Smart Blogging Skills

Blogger has this beautiful functionality where you can see stats of your blog. You can see how many page views you've got, how the surfers ended up on your blog and they're from, etc. Beautiful and useful. So I now know you are very interested in my reasoning why Brokeback Mountain is not just another love story and who's better, John or Jason, or Jason or John? I will also suggest you download "A Poet From Hollywood" by Cantara Christopher, since you were very willing to read my take on the book and there was actually nothing in that post about the book. Go here if you're really interested.

However, I'm still just a small, lone blogger and it remains decidedly quiet in this corner of the Internet.

Brokeback Mountain is NOT Just Another Love Story

Worst Oscar winners seems to be an hot subject.


Remember the year Brokeback Mountain won the Oscars? Yeah, nobody does, because it never happened.

On YouTube I was reading the comments. I don’t know why, I do know I should stay away from there. On the other hand, it inspired me to write this blog.
Some people claimed Brokeback Mountain is better than Crash, but wasn’t as good as some people say. In the end, according to those not preferring Brokeback Mountain but one of the other contenders except Crash, Brokeback Mountain, outside it being about gay love, was only a weak love story and therefore should not be the Oscars’ favourite.

I just love this picture.

What makes Brokeback Mountain is the love between two men. Brokeback Mountain is about that love and about how society, people, can react to that kind of love. It is about the consequences, about the feelings and emotions that living such a love in that way brings. That is what Brokeback mountain sets apart from every other love story. That story is told well, even though the concept of a love story and the way the love is played out is not inventive.

It’s a shame crew and cast alike keep saying it’s just another love story. If it is just another love story, it’s not deserving of an Oscar. But it’s not just another love story, nor was it ever intended as just another love story. It was a statement about something that shouldn’t be that way but is. A statement that had not yet been made in such a way. That is what Brokeback Mountain got over Crash. If the gay factor had not been the subject, the movie wouldn’t have been made.

I don’t know for sure if Brokeback Mountain would have been the deserved winner, I haven’t seen the other movies. I just wanted to defend it against the argument that underneath it’s only an average love story. Underneath a lot of layers of what makes this movie matter, yes, possibly. However, with the subject as it is, I don’t see how BBM could ever have been just another love story.

Tomorrow “Love & Other Drugs”.

ETA: Article: Huh, in which universe did Brokeback Mountain win the Oscars?

Jake Gyllenhaal about Heath Ledger

Can anybody explain to me what Jake meant to say here?

"I don’t really like talking about it. That period of time was…it was difficult. He was very sensitive. He didn’t always have a sense of performance in his everyday life. He knew who he was. I think actors very often, they know how to present something, and that’s part of their job. I think he was just really sensitive. We often used to do a lot of things together, because people were very interested in him and I think we felt safe together. Even when we did Brokeback and stuff, it was like my work was the only thing that mattered to me. It was like I could only understand or define myself through doing that. Life, I didn’t totally understand. And I think I was afraid of life. And I had success in my work, enough success that you could keep going back there. But after that happened…I think I recognized that it was work. And I recognized that this is for real."

Source: GQ magazine.

Can I point out that Jake used to hang out with Heath because people were very interested in Heath? Uhmmm... Was that just an unfortunate way of phrasing? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

Since yesterday's post I felt the need to collect the other moments where Jake pretended to talk about Heath. I have to admit this is more for my own collection and convenience, but for anyone who stumbles across this blog and post to enjoy.

Here's Jake referencing Heath.

These were two very recent examples. I remember seing an interviewer cornering Jake on the red carpet. He politely replied a very general reply. I've been searching for that video, but can't seem to find it anymore, neither do I remember from which award show it was, possibly the 2008 Oscars.

This was what I was looking for:

" "I do miss him," Jake tells Live magazine."

Source: www.nowmagazine.com

Thanks, Jake.