NATHAN LANE ON "LETTERMAN" ( Brokeback Mountain-the musical)- Page 2

[phantompenguinx]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 11:34am

SamIAm got it exactly right. Brokeback Mountain should be just a love story between two men. Unfortunately, the media caught hold and have blown everything out of proportion. It's now the "gay cowboy movie" which makes it ripe for jokes for comedians. It was just a skit. The jokes were standard, nothing new that I haven't heard before. Yes, it gets old pretty fast, but most jokes do, and then we move on. I'm already tired of the King Kong jokes and hope they go away soon.

This also hits on another point best12bars brought up in the "Offended by Produers" thread. Should a comedian refrain from making jokes because it will offend certain groups? I don't think anyone meant any disrespect.

I hardly think anyone's going to stray from seeing the movie just because they saw a cute (but hardly hysterical) skit on David Letterman.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 11:50am

In a way I think it sort of balances things out to have a gay actor make light of the film the same way other people have, but on the other hand I do sort of wish people would let the movie have a chance to breathe a little bit before knocking it. It's such easy humor. It gets a bit tiresome. Would people joke if the movie was about the relationship between a cowboy and a Native American woman or a black woman? Maybe, but probably not as much or in the same way. People making fun of a movie doesn't bother me, but when it starts to seem like people are trying to marginalize something by cutting it down, it gets frustrating.

[Lamc16]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 11:56am

i thought it was boring, to be honest. i turned it off halfway through. agreed about lane's shtick, dame.

[AngusN]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 12:02pm

Isn't Nathan Lane gay anyway? I do hope so. Otherwise he is in serious denial. Infact, he's so far in the closet, he's in Narnia.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 1:01pm

To be fair, if Nathan is dising the film, he's part of a widening gay backlash against the film. Talk to any two gay people who've seen it (many at this board), you won't always find the gaga-wet-hankie-damp crotch response. It's not everyone's favorite idea of a gay love story. So even though Nathan seems downright obsessed with it, he may be part of a bigger picture.

[Danielm]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 1:46pm

AngusN, Nathan Lane is very much out of the closet. He's come out on television, in magazines, he's not in the closet and one could argue he never was.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 2:21pm

I just think David Letterman flat out sucks. He's not funny and he's slowly sinking behind Leno & Conan. I think he tries way to hard to be funny sometimes. I dunno, I'm not gay, but it just gets annoying when like guys talk show hosts have to constantly express their hetero-ness when they have gay guests or something, ya know? Its just like, "okay, we know you're married Jay, we get it"

[Marguerite Chauvelin]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 2:32pm

I thought the parody was pretty funny. I never watch Letterman unless he has good guests, I much prefer Leno.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 2:46pm

"It's not everyone's favorite idea of a gay love story."

I can definitely understand that, but if that's where Nathan is coming from, I kind of wish he would just come out and say it.

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 2:57pm

People like their gays promiscuous and queeny. Too bad that when a film like Brokeback (which is not a great movie by any means, but at least it takes "the cause" to a higher level Hollywood-wise) comes along people have to label it.
Is "Hotel Rwanda" strictly a black movie? Who would dare to do a spoof of that with Don Cheadle eatin' fried chicken and watermelon? No one. The double standard - even from many gays themselves - is insulting.

And when someone like Nathan Lane, a gay man who is in a postion to help move things further along, instead chooses to set things back it is only disheartening. I thought it was cheap.

HOWEVER - I LOVED his Scientology reference and was actually shocked he said it.


Updated On: 12/22/05 at 02:57 PM

[Danielm]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 3:00pm

Hi Joey, I have to disagree with you. I think Brokeback IS a great movie. I have rarely had a movie resonate with me (and with a whole lot of other people including very jaded urban gay men) for such a long time.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 3:09pm

What did he say about scientology? I missed that.

[morosco]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 3:28pm

"...I am starting to find him extremely annoying..."

What took you so long? lol. I just wish he wasn't always "on". He's a bit like Martin Short in that respect. I wish he'd just be himself for a few minutes and relax.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 3:29pm

Mark me down for thinking BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is a GREAT movie. Ang Lee and his actors have crafted a very fine film indeed.

I don't think Nathan Lane is doing anyone any favours by making fun of BROKEBACK, just because gay people seem to be more interested in it than in his PRODUCERS project.

Updated On: 12/22/05 at 03:29 PM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 3:32pm

Nathan isn't the only gay man to regard the film in a less than glowing light. An interesting, alternate take on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is at the link.
"Brokedown Ideas"

[Danielm]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 5:29pm

I disagree with pretty much his whole viewpoint (and yes, I am a gay man). I disagree with Brown about the chemistry of the leading men, the dialogue, the pacing and especially his comment about the "outdated, out-of-touch theme". I grew up in a rural area and thought the movie was quite authentic (and, unfortunately, still quite true--remember Matthew Shephard). His review is very much from the point of view of a political professional urban gay man. I also disagree with his assessment of Ang Lee as a vastly over-rated heavey-handed filmmaker. In fact, that line makes me wonder if he's actually seen the film. I think it's a quite subtle movie and Heath Ledger's performance is nothing short of astonishing. Here's an actor who had never made much of an impression on me and I was totally blown away by the authenticity of his performance.

After moving to LA I spent a lot of time doing political activism and I recognize a lot of his arguments. He will never be happy with a film like this because he doesn't want a movie--he wants propaganda.

[SamIAm]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 7:22pm

First, let me say that I think it is anyone's right to find Lane's bit funny or unfunny. But, let's get the facts straight. The reason he started talking about this movie is that while he was doing Producers PR junket in L.A., the Brokeback Mountain press junket was also going on and because he is a GAY ACTOR everyone asked him about the movie. He said he thought it was a beautiful movie but, as he said on the Today Show, the gay love story was no big deal.

"guys, get a room" was what he jokingly said. If Letterman talked to him about the bits he would do on his show (which they do before every appearance) I'm sure he talked about the press Lane's comments in the Daily News and other papers and that spawned something of this nature.

First of all, just because you are gay you are not obligated to promote or advertise your desire to attain equality in EVERY APPEARANCE. Secondly, Letterman wants comedy and something fun from Lane...not a lecture about the state of equality in this country today and finally if you really think that Brokeback Mountain is the epitomy of a gay love story and that seeing it will immediately make those in the Red States invite gays into their homes, you are sadly mistaken. The mainstream accessibility of this movie is GOOD but Lane never said he didn't think the movie should have been made or that he didn't like it...so I am perplexed over why people feel he is trying to diss the movie because he did a comedy bit on Letterman.

Does that mean you think he is dissing blacks, jews, or gays because he did the Producers? Comedy has always been about having he maturity to laugh at ourselves and at the world around us.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 8:41pm

Brown dissed *Ang Lee*, highly respected director of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, THE ICE STORM and CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON? Lee is one of the most talented, and certainly the most versatile, of film directors working today. (Sure, THE HULK was a miss, but Lee's stylized visuals and cross-cutting was commendable.) That's proof that this guy just has bad taste and wouldn't know a complex, finely-wrought movie if it crawled up his wazoo.

Updated On: 12/22/05 at 08:41 PM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 10:35pm

Leni Riefenstal was a consummate craftsman too.
Does that mean one has "bad taste" if one disagrees with the message of the finely wrought, beautifully photographed THE TRIUMPH OF THE WILL?

Updated On: 12/22/05 at 10:35 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/23/05 at 12:03am

"Brown dissed *Ang Lee*, highly respected director of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, THE ICE STORM and CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON?"

Holy Christ, if the fundamental conservatism of Lee wasn't in full evidence to you in THE ICE STORM, as it was to me, then I suppose you would miss that he played such an integral part in turning a straight woman's fantasies of a gay relationship into a paean to the closet.

I thought Nathan's Letterman performance was brilliant, a wonderful parody. Clever wordplay that was better than Forbidden Broadway at its best. AND it nailed the Abercrombie and Fitch ad resemblance of Brokeback to boot.

To blame "the media" for making a big deal out of Brokeback is to completely miss the inordinate over-the-top response of gay men stuck in a certain particular stage of emotional development who, like the tween girls who overidentify with BOTH female leads in Wicked, go on and on and ON about it.

Many people I respect liked the movie. But, frankly, I was sorta taken aback when a colleague with whom I have never spoken about movies or art said to me this morning, "Have you seen the movie?" I'm not kidding. "The movie."

Hell, the RENT movie and even the gay slasher movie Hellbent had better representations of what real gay relationships are like. And that's just the last six months of movie releases.

[DAME]

Posted: 12/23/05 at 12:07am

"Hell, the RENT movie and even the gay slasher movie Hellbent had better representations of what real gay relationships are like. And that's just the last six months of movie releases."

Makes me kind of wonder what kind of relationships you have had. And in a way.. it explains so much. Now don't get nasty with me Namo. We just disagree on this one and I am being bitch. I know that.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/23/05 at 12:55am

I've had well integrated relationships without a whiff of tragedy and nary a single illusion that either of us are "THE one" for the other, and no sense that either of us, or the relationship is doomed. No angst, no knucklebiting.

In other words, not somebody who's going to overidentify with Brokeback Mountain. In other words, not the market targets who are getting hit right between the eyes by this movie.

[DAME]

Posted: 12/23/05 at 1:02am

What?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/23/05 at 1:05am

I. Don't. Know. If. I. Type. More. Slowly. Whether. Or. Not. You. Will. Understand. My. Point. Then.

But. Probably. Not.

Maybe. I'll. Call. It. A. Night. And. Let. You. Retitle. Your. Rathnait. Thread. Again.

[DAME]

Posted: 12/23/05 at 1:07am

Thanks Namo. This conversation was getting to deep for me and I am way too tired and you are way too smart for me . Goodnight.