Michael Medved, raconteur and conservative film savant, appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show last night, where he had this to say about Brokeback Mountain:
“There’s clearly an agenda going on here. It is part of the advocacy for mainstreaming homosexual behavior and promoting gay marriage, and it is also undermining the American cowboy ideal…I have nothing against the subject matter. The point is that these newspapers use entertainment to push political agendas. They do it all the time, it’s indoctrination. I’ll predict the movie will get a lot of awards, but will not do big box office outside of the big cities.”
Brokeback Mountain per-screen average, 12/17-12/20: $7,932.34 (69 screens)
Chronicles of Narnia per-screen average, 12/17-12/20: $2,058.67 (3,616 screens)
L.A. Times: “The so-called gay cowboy movie finds broad appeal outside the major cities“:
“The closely watched debut in Plano, Texas, ‘was a revelation about the accessibility of this movie,’ said Focus head of distribution Jack Foley. ‘This is not gay-dependent. Attendance at those theaters indicates the film has the attention of suburban moviegoers.'”
Roger Ebert’s review:
“It could be a ‘gay cowboy movie.’ But the filmmakers have focused so intently and with such feeling on Jack and Ennis that the movie is as observant as work by Bergman. Strange but true: The more specific a film is, the more universal, because the more it understands individual characters, the more it applies to everyone. I can imagine someone weeping at this film, identifying with it, because he always wanted to stay in the Marines, or be an artist or a cabinetmaker.”
Can we please take Medved’s film critic badge away yet?