Our confusions, fears, and fascination with sexuality are constantly played out in the movies. As pure cinema, Brokeback Mountain is a beautiful and moving work of art by Ang Lee, a master filmmaker. As a product on the market in a biased culture, it was a watershed moment in American film: it focuses on the lives of two American men who love one another and it won three Academy Awards (and dozens of others).
And its message is universal. As a reviewer on IMDB said, “Brokeback Mountain is a place where we all most desperately yearn to go. It’s the place where we are free to be ourselves.” Esteemed critic Rogert Ebert said : “The more specific a film is, the more universal, because the more it understands individual characters, the more it applies to everyone. I can imagine someone weeping at this film, identifying with it, because he always wanted to stay in the Marines, or be an artist or a cabinetmaker.”
Question: What aspects of their struggle with the world outside BrokebackMountain are common to many people? Be sure to reference specific scenes as you make your points.
1) Each Film Response must be a minimum of 600 words. You may go over that minimum, but no Response even one word under the minimum will be accepted. Please include the word count in your heading (see #3).
2) I’m grading entirely on content, not mechanics (grammar, spelling, etc.); but a Response will lose points if it contains sentences that are unclear due to errors. And please do remember to italicize film titles.
3) At the top of the first page, put your name, HUM 2250, the date, and where/when you viewed the film (name of theater or streaming service or rental/owned DVD, and date), the date you are submitting the response, and the word count.
4) In the film folders you will find a brief introduction and question or questions. For each of the two Film Responses, choose one film and answer ONE question about it. Note that some questions have more than one part. ALL of the Response MUST address the question. NO CREDIT whatsoever will be given for a plot recap or general statements about the film or the topic. I’ve seen all these films and know what happens in them, so do not waste any word count explaining the plot. ALWAYS refer to specific scenes and incidents in the film to support your answer to the questions.
5) Even if you’ve already seen the film you’re writing on, you should watch it again specifically to formulate a good answer to the question about it.
6) Submit the Responses via the links on this page before the due date. These essays will be evaluated by SafeAssign and there should be no highlighted content in the SafeAssignreport except for generic phrases, names (films, actors, etc.), and short quotes from the film. Do not put in long quotes; they will not be counted as part of the required word count.
7) I will assign each Response a point value up to 50, based on how well you addressed the question for the film, including specific references to scenes that support your view.
