Victor Morton offers a different perspective on the movie “Brokeback Mountain,” which I raised a stink about last week. More accurately, I raised a stink about the US bishops’ conference’s movie review of it, since as Victor points out, I haven’t seen the movie. And his praise of it notwithstanding, I probably won’t see. There are too many movies that I want to see that I don’t get to that I’m not going to see this one just so I can criticize it.
Victor may be right that there is something to praise in this movie, but that doesn’t mitigate the problems. I think my main negative reaction was against how it is presented to the rest of us. The predictable mainstream press and the Hollywood elites are calling it a manifesto for homosexuality. I predict another “Hilary Swank” lovefest at the awards shows next year, not because of any quality in the movie itself, but because of its utility in the culture wars. Of course, I reacted negatively to the same impulse from our side. It seemed people wanted “Lord of the Rings,” “The Passion of the Christ,” or now “Chronicles of Narnia” to win awards or make big bucks, not because of the quality of the films but as Christian propaganda. They’re movies. They’re not Scripture. And they’re not supposed to be propaganda. We play into the hands of other opponents when we invest movies or TV shows or pop music with such weight.
Some movies should not be watched, no matter how good
Technorati Tags: homosexuality, movies
