.

h.frels: point taken. thanks for speaking up.