Brokeback Mountain

" Viscerally powerful, but if this were a horror film instead of an 'edifying' religious drama, it would have been sent back for cuts or had an NC-17 slapped on it."
-- Ken Hanke, MOUNTAIN XPRESS (ASHEVILLE, NC)

Biblical snuff film is about as accurate as a gay cowboy movie.

"This is a two-hour-and- six-minute snuff movie -- The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre -- that thinks it's an act of faith."
-- David Edelstein, SLATE

"I kept thinking: WHen is this going to be over? This is not an easy movie to watch."
-- Linda Cook, QUAD CITY TIMES (DAVENPORT, IA)

"A high-art snuff film...an unhealthy, inhuman, pornographic, masochistic torture mechanism."
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE

"Might be mistaken for an instructional video on meat-tenderizing techniques for cannibal chefs. Mel's a muscular Christian without a philosophical bone in his head."
-- Tim Appelo, SEATTLE WEEKLY

"It's just bad storytelling."
-- Liz Braun, JAM! MOVIES

Ok. I can find a lot of very positive movie reviews for Passion of the Christ...but there are many, many bad ones that reflect the same themes over and over and over.

I think these reviews explain much better than your liberal bias hypothesis the reason why Passion earned no awards.

Yes, a well-told "gay cowboy" movie is less off-putting than a religious zealout who wants to pound a message into your head with the use of lots and lots of blood. Brokeback will win awards mainly because it's told without any overt agenda. Passion had an agenda.

Forgive the rest of the world for getting just a little queasy about all that blood.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 19, 2006 10:50 AM: Message edited by: The Big Sexy ]</font>

I can forgive people who can?t stand to see blood, I cant forgive people who think their smarter, more compassionate and more progressive than I am and think that just because they believe it that they have some right to tell what I should think or what I should spend my money on.

For the record, I won't make the claim that BBM is the perfect movie, or say it should win an Oscar.

I will say Michelle Williams gave an outstanding performance, one that really stuck with me.

I think Heath Ledger did a fantastic job.

The movie at times was plodding, nor was it necessarily the tear jerker many made it out to be. But it certainly is a difficult story to tell on many levels, so perfection is difficult to attain. Ang Lee did a very good job jumping through hoops to tell the story well.

Also, if it weren't for Dulc and another friend asking me, I probably would have waited to see the movie on dvd, though I think it's better suited for viewing on the big screen.