Q: Mr. Frichtl, thank you for taking the time to speak to me.
A: My pleasure.
Q: Your article was intriguing in how it juxtaposes the financial success of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with the critical success of Brokeback Mountain. You, of course, are critical of the latter movie in a different way. You quote Robert Knight, director of CWA's Culture and Family Institute, where you're an intern, saying that Brokeback Mountain is "a mockery of the Western genre embodied by every movie cowboy from John Wayne to Gene Autry to Kevin Costner." Kevin Costner aside, this surprised me--if I can go off on a tangent for a moment. You're including Gene Autry and the Singing Cowboys in the Western genre? The old Singing Cowboy movies are pretty campy stuff.
A: Campy? You mean gay? Gene Autry wasn't gay!
Q: I wasn't suggesting the actors were gay. I have no idea about that one way or the other, I'm talking about the movies themselves. The cowboys always wore outfits that were spotlessly clean and looked brand new. I mean, it was a little silly. And the very idea of "singing cowboys." I just . . . it's sort of campy. And Roy Rogers alone was so absurd that the Western genre became a mockery of itself, with his horse Trigger and dog Bullet. If anything, Brokeback Mountain is restoring a little dignity to the genre.
A: What? But they weren't gay!
Q: I wasn't saying that. I'm talking about the Singing Cowboys vs. the rest of the Westerns.
A: But they weren't gay. The Singing Cowboy movies may seem a little . . . dated today, but they were a glorious slice of Americana, embodying the values and morals of the real America.
Q: Okay. That's . . . that's right. A little farther down in your article you quote Mr. Knight again, saying that Brokeback Mountain is "a lowdown attack on morality." Was the choice of the term "lowdown" intentional? I was wondering if this was some kind of pun.
A: What? No! Mr. Knight doesn't make jokes.
Q: Of course not. My apologies. I must have misunderstood. You mention in your article that Brokeback Mountain has been nominated for 7 Golden Globe Awards. One thing about this part of your article struck me. Why do you point out that the Golden Globes are nominated by "foreign film critics"?
A: Simply because it's true. They're foreigners. The group that awards the Golden Globes, HPFA, is the . . . . They're foreign journalists.
Q: Yes, that's right, but the journalists who make the choices are all based in Hollywood. They are very well attuned to Hollywood and the movie business.
A: Americans have different values than foreigners.
Q: Then how do you explain the considerable overlap between the Golden Globes and very American Academy Awards?
A: Well, Hollywood has different values than America as well.
Q: I suppose that's right. Later on you quote Mr. Knight again implying that Brokeback Mountain just isn't a good story.
A: I don't think I said that.
Q: You quote Mr. Knight saying, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in contrast to Brokeback Mountain, is not only a ripping good story . . ." etc., etc., which seems to imply Brokeback isn't a "ripping good story."
A: Oh, okay. Well, it isn't a good story, not like the Narnia books.
Q: Annie Proulx, who wrote the original short story, has won the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. She won an O. Henry Prize for Brokeback Mountain and the New Yorker, where the story was originally published, won an award for the story as well. And you admit in your article that the movie has high production values, has won seven Golden Globes nominations . . .
A: They're foreigners.
Q: Yes, but the movie is being acclaimed just about everywhere, by American critics as well. On what basis does Mr. Knight say that Brokeback Mountain isn't a "ripping good story"?
A: Well, in my view the film's portrayal of homosexuality as a good thing is immoral and dangerous. I quote Mr. Knight saying, "I can't think of a more effective way to annoy and alienate most movie-going Americans than to show two cowboys lusting after each other and even smooching."
Q: Yeah, I remember that line.
A: So it's just not a good story.
Q: I think I may not have been clear. So you disagree with one of the themes of the story, but what about the story itself. I mean, as a story, wasn't it pretty good. Were the characters interesting, fully formed, and believable? Was there compelling dialogue? Was the plot well developed?
A: I don't know. I haven't seen the movie. But I do know that you can't have a good story if it is based in immorality. The Narnia story is a good story. As I quote Mr. Knight saying, "its heart is the basic Christian theme of Divine sacrifice and redemption." That is what makes a story good, if it's based in Christian values.
Q: Why compare these two movies in the first place? They premiered the same weekend, but other than that, what do they have in common?
A: They represent the battle in this country between mainstream America that values family and morality and the militant "gay" groups on the left that is pushing their "homosexual" agenda on America.
Q: This is one thing that I wondered about. Near the end of the article, you seem to dismiss Brokeback Mountain's impact, saying it will impress "some fringe audiences in urban centers, but that's about it." If that's true, why worry? It doesn't seem like such a threat.
A: It is a threat. "Homosexual" activists are hoping the movie "will change minds." That's a terrible threat. We don't want anyone to change their minds. Though we are hoping Narnia will change minds--and hearts as well. We're hoping people will see Narnia and see that we're all sinners and that we need God to cleanse us of that sin. But Brokeback Mountain ignores the fact that it's a sin and basically says that what is important is "being who you are." That's wrong. You can't just be who you are, because you're a sinner and that's wrong. People need to know they're sinners. As I quote Mr. Knight saying, "If [Brokeback Mountain] encourages even one confused boy to engage in sex with another male, that makes it an instrument of corruption, not one of enlightenment."
Q: Much of your article is concerned with how much money the Narnia movie is making. It was #1 in the box office last weekend, earning $67.1 million, making it the second biggest December release in history, and so on. That part of your article surprised me a little--the emphasis on money.
A: That wasn't the main point of the article. The main point is that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will have a profound impact on the audiences. I mention the financial part just in passing.
Q: Sorry. I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, though I was surprised that 4 or 5 of the 10 paragraphs in your article discuss how much money it's making. $16 million in the UK, $7.5 million in Spain, $6 million each in Germany and Mexico, and so forth. It just seemed that this was given special importance and it seemed a little out of place. Doesn't the Bible say "the love of money is the . . ."
A: I know the passage. I discussed this . . . the financial success of the movie . . . only because this is what Hollywood notices. This is how they recognize success.
Q: But do you care what they think? Christian groups and others often deride Hollywood for any number of reasons--you yourself just said they have different values--so why are you measuring success by their standards?
A: I'm not. Well, I mean . . . I'm not really. Of course not. I just mean that this is one convenient yardstick by which you can measure a film's success.
Q: Well, do you find it rather ironic that so much stress is being put on it. You brag that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is raking it in while Brokeback Mountain is "impressing critics." Doesn't that seem . . .
A: You're twisting what I said.
Q: I'm sorry, I was looking at the second to the last paragraph, there where you quote Mr. Knight saying that because the story is based on Christian themes "that's why it will make zillions while Brokeback will impress the critics and some fringe audiences in urban centers."
A: Yes, but you seemed to have missed the last paragraph, where I point out how nonbelievers are being deeply touched by the story. This movie is changing lives--for the better. It's bringing people to Christ. That's what's important, not the money.
Q: But that line about nonbelievers is just a supposition, isn't it? You're quoting Mr. Knight again there. He says, "Nonbelievers who venture into Narnia will perhaps wonder why Aslan's sacrifice and eventual triumph touch them so deeply." Isn't that just Mr. Knight's opinion about what nonbelievers will feel?
A: Well, yes, but Mr. Knight is right.
At this point, unfortunately, we had to end the interview.
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