[sparky]

Originally Posted by dissention

I think that could have been achieved without displaying her as nothing but a cartoon character. She didn't even seem human; she was a caricature, a cliched parody of loudmouthed women.

I will look for this again in my second viewing. Nonetheless her phone call scene is pretty damned good.

Lee certainly falls into that category. It was so predictable and lacking such imagination that at times I wondered why he bothered. He doesn't strike me as a dummy filmmaker, so I don't understand the need to hit you over the head with symbolism that is as obvious as the sun above our heads.

Hm. I think most people are dumber than you believe.
You know what visual I really wanted to see ? Them holding hands at some point.

Maybe Proulx's story spoiled me a bit and I shouldn't have expected the movie version to faithfully recreate their sexual encounters, but they just lacked realism. She writes it as reeking of cum, sweat, and smoke, he films it in a way that completely ignores anything of that nature. It was too prettied up. Lee was too concerned with staying within the boundaries of what he considers to be tasteful and that took away from certain aspects of the story for me.

I see both sides. I think his "distant" way of directing served most aspects of the story extremely well. Could I have done with a more explicit sex scene somewhere ? Absolutely. You know those guys had the type of sex that leaves you literally bruised and beat up. In the story, that reunion kiss leaves one of them with a bloody lip. Now that's some intensity. Me likey.

I really did. What we're discussing are really only minor quibbles that I have with it and Ang Lee, I honestly thought it was a fantastic movie. You certainly nailed it when you expressed how great it was. I can't tell you how good I thought Heath Ledger was.

So glad it passed the Diss Keal test. Heath was really something. That scene where he punches the wall was EXACTLY what I had been picturing.

If only Lee had you to consult, it would have been an even more amazing movie.

And NC-17.

I ordered our tix online because I knew the Cambridge queers were going to storm the theater for every seat available. And they did.

The crowd we left last night was only about 30% homo.