05-25-2006, 11:58 AM
Lady Cranefly and I had a rare opportunity to see this blockbuster on the big screen at the California Theater in San Jose.
The whole experience was very new to me. I’m accustomed to sitting back and letting a movie wash over me. So it took some getting used to an audience that shouted out the lines along with the actors, turned on bright flashlights every time the blazing desert sun appeared on screen, and threw handfuls of sand at each desert panorama.
After intermission (this is a longer version, less subtle in certain subtexts), I decided to join the Romans in their indulgences. When the gigantic dust devil appeared and everyone got up and started spinning around, I got up and spun too -- though I nearly threw up. When Lawrence was at his most parched and everyone pulled out squirt guns and squirted at him, I at least spat along. And during the big battle scenes when everyone pulled out horse and camel heads on sticks -- and some guy offered Lady Cranefly and me spares he’d brought along -- I galloped about in the aisle with everyone else, feeling like an utter fool (though I really started getting into the rump-slaps). When it came to Lawrence’s interlude with Jose Ferrer (and my oh my, I’ve never seen so many butt plugs brandished at the same time), I pulled out the only thing I had available.
Anyway, I think I’ll just end my review here without offering any definite opinion of the movie. I’m still digesting the whole experience.
Oh, Lady Cranefly was quite taken by the amazingly pretty Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. She thought the movie should have taken a slightly different turn, and she even offered up an appropriate title: Brokeback Sand Dune.
--cranefly
The whole experience was very new to me. I’m accustomed to sitting back and letting a movie wash over me. So it took some getting used to an audience that shouted out the lines along with the actors, turned on bright flashlights every time the blazing desert sun appeared on screen, and threw handfuls of sand at each desert panorama.
After intermission (this is a longer version, less subtle in certain subtexts), I decided to join the Romans in their indulgences. When the gigantic dust devil appeared and everyone got up and started spinning around, I got up and spun too -- though I nearly threw up. When Lawrence was at his most parched and everyone pulled out squirt guns and squirted at him, I at least spat along. And during the big battle scenes when everyone pulled out horse and camel heads on sticks -- and some guy offered Lady Cranefly and me spares he’d brought along -- I galloped about in the aisle with everyone else, feeling like an utter fool (though I really started getting into the rump-slaps). When it came to Lawrence’s interlude with Jose Ferrer (and my oh my, I’ve never seen so many butt plugs brandished at the same time), I pulled out the only thing I had available.
Anyway, I think I’ll just end my review here without offering any definite opinion of the movie. I’m still digesting the whole experience.
Oh, Lady Cranefly was quite taken by the amazingly pretty Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. She thought the movie should have taken a slightly different turn, and she even offered up an appropriate title: Brokeback Sand Dune.
--cranefly
I'm nobody's pony.