esrosedotblog

WON'T

I won't be seeing either of the obvious candidates for my big screen attention this season.

The first of these is a gay film breakthrough of sorts; I should want to go.

But.

Brokeback Mountain is from a short story I first read in the New Yorker and I read it again in Proulx' short story collection of the same name.

It is a policy not to see anything I read as the two are usually immiscible in my mind. I have a mental picture and do not want it disturbed.

In this case, there is an additional reason. My memories of the short story still contain an abiding psychological pain and physical ache. It is a powerful rendering of the kind of personal and societal homophobia that I fought my way through. It is also a beautiful love story with a tragic outcome.

I ventured a look at the trailer and had dreams about the story. I don't want to make it stronger.

Incidentally, I am not so hard and fast about reading what I have seen. I really enjoyed reading the book upon which Empire of the Sun was based. And, of course, I have seen and not read Melville's whale book. It will be upcoming after I complete a few more of his novels.

I will also not be going to see King Kong which I should want to see because I so liked the Hobbits and all. Peter Jackson. And it has Jack Black and the almost grown up Jamie Bell who I love to watch.

But, I do not support remakes. Period. They are never better. They are almost always overly extravagant alterations of the icon which, in effect, results in irreverant humbug.

From the reviews, I gather, the second* ape is no exception to the rule. Too long, too lumbering, too much.

In any case, I will have to wait until another Jackson, Black or Bell effort comes along.

No I did not read the original Tolkien so it was OK to see the film(s). Gotcha.

*There are actually four Kongs; one is another sequel to a sequel! Is that a triquel? And there would be five if we count Mighty Joe Young which scared my ass when I was a kid and was a blatant steal from the first big guy.