Behind Brokeback Mountain

No doubt Brokeback Mountain is a beautiful movie. The scenes are breathtaking; the men are hot; the performers are remarkably convincing (with the exception of Jake Gyllenhaal's occasional whiny Angeleno accent seeping through); and the costume designs are excellent (if I were a rodeo girl, I would totally sport the red cowboy hat and outfit that Jack Twist's wife was wearing!). But let's give some kudos to the director, okay? When a Hollywood director, such as Steven Speilberg or Oliver Stone, directs a critically-acclaimed movie, you always hear his name in conjunction with the film... so why haven't I heard anything about Ang Lee when the masses speak so greatly about Brokeback? Just like how some people can't accept that an American cowboy can be gay, people are not ready to acknowledge that an American cowboy movie was successfully directed by an Asian.

It's time for Americans to acknowledge that Asians can do anything... and better. Sorry, but it's true.

The first time I became acquainted with Ang Lee was when Wedding Banquet came out. You think being gay in the wild west is hard, try being a gay Chinese son. He then directed Eat Drink Man Woman, and I knew right then that Ang Lee is going to be big in the film industry. Although native Taiwanese, Lee studied in the States. He went to my alma mater for his bachelor's degree and then to NYU for his MFA. His most notable films are Sense and Sensibility, The Hulk, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, for which he was nominated for an academy award but did not win. I believe Lee was nominated again for Best Director for the 2006 Oscars, and I think he may have a chance... thank god most of the members of the academy are gay.

From this day forward, I will refer to his film as "Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain". Word to yo mama.

Mad props belong to Harkim and YuCo for designing the titles in Brokeback. That "Wyoming 1963" was grand.