Mountains of censorship in Canberra cinemas?

threeze’s on the money.

* Hoyts have the Hollywood blockbuster releases.
* Greater Union do most offbeat/indie mainstream releases.
* Electric Shadows handle arthouse, most documentaries and foreign language releases.

It’s not censorship — for as long as I’ve lived in Canberra, that’s been the arrangement. Unfortunately, that still leaves quite a few interesting films which never get shown in Canberra cinemas at all.

Slinky: In my opinion, people think it’s ‘arthouse’ because people sound stilted and awkward when they talk (just like in real life), there’s large portions of the movie where no-one gets blown up, gunned down or engages in wacky hijinks (just like in real life), and in the end, a lot of people are unhappy (just like in real life).

Whether having two blokes fall in love is ‘arthouse’ depends on your prejudices, I guess.

I’d stick with the more straightforward “drama” tag, personally.

I believe the reason it isn’t screening at all Canberra cinemas is because the distributor was only planning a limited release.

I read an article saying it was not going to be screened in townsville and people were outraged and claimed Homophobia, when the real reason was the limited Australian release…

Its nothing to do with self-censorship. Individual exhibitors have little say in what films are provided to them by the distributor. The distributor only shipped 40 prints to the whole of Australia, not realising what a hit the film would turn out to be. GU Manuka currently has the only print in Canberra. There was a story in the Canberra Times on the weekend about it. With the amount of interest in the film more prints will probably be forthcoming, including at the “best screens in the city”. In the meantime cowboy up (sorry) and go see it as Manuka if you’re that keen.

I thought it was because the distributors didn’t send enough copies of the film out here so it was only screening in selected cinemas until that little problem was solved.

According to the Hoyts website, the Woden cinema will be showing Brokeback Mountain from 16th Feb. The movie does bring a new meaning to the term “Raw hide” though …

PS. In the US the movie has stuck in the Top 10 for 8 weeks, outlasting King Kong.

Could anyone explain to me what is arthouse about the movie, apart from the sexual orientation of the guys? It has Heath Ledge and Jake Gyllenhaal, is directed by the guy who made ‘Hulk’ and is a slightly cheesy, but quite beautiful story about forbidden love, with a great performance by the Heath (actually the first time I loked him in anything). So I agree with Kerces that it is censorship…And by the way…it’s been showing at a lot more screens in Salt Lake City, the mormon capital;) (Where only one cinema owner pulled the plug).

Having read all those “reviews” I now have no need to shell out the hard earned to go and see the cowboy punching action.

Especially as there appears to be no sodomizing of sheep involved

i cannot remember the last time Hoyts played any art house films, so whats the problem? Greater Union Manuka has always had the slightly odder Hollywood films, so I think this has nothing to do with censorship but more of knowing their market.

Actually, it’s done consistently kinda well in the US, in the “hung around as a regular earner” kinda way. Which is not the programming policy that Hoyts, at least locally, has been into (they’re more into the “crowd people in early, drop it in two weeks”). Manuka’s probably the right place for anything that features lotsa nice scenery, and two men who don’t sublimate their passion for each other by blowing things up randomly.

The movie didn’t do particularly well in the US – though that may have changed after its success at the Golden Globes and Oscar nominations. Most people wouldn’t see it as a “blockbuster”, more an arthouse type movie anyway (it certainly doesn’t appeal to me personally). Can’t say I’m overly surprised at its limited release in Canberra.

also known as fudgepack mountain or bareback mounting.

Well Doppelfrog, they’re not showing a movie that has the potential to attract a great many people, comes out of Hollywood and stars two well-known actors. The movie in question is about a somewhat controversial topic (gay cowboys). There was a decision made along the way not to show it and it quite likely was to do with the content — hence censorship.

Brokeback Mountain is just a homage to South Park

in the episode where the Sundance film festival comes to town Cartman tells them that arty films are all about gay cowboys eating pie

and guess what the movie has in it

I’m guessing it won’t be as funny as South Park tho

Have you read the synopsis on the greater union site? They seem to tip-toe around the man-on-man action by only mentioning their “life-long connection” and slip the word “love” in at the end.
Great movie though, check it out.

Where on earth did you get the idea that it’s self-censorship ?