I may have spoken ("spoken"?) those actual words on this site before, but so glad to read them in the Washington Blade.

Ken Sain refers to Brokeback Mountain as "probably the most anticipated gay film of all time"--which I think is a fair statement, and the phrase I've been looking for. (Not the first, hard to quantify it being "the biggest," but that captures it.)

Hennyway, then he says:

Here's a fact many gay film fans know that most straight people probably don't: Most gay films are awful.

We've had our fill of the cliché coming out, or male hookers, or dying of AIDS, or straight boys playing gay to get the girl stories.

Amen to that. And he ought to add, way too many peole with more agenda than talent, too many people with plenty of talent but insufficient resources . . .

Lots and lots of reasons. But those seem like a few of the biggest.

Agendas and art, rarely a good thing. I remember when I starting out writing, I really thought you started with the theme, dreamed up a story to convey that. Blech! Almost gua-run-TEED to produce a pile of preachy godawful drivel.

(Not just a gay problem. Switch on Oxygen or Lifetime and watch one of their Very Important Movies for women. Same impulse.)

Stamp it out, dammit, stamp it out. Just make your freaking art, tell your story and let it carry whatever message emerges.

Lot of gayboys with an ax to grind, though--understandably--and by God, they are going to grind it at your cinema whether you like it or not.

So it's not hard at all to understand the mountain of crap. But that doesn't really explain the dearth of diamonds.

But who's making them? Not all the talent rises to the top to be sure, but quite a bit of it does, and if you had made it big in a cutthroat field--as actor, director, writer, cinematographer . . . would you want to risk it all on a big gay love story?

Maybe, but you'd be in the minority.

And if you were still struggling at the bottom, and you had a great idea for a great gay film, who the hell is going to dump a load of money into it to surround yourself with lots of other great talent?

Of course lots of great films get made on a shoestring, but lots is relative. We all know most of the pack is just garbage. Just like most music demos, most novel manuscripts in the slush pile, most everything in art.

But if you go to a gay film fest, they've got to fill it up with something, and man, there is a whole lot of dreck. (I happened to be in NY for its gayles film fest this spring, and one of them made me feel so sorry for the director. He was in attendance, and he was all proud, so we kept our mouths shut, but good God. He really wanted to make a wonderful film, clearly, but were the fest organizers really doing him or us a favor by pretending it worked?)

Anyway, Ken in the Blade and me and a whole lot of other people are hoping this might finally be The One. Our little Neo.

I think Annie Proulx just sat down and wrote herself a little love story. Keenly observed, as vivid in her portrait of Wyoming as it was of two men struggling with their inability to just start a freaking ranch together and live out their lives in bliss.

Sure there are big ideas lurking there, but front and center it's just a brutally honest love story. And the bad guys are sometimes the two lovers. Especially Ennis. I just wanted to smack that boy sometimes.

She actually gets herself in a little trouble when she pushes the gaybashing idea a bit too hard, I think--not that it's front and center, but it's lurking. I'm hoping Ang will maybe mute that slightly.

But regardless, his trailer--to the extent you can trust that--seems to suggest he did the same and even more so: just told it as an honest, tragic love story.

Some day there will be lots of gay films. When we figure out they don't have to be about AIDS or callboys or coming out or any of that. Just the same damn problems as everybody else has.

I can't wait.

I was just directed to this interesting site called The Trenchcoat Chronicles (tag line, "Poking society in the eye with a sharp pointy stick") and oddly enough, the latest post was about Columbine.

One of those whacked out readers writing to him praising the killers. Ugh.

I just had a brief email exchange with the author of the site, and he lamented that "unfortunately guys like that are an everyday occurence at my site." Double ugh.

Luckily they're not around here, for whatever reason. I've had a few, but rarely.

What I do get--as I pointed out to him, and realized I was way overdue in mentioning here--is a whole lot of high school and college kids emailing me asking for help with their reports. Usually about one a week. From the weirdest places in the world.

It's a minor hassle responding to them all, but there's also nothing in this world that makes me quite as happy. (And luckily, I got tired enough of repeating myself a few years back that I created The Columbine Almanac, which I can usually direct them to, and which I use all the time myself, to find the evidence I need as I write.

One girl actually entered a school contest and advanced up to the state level (in Oregon, if I remember), and her family flew her out here to interview me and Frank DeAngelis, though I was unfortunately out of town that week and had to do mine by phone. She asked great questions, though. (Much better than most journos I know. Seriously. Sadly.)

I wince sometimes when I get these requests, but always makes me smile, too.