“Burning Blue” - "Brokeback Mountain" Meets “Top Gun”

Don't Ask Don't Tell is on the trash heap of history now, but while it lasted it harmed and/or destroyed many lives.  Some of those lives were of local military members and the boyfriend and I count as friends a good number of individuals who lived under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  Some were thrown out of the military for who they were and who they loved.  A new movie, "Burning Blue," looks at such lives and is based on the play written by DMW Greer that draws from his own experiences as a naval aviator.  One synopsis describes the basic plot as follows:

Since enlisting in the Navy, movie-star handsome elite aircraft pilots Daniel and William have been the best of friends. A friendship tested following two fatal accidents aboard their aircraft carrier. A government agent is placed aboard the ship to determine what may have been at the root of the mishaps. But his investigation abruptly changes direction when a sailor reports seeing Daniel cavorting with another fighter pilot, the headstrong, muscle-bound Matthew, in a gay club changing their lives forever. Think a gay Top Gun with heart and soul.

Newnownext describes the movie this way:

Burning Blue, the new drama from writer-director DMW Greer, recounts an illicit affair tween two male Navy pilots in the era of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. If that sounds a little Top Gun meets Brokeback Mountain, you should know the film is based on Greer’s 1992 off-Broadway play of the same name.

Lionsgate is distributing the film, which boasts a pretty impressive cast, including  Trent Ford (Gosford Park), Morgan Spector (Boardwalk Empire), Rob Mayes (The Client List) and Tammy Blanchard (Life with Judy Garland).  Burning Blue lands in theaters and on VOD on June 6. 

Other than perhaps the Naro Theater, the film may not even be shown in this area even though there are thousands of gays in the military.  

Tim Tebow Needs to Read His Bible!

No one enjoys wearing their religion on their sleeve and congratulating themselves more than the Christianist and the professional Christian set - think Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, etc., etc. Oh, and then there's the increasingly delusional Tim Tebow, who seems to be belatedly getting on the nerves of his fellow football players. Indeed, Tebow seems more concerned with engaging in constant displays of his religiosity than he does playing football. Frankly, I find him insufferable. Moreover, while playing the role of super Christian, he certainly seems to have not bothered to read his Bible. Note Christ's purported description of such public displays: "hypocrites." Don't believe me? Here it is:

Matthew 6:5-6: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

I guess I should not be surprised by Tebow's conduct since no group ignores the dictates of the Bible more than the Christianists and those who like to exalt themselves publicly. Andy Towle has a good take on Tebow's lunacy here in a post captioned "Tim Tebow's Wife is in a Brokeback Marriage".

Too Gay For The USA?

The caption of this post is the headline of an article that looks at the slow launch and to date depressing revenues of the movie I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. True to form - and probably supporting the article's premise - the movie is not showing anywhere locally. If it shows anywhere, it will likely be at The Naro Theater in Norfolk's Ghent neighborhood which is the region's closest thing to a gayborhood. Where the movie is doing well is in European markets where males in particular don't seem so afflicted with insecurity about their own sexuality. The article goes on to posit that the characters in Phillip Morris aren't agonizing about their sexuality and don't end up dead or outcasts also cuts against the norm of how Hollywood films treat gay protaganists in what few large release gay themed films we have seen in the past. It's unfortunate, but I believe the article is a damning testament to how f*cked American society remains when it comes to LGBT acceptance. Here are highlights from AskMen:
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I Love You Phillip Morris, the new film starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, has so far grossed over $18 million -- almost entirely in foreign markets. In fact, as of last week, its domestic ticket sales wouldn't pay the salary of a school superintendent. That's because, although the film has been finished for almost two years, it was just released in the United States last Friday and has so far been shown on a total of six screens.
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Though the industry reaction wasn't overtly bigoted -- Hollywood is a town of making-nice and air-kissing after all -- there was a telling deafness to the project. "It was almost a lack of reaction. More a retreat," says Lazar.
Distributors may well have been thrown by a film as genre-bending and tonally-varied as Phillip Morris, which is at once a slapstick comedy, a con-man thriller, a prison-break drama and a love story, but the gay content seems to have been a major factor in their skittishness.
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There have been big American movies starring gay characters in recent years, notably Brokeback Mountain and Milk, and one would think these Oscar-winning hits would have whetted the industry's appetite for gay subject matter, or at least settled its uneasy stomach. But in truth, when Hollywood embraces films with gay themes, it does so in fairly specific and predictable ways, and the offbeat, morally neutral Phillip Morris simply didn't fit the mold.
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So what, in particular, does Hollywood not like about Philip Morris?... In each case, being gay creates personal or social problems for the characters and is the main font of dramatic tension in the film. It's hardly a coincidence that the protagonists of major gay-themed films generally wind up dead, slain either by disease or by bigoted assassins representing the status quo. . . . As such, their deaths make a broader social point and an easily digestible moral lesson for the viewing public. They're martyrs to time and place, figures both tragic and heroic.
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Carrey's flamboyant fraudster is none of the above. Where Hollywood's gay favorites are noble or conflicted, Russell is selfish and exuberant. He's neither a political crusader nor a tortured soul, and I Love You Phillip Morris offers none of the easy balms of martyrdom or an Underdog-vs.-the-Machine narrative.
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Andrew Lazar thinks it's precisely this lack of agonizing and self-flagellation that's made the film popular with GLAAD and other gay and lesbian groups. "Once he gets to his authentic self there's never any looking back," says Lazar. "It's: 'This is it. I'm gay and this is who I'm going to be.'" It sounds so simple, yet marketing departments were afraid of the movie, says Lazar, which he describes as "an unapologetic gay love story" with an audacious sense of humor.
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More audacious than the humor is the fact that the film treats homosexuality as neither an obstacle nor a plight, resulting for once in a film with gay characters that's not about the personal or social travails of being gay. Like anyone, Steven and Phillip have their problems, but being gay isn't one of them.

Parental Rejection - Or, It's All About Themselves

Sadly, I know those whose parents have disowned them when they have come out. They use all kinds of excuses for their inexcusable behavior, often citing religious belief or cultural traditions. In truth, however, I believe that it's really all about the parents' own self absorption and greater concern about themselves than their children. A story out of India takes this behavior to an extreme. Here, the family's son merely played gay in a movie, yet the parents are disowning him. In their statements to the media, it is absolutely clear that the parents don't give a damn about their child - instead it's all about themselves. As a parent, I cannot comprehend how one gets their priorities so totally f*cked up. Here are highlights from the Times of India:
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The Delhi High Court's judgement in favour of homosexuals last year hasn't had much impact on the family of actor Yuvraaj Parasher, the lead of Dunno Y ... Na Jaane Kyun that has India's first gay kissing scene in it and also shows love-making and several intimate moments between two men.
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Yuvraaj, TOI has learned, has been disowned by his family for playing a homosexual on screen and has been thrown out of his home in Agra.
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Worse, his father is ready to go to court and officially cut off ties with his son. Seen as India's answer to Ang Lee's sensitive drama Brokeback Mountain that boasts of remarkable acting from Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, Dunno Y ... Na Jaane Kyun sees Yuvraaj partner with actor Kapil Sharma to breathe life into their bold characters.
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Yuvraaj's father Satish Parasher told BT, . . . He kept us in the dark right from when he signed the film and told us that he is acting with a girl. When we heard about the poster and the things he has done in the film, we were shocked, hurt and humiliated. People will make fun of us and we won't be able to live peacefully ever again."
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"His mother is totally devastated," said the aggrieved father. "We are a respected family and I'm appalled that he is playing a gay man's role. We're finished. All the dreams and hopes we had built around him are over. For just a film role, he has lost out on his blood ties. We don't want to see his face ever... not even when we are dying."
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And there you have it, a shining example of religious and societal based based "family values." I find it utterly disgusting.

Heath Ledger Found Dead

OMG! Last week it was Brad Renfro, now Heath Ledger. He was only 28. I always liked Heath Ledger as an actor, not only in Broke Back Mountain, but as far back as during my closeted days when he was in a short lived Fox TV series called "Roar." What makes it even worse is that police are saying it may have been a suicide. It is hard to imagine what would make someone with his looks - yes I always found him very sexy - and talent and professional success take such a desperate step. What could have been so unbearable? It is likely that no one will ever know for certain. What a sad and tragic loss. I particulary identified with his torment as Ennis in Brokeback Mountain in the scenes where he is trying to deal with who he is and at the same time having a wife and children. It brought tears to my eyes. Here is what MSNBC is reporting so far:

MSNBC News Services (updated 21 minutes ago) NEW YORK - Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28. According to the New York Times, Ledger was found naked and unconscious with pills strewn all around him in an apartment owned by actress Mary-Kate Olsen. Police sources told the Times that the death appeared to be a suicide.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the apartment. The housekeeper, who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, found him unconscious at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET, according to the New York Times. After receiving no response from the actor after shaking him, they called authorities.

“We are investigating the possibility of an overdose,” Browne said. “There were pills within the vicinity of the bed.” The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for “Brokeback Mountain,” where he met actress Michelle Williams, in 2005. Ledger and Williams had lived in Brooklyn with their 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, until they split up last year.

The New York Times adds the following:

The police said they did not suspect foul play. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office of the city’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, said that employees of the office were at the apartment and that an autopsy would be conducted on Wednesday.

Police officials have said that the apartment was owned by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen,Officials said they believed Ms. Olsen, 21, was in California and that Mr. Ledger had been living in her apartment. Ms. Olsen attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, for the premiere of “The Wackness,” a film in which she stars with the actor Ben Kingsley. It was not clear where she went after the film screening.