Broken art imitates broken life

The actors in BrokeBack Mountain portray an ironic sequence of real life events. Photo Credits

Something is suspiciously familiar about the movie Brokeback Mountain. While I'm tempted to dismiss this movie as another cog in the Hollywood's gay promotion wheel, I'm much more tempted instead to turn this into a teaching moment.
There is a lot wrong with this movie, but in the right kind of way. Then again there's a lot right about this movie, but taken in the wrong way. The director unwittingly exposes the angst and pain that homosexual relationships are destined to produce. He simultaneously is bound to open up the floodgates of emotions and repressed desires that many men thought were long gone. Unfortunately, homosexuality is a broken state of existence; sexually immature and relationally stunted. All these elements are present in Brokeback Mountain. The movie's storyline replicates what exgay ministries have been saying all along: homosexuality is sexual brokenness. Given the state of the world with a diversity of sexual brokenness such as adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia, and the likes, the sad irony is not in the film itself but with those who attempt to spin it differently than what it shows. Its like arguing with a mirror. Brokeback is a accurate reflection of what is inherently wrong with same sex sexual relationships.

The imagery of the movie, set among green pastures and still waters, draws a biblical undertone of serenity and innocence. The two men even meet while tending (pastoring) sheep. But that's about all the Biblical comparison the film can muster up. Then, a monster shows up in paradise. Men in sexual relationships violate God's creative intent for human sexuality, no matter how lush the surroundings.

Director Ang Lee has called it the "final frontier." "Whether it can draw large audiences may well be the real test a telling sign about how far society is willing to go in accepting gays", he says.

There you have it, despite the syrupy nexus about the film being "beautiful", it really is just another gay propaganda piece with a twist. It won't cooperate with the spinmeisters.

ABC calls it "the first gay love story to star A-list Hollywood actors." But this is simply more projectionist imposition. Tell America what you want them to believe, not what's true. The longing for America to fall head over heels in love with "homosexual" actors is a transfarce in the making.
As my friend and fellow blogger Randy Thomas quizzes, "Isn't it weird that on all these acclaimed "gay" themed shows and movies that a vast majority of the actors are "straight" in real life?" I wonder that too. Why the practice of putting heterosexual actors in homosexual identity parts? Is it because they know that America is not so inclined to pay big bucks to see men portray something so foreign to our moral sensibilities? "Straight" (I hate that label) actors playing gay characters has become some sort of right-of-braveness passage for the Hollywood's T-list (T for Tolerance) actors. But, I digress.

Then there's this forced hype about the movie's A-list actors. I would argue that A is in the I of the beholder. Who's A-list? Personally, I had never heard of Heath Ledger or Jake Gyllenhaal before now. That could be cultural. I tend not to flock to movies that don't have at least two people in it that look like me. Sorry Shaniqua, no black characters in this one.

Some who have previewed the film are correct in saying that it breaks stereotypes. But in the most elusive way. Are the men really gay? If you count gay as being exclusively homosexual, then they are not. Are they heterosexuals who have become confused sexually and emotionally? Perhaps. Both men marry women, father children and presumably enjoy their lives with their wives. Is that an indicator that they are no longer what they used to be? Exgay perhaps? Its hard to tell. The conclusion cannot be reached with societal reasoning because the problem at the root of the lead characters lives is sin. Well, I know they call it love, but its real name is sin. Sin is a spiritual issue that can disguise itself to appear as an angel of light set among beautiful mountain scenery, but in the end, as the film shows, it only yeilds the fruits of bitterness, deception, anger and death.