Popular Culture Review Vol. 19, No. 1, Winter 2008 | Page 34

30 Popular Culture Review Swank won her first Academy Award for her portrayal of a transsexual character in B o y s D o n 7 C i y (1999). According to USA Today, by February 12, 2006, more than 12 million Americans had seen B rok e b a c k M ountain, and the film had taken in $72 million. B r ok e b a c k M o un ta in led other films released in 2006 with eight Academy Award nominations and was widely regarded as the favorite to win the Oscars for “Best Picture” and “Best Director.” The film also earned more than the other films nominated for “Best Picture” in 2006: During the month before the Academy Awards, C ra sh had earned $53.4 million; M un ich , $45.4 million; G ood N igh t, a n d G ood Luck, $29.3 million; and C a po te , $22.1 million (2 A). Certainly, box office and critical successes are not the only measures of a film’s impact. Some critics suggest that the import of B r ok e b a c k M ountain actually will be determined individually—in private living rooms during private screenings. Poignantly enough, one such person is Judy Shepard, mother of murdered college student Matthew Shepard. Shortly before his 1998 death, Matthew gave his mother a copy of the story that inspired the film. She suggested that when viewers could rent B r ok e b a c k M ountain and view it alone, they would understand its message: “1 think they’ll see it how I see it,” Shepard said, “as a story that’s trying to say that you can’t help who you fall in love with. If it opens just a few eyes to that, then it’s done a good thing” (Bowles 2A). Both the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Human Rights Campaign, organizations that advocate equality for all people, seem to agree with her. GLAAD provided an online resource guide to accompany the film, and through press releases and other efforts, the HRC widely encouraged small group discussion of the issues in the film. (The importance of the film to conversations about gay rights is suggested by the fact that director Ang Lee won an “Equality Award” from the HRC in New York in the spring of 2006.) For some, focusing on the controversy the film was certain to ignite was largely a marketing ploy. In “Backbreaking Bid to Create a Controversy” (December 28, 2005), Neil G. Giuliano, the former mayor of Tempe, Arizona, and the president of GLAAD, argues that Americans are much more open to the idea of same-sex love than stories about the release of B r ok e b a c k M ountain indicated. In the article published by The A r iz o n a R e p u b lic, he writes: Boy, how we love a story that divides. So in addition to the near unanimous acclaim this movie has received, we’re encouraged by the nation’s leading newspapers and television news outlets to ponder, “Is America ready for this film?” Was America “ready” for G u e ss W ho's C o m in g to D inn e r or P h ila d e lp h ia? Why does America need to be ready for any film? It’s a movie, not a mandate. If you want to see an original, powerful and emotionally authentic love story, go see it. If not, go shopping.