V. The Power of Propaganda: Brokering Brokeback Mountain-a local reception study

The Power of Propaganda: Brokering Brokeback Mountain-a local reception study

            In an article entitled “Brokering Brokeback Mountain-a local reception study” by Harry Benshoff, the reader is informed about the reaction of the filmgoers in the Metroplex area surrounding Dallas, Texas concerning the movie Brokeback Mountain which premiered in 2005. Benshoff gathered his information from two surveys and judged the amount of fear, anger, disappointment, and moral offence generated amongst the community. In other words, the surveys helped him gauge how people accepted or rejected the propaganda that was associated with the film. There were two specific reactions that I found interesting from the results. The first one deals with the feeling that the movie threatened the concept of masculinity. The other one deals with how the film dealt with the concept of infidelity.

            When Benshoff studied the responds, he found that the movie was watched by gay men, followed by urban heterosexual couples, women, and teenage girls. He concluded that women are not threatened with male intimacy on film, but heterosexual men are scared. In fact, some of the male respondents said that they were afraid to see the film. Fear is not a masculine behavior and fear of a movie is certainly not a masculine behavior. Benshoff gave several reasons why this may have occurred. He cited peer pressure from other men, the idea that watching this movie would compromise their sexuality, and that the movie threatened their masculinity.  In my judgment, the propaganda spread by groups such as the American Family Association who claimed that the movie would have patrons vomiting in the aisles also contributed to their fear.  Brokeback Mountain had two masculine characters that married women, had children and did all the activities associated with marriage. They also exhibited the masculine behavior of internalizing their emotions. For myself, I thought it strange that both gay and heterosexual men would not identify those behaviors as being masculine. It was obvious that some of the men believed the propaganda.

            With the concept of infidelity in the movie, Benshoff’s article mentions the response from Dale Carpenter. He is a former official in the Texas Log Cabin Republicans (a group of self-proclaimed gay Republicans). Carpenter spread the propaganda that the gay community had not considered the moral message of the film, but Benshoff found in his surveys that both homosexual and heterosexual filmgoers thought about the complexities of adultery and betrayal of family values. In my opinion, the film dealt with the emotional tragedy of infidelity on several levels. There was the emotional tragedy between the two main characters, their families, and near the end of the movie when Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) had died; Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) has the emotional visit with Jack’s parents. In contrast to the propaganda, the film dealt with dishonest, betrayal and infidelity in a very stern manner.

            Benshoff’s surveys reflected how different groups of people reacted to the film. There was the assumption that the entire Christian community was hostile toward homosexuals, that heterosexual men would become gay if they watched male intimacy, and that homosexuals have no concept of fidelity or family values. All the propaganda was wrong. Brokeback Mountain was a fictional film, but it made people think about their attitudes regarding homosexuality and moral issues. When one fails to evaluate their own attitudes and listens exclusively to propaganda, they are walking through life with their eyes closed.

Works Cited

Benshoff, Harry M. “Brokering Brokeback Mountain- a local reception study”. 2008. Fri. 31. Aug 2012.  http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc50.2008/BrokbkMtn/index.html.