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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.