Minor Brokeback Location Rant. Mind the Grousing--
You know, I love my Flist, I really do, but if one more person talks about how Alberta doesn't look like Wyoming, I'm going to have some sort of large fit. *sigh* Wyoming does not look like Wyoming circa 1963 anymore. Alberta doubles for a heck of a lot of places a heck of a lot of the time, and I'm willing to bet that if the locations for Brokeback Mountain hadn't been so well publicized, nobody would be going on about it like it's some sort of weird betrayal for one place to stand in for another. Personally, I'd love to at least hear those Not!Wyoming statements mitigated with "but it's still a gorgeous landscape." I suspect that'd placate me. ^_~
In fact, I'm also willing to bet that there's a hell of a lot of people out there who have seen a HELL of a lot of movies filmed in Alberta and have been none the wiser. In fact, here's a (not-entirely complete) list for your perusal.
As is, whether it looks exactly like the place or not isn't really at issue, I wouldn't think. For a story like Brokeback you need locations that echo the silence between the characters, the things unsaid. You need places that are even perhaps a bit larger, lonelier, wider, more forbidding, more... more wild and untamed. As you move up into Canada, the Rocky Mountains (already a pretty impressive range) become larger, sharper, and more striking against the sky. The prairie spaces stretch wide and windy, the hills roll out into the distance, and landscape itself provides a sense of space and emptiness that perhaps isn't available in the more populous parts of the world. The point is not to perfectly mimic Wyoming as it exists, but to mimic the Wyoming in the story itself. In that, I think Alberta did a heck of a job.
So in conclusion, it's been bugging me for a while (and no, it's not just one person saying it, or I'd keep my mouth shut) so I figured I'd finally get it out, as the next round of discussion of Brokeback rears its head and I start grinding my teeth all over again. ^_^
In fact, I'm also willing to bet that there's a hell of a lot of people out there who have seen a HELL of a lot of movies filmed in Alberta and have been none the wiser. In fact, here's a (not-entirely complete) list for your perusal.
As is, whether it looks exactly like the place or not isn't really at issue, I wouldn't think. For a story like Brokeback you need locations that echo the silence between the characters, the things unsaid. You need places that are even perhaps a bit larger, lonelier, wider, more forbidding, more... more wild and untamed. As you move up into Canada, the Rocky Mountains (already a pretty impressive range) become larger, sharper, and more striking against the sky. The prairie spaces stretch wide and windy, the hills roll out into the distance, and landscape itself provides a sense of space and emptiness that perhaps isn't available in the more populous parts of the world. The point is not to perfectly mimic Wyoming as it exists, but to mimic the Wyoming in the story itself. In that, I think Alberta did a heck of a job.
So in conclusion, it's been bugging me for a while (and no, it's not just one person saying it, or I'd keep my mouth shut) so I figured I'd finally get it out, as the next round of discussion of Brokeback rears its head and I start grinding my teeth all over again. ^_^