Strange Way Of Life
Just finished watching "Strange Way Of Life" released by Sony Pictures Classics.
This short 31-minute movie was written and directed by Pedro Almodovar, and gained a lot of critical attention as being the successor to "Brokeback Mountain" for it's supposedly unflinching look at gay cowboys in the Old West. It garnered critical acclaim at the Caines Film Festival and even was "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now a word about Rotten Tomatoes. It used to be a pretty good website for rating movies until it was bought out by Hollywood and the rules for reviews changed. So you have to take a Certified Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes with a very large grain of salt.
The lynch pin of "Strange Way Of Life" is the romance between Sheriff Jake and rancher Silva. Its a rather curious gay romance, because in order for these to men, who have previously been in heterosexual relationships with women, to have sex with each other, them must be drunk - despite the previous indication that Sheriff Jake lusts after/has a relationship with a young Mexican cowboy singing a song of lost love.
Silva has ridden into town after staying away from Jake for 25-years on the pretense of seeing the doctor. In reality, Silva is trying to persuade Jake not to bring in his son for the murder of Jake's sister-in-law, a woman both men had slept with.
In a tense shoot out, Silva deliberately shoots Jake in order to give his son an opportunity to escape to a new life, and while nursing Jake back to health, he tells Jake that two men living on a ranch caring for each other is a life both of them still can have, even though it was Jake who walked away from the idea 25 years ago.
The end.
A well filmed movie, but it doesn't break any new ground or tell any new compelling stories. Here's what Woke Hollywood is overlooking, gay life may have been hidden in the real past of the Old West, but it was present. Men who were partners in real life in the Old West are often buried together in shared graves clearly marked on the tombstones. And in the 1940s -1960s during the Golden Age of Hollywood and Radio, there were plenty of open LGBTQ references. Perhaps the best example is The Lone Ranger radio program where The Longer Ranger and Tonto are referred to as each other's Pards, and it's often commented by men a majority of the time, and a few women too, on how finely dressed Tonto is and how both are fine physical and muscular examples of manhood.
So the idea of gay western is as old as the Old West its self and is nothing new. But I noticed that there has been no complaints about two straight men, at least I think Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal are heterosexual men, taking on roles that should have been given to at least bisexual if not gay actors, at least according to the Woke guidelines of Hollywood.
"Strange Way Of Life" is not ground breaking, nor does it give a particularly new twist on a father torn between the love for his son and his lover.
Watch it if you must, but "Strange Way Of Life" would have benefited for a longer, more fleshed out story.
Two Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Way-Li...
This short 31-minute movie was written and directed by Pedro Almodovar, and gained a lot of critical attention as being the successor to "Brokeback Mountain" for it's supposedly unflinching look at gay cowboys in the Old West. It garnered critical acclaim at the Caines Film Festival and even was "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now a word about Rotten Tomatoes. It used to be a pretty good website for rating movies until it was bought out by Hollywood and the rules for reviews changed. So you have to take a Certified Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes with a very large grain of salt.
The lynch pin of "Strange Way Of Life" is the romance between Sheriff Jake and rancher Silva. Its a rather curious gay romance, because in order for these to men, who have previously been in heterosexual relationships with women, to have sex with each other, them must be drunk - despite the previous indication that Sheriff Jake lusts after/has a relationship with a young Mexican cowboy singing a song of lost love.
Silva has ridden into town after staying away from Jake for 25-years on the pretense of seeing the doctor. In reality, Silva is trying to persuade Jake not to bring in his son for the murder of Jake's sister-in-law, a woman both men had slept with.
In a tense shoot out, Silva deliberately shoots Jake in order to give his son an opportunity to escape to a new life, and while nursing Jake back to health, he tells Jake that two men living on a ranch caring for each other is a life both of them still can have, even though it was Jake who walked away from the idea 25 years ago.
The end.
A well filmed movie, but it doesn't break any new ground or tell any new compelling stories. Here's what Woke Hollywood is overlooking, gay life may have been hidden in the real past of the Old West, but it was present. Men who were partners in real life in the Old West are often buried together in shared graves clearly marked on the tombstones. And in the 1940s -1960s during the Golden Age of Hollywood and Radio, there were plenty of open LGBTQ references. Perhaps the best example is The Lone Ranger radio program where The Longer Ranger and Tonto are referred to as each other's Pards, and it's often commented by men a majority of the time, and a few women too, on how finely dressed Tonto is and how both are fine physical and muscular examples of manhood.
So the idea of gay western is as old as the Old West its self and is nothing new. But I noticed that there has been no complaints about two straight men, at least I think Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal are heterosexual men, taking on roles that should have been given to at least bisexual if not gay actors, at least according to the Woke guidelines of Hollywood.
"Strange Way Of Life" is not ground breaking, nor does it give a particularly new twist on a father torn between the love for his son and his lover.
Watch it if you must, but "Strange Way Of Life" would have benefited for a longer, more fleshed out story.
Two Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Way-Li...
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