Published: June 20, 2008 09:43 am      

Where real cowboys never roam

I hope the current presidential nominees do not repeat the mistake Sen. John Kerry made while running for president in 2004.

Kerry was trying to curry favor with Hollywood when he made the statement, “Hollywood is the heart and soul of America.” To which he received a thunderous applause.

I thought, if that is true, America is rotten to the core, has lost its way, broken its moral compass, and is engaged in an all-out assault on the family and traditional mainstream values.

Case in point: In 2004, The Golden Globes (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) announced the nominees for picture of the year.

Among others, “Brokeback Mountain” was not only nominated for best picture, but was also nominated in several other categories.

In case you don’t know, this movie was adapted from a short story written by Annie Proulx titled, “Close Range.” The film (after only debuting in San Francisco and New York) was heralded by critics as a spectacular cowboy romance.

New York Film critics named it the best movie of the year.

I can’t stress enough that this is not a Clint Eastwood, Gene Autry, Lone Ranger kind of cowboy movie.

Not even close. This movie is about two ranch hands, played by actors (the late) Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. And according to reviews, “These two cowboys meet and fall in love one summer while working as sheepherders in a place called Camp Tender. They get married (to women) and father children. However, their love needs to survive society’s intolerance of gay relationships.”

They meet every so often out on the trail, without their wives’ or children’s knowledge, to rekindle their homosexual cowboy romance.

What the movie reviews don’t reveal is the level of therapy the wives and children need or get in the movie.

A cowboy romance movie? Huh?

I wonder what Gill Favor or Rowdy Yates of the “Rawhide” show era would do if they found out one of their ranch hands had gone steer crazy.

Or can you imagine John Wayne cuddling up with James Caan in a sleeping bag by the campfire one starry night?

What about Audie Murphy holding hands with Jack Palance as they watered their horses?

How about Clint Eastwood celebrating the lockup of a bad guy by laying a long deep lip-lock on Burt Lancaster?

I can’t imagine it! I won’t!

This movie is an absolute insult, not only to decent Americans, but to those great cowboys and cowgirls and their movies of times past.

Greats such as Wayne starring as the larger-than-life cattle baron George Washington McClintock in the western epic “McClintock.” Or as the movie cover describes it: “The beautiful Jane Russell setting the screen on fire in her sultry performance in ‘The Outlaw.’ ” Or Burt Lancaster and his thirst for justice in the dramatic “Vengeance Valley.”

And let’s not forget Eastwood in “Hang ’em High” or “The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly.”

Roy Rogers and his trusted horse Trigger must be flipping in their graves.

I suppose it is a good thing the western cowboy greats are not here to witness the sheer perversion of their once-proud cowboy lore, where cowboys were tough and plainspoken. Where the good guys always win. A time when the cowboy stood up for what was just and true.

Back then on the silver screen we saw great character, courage and, for the most part, positive role models.

It was entertainment at its best. Entertainment that featured loyal, heroic companions such as Tonto and smart horses named Trigger. We saw boots with spurs, quick draws, 10-gallon hats that never fell off, and dead-eye pearl-handled six-shooters.

Today, Hollywood has perversely used this genre for nothing more than an all-out assault on the family and its values. They are driven by the foolish logic that movies such as “Brokeback Mountain” are ones the majority of Americans will pay to see.

I believe this movie trend and twisted logic is getting bolder and shoddier. Hollywood’s thirst for making these and other movie statements (let’s not kid ourselves, because that is exactly what it is) and pushing them into the mainstream seem unquenchable.

The envelope is not just being pushed here; it is being ripped wide open.

Unchecked or unchallenged, they will continue this assault, with the family and its values squarely in the crosshairs.

How did “Brokeback Mountain” do on video? Who knows and who cares? They’ll get not one red nickel of mine to rent that trash, because that is not my idea of American heart and soul.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like my cowboys mean and riding western style, not sidesaddle.

I believe “Brokeback Mountain” should be called by its true name – “Brokendown Values.”

A cowboy love story?

For heaven sakes, gallop for the hills, John, James, Audie, Jack, Clint and Roy, because Hollywood has a couple of cute cowboys ready to plant big wet ones on you.



Robin L. Quillon is the publisher of The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at rquillon@tribdem.com.