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January 15, 2007
The mainstreaming of 'Brokeback'
Posted by: Chris
It seems even a "family movie" these days can include a "Brokeback Mountain" reference, though the one they slipped into Ben Stiller's "A Night at the Museum" flies below the radar of most young-uns.
After fighting incessantly for most of the film, miniature cowboy Jebediah (Owen Wilson) is finally bonding with miniature Roman emperor Octavius (Steve Coogan). Facing (silly) adversity, Octavius yells for Jebediah to save himself. "No way!" Jebediah yells back. "I'm not gonna quit you!" It's a very subtle send-up, of course, of Jake Gyllenhaal's now-classic line in "Brokeback," when he says to Heath Ledger, "I wish I knew how to quit you."
Not surprisingly, it was completely lost on the youngish , mostly local crowd who saw the film last night with my boyfriend and me in Leblon, a ritzy beach neighborhood in Rio De Janeiro. Then again, my guffaw is usually the only one in the cinema down here when the joke depends on American pop culture references. A trailer before the film for "The Simpsons" new movie finds Homer swinging helplessly on a wrecking ball between a big rock and a building…with a bar…called "The Hard Place." The Brazilian translators, who usually don't miss a detail in the subtitles, didn't even attempt to explain that bit of visual pun.
I would be curious to hear if the adults back home in the States are catching the "Brokeback" joke from "A Night at the Museum."
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Comments
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I guess now I will have to see the movie!
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Saw this in SFO at a theater where 90% of the audience was made up of straight parents and their children. This gag was one of the biggest laughs. All of the adults got it.
terry
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Kevin on Jan 15, 2007 6:12:24 PM:
Yeah, but you know, the BBM jokes are so ubiquitous and overdone by now, I was more struck by it being a *kind* pun for a change. Most of them are just atrociously homophobic back here.