Shalit's Brokeback Review

[Gemini Cricket]

I got an email from GLAAD about Gene Shalit's review on the Today Show of 'Brokeback Mountain'. I'm not sure how I feel about both sides of the argument at hand.

On Jan. 5, NBC News' Today show featured Gene Shalit's review of Brokeback Mountain on his regular "Critic's Corner" segment. Rather than focus on the merits of the film, Shalit — who has been a Today show regular for 31 years — used the occasion to promote defamatory anti-gay prejudice to a national audience.
In the piece, Shalit refers to Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack, as a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts."

Source

1. I don't think Shalit understood what he was watching. If Jack's the predator, he certainly could have been stopped physically by Ennis at any time. They showed the scene where Ennis decked him... The relationship was concentual.

2. Is it anti-gay to say that you felt Gyllenhaal's character was a predator? Althought I appreicate their organization, I feel that GLAAD is overreacting a bit.

3. Shalit focused a lot on this and only this in his whole review. I thought he was a film critic? What about the script, the actresses playing the wives, the cinematograhy, the dialogue etc? He mentions Ledger's performance but the review lacked alot...

4. Is this a publicity stunt to generate some controversy about the film? Being that Shalit has a gay son, he wrote about it in this article and he's doesn't sound anti-gay in it. Were the producers of the film hoping that some sort of controversy about the subject matter would help promote the film and when none surfaced they tried to develop some? (It's a stretch but it does happen.)

At one point, Shalit says he doesn't praise the film. But he never says why outside of his impression of the Gyllenhaal chatacter.

Watching it a second and third time, he does sound anti-gay, but is he?

Watch the review and see what you think. It's in the Source link above...