Letter: ‘Brokeback’ is a mountain of hype

Friday, Dec. 30, 2005 | 7:53 a.m.

The movie "Brokeback Mountain" should be renamed "Snow-Job Mountain." The flurry of hype, misinformation and downright propaganda surrounding this movie simply boggles the mind. After reading yet another newspaper article promoting this film (Tom Gorman's Dec. 28 column, "In search of the gay cowboys"), I decided to check it out on the Internet. At first glance, you would think that it was destined to become another classic masterpiece, something on the order of "Casablanca."

Then I started to look at the numbers. This movie may just be the biggest box-office bomb of the year. It opened in limited release in the densely populated citadels of liberalism -- New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco (with a nationwide release slated for January). It earned $544,549 the first weekend while "The Chronicles of Narnia" earned $67.1 million. By Christmas, it had only netted a paltry $4.9 million after two weeks, while "King Kong" earned 20 times that in only eight days.

Who are these people kidding? If "Brokeback Mountain" can't make it in San Francisco, they've got to know that they're in deep trouble.

This is a niche film and it will be big in the gay community, and the Oscars might throw it a bone, but all the ballyhooing from Hollywood about it going "mainstream" is nothing but a snow job to coax people into the theaters.

They need to face reality -- 95 percent of humanity is heterosexual, and while there may be compassion and tolerance for gays, the majority of people are just not going to be interested in a film that explores the inner turmoil of the gay lifestyle, whether they are cowboys, firemen or lumberjacks.

I just hope it doesn't ruin actor Heath Ledger's career. I really like him.

Linda Caterine

Henderson