# Utah theatre refuses to show "Brokeback Mountain" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 8, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044 "2006-01-08T20:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/81 "2006-01-09T20:43:35Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > At any rate, it seems to me the theater owner made what he believes to be a good business decision for the community in which his theater is located. Now, his belief may be wrong. What matters to him, apparently, is that there was a community outcry against that particular film so he didn’t show it. Perhaps he didn’t want to face a total boycott of is theater by the people in that community? I think it depends on what you mean by “community”. If you’re talking about Sandy City, the geographical area, then one community blends into another in Salt Lake Valley, just like any other American city surrounded by suburbs. I live in West Valley City and if a movie I want to see isn’t showing here I will drive an extra 5-10 minutes to see it in Murray, or 20 minutes to see it in Sandy or 15 to see it downtown. In that sense “community” is almost meaningless. If you mean “community” in the demographic sense, then you could say that Sandy is predominantly peopled by the “family community”, married people with children in school. There is a small GBL community in Sandy, although most of the GBL community in Utah resides downtown Salt Lake City, Sugarhouse, the Avenues, Park City or Ogden. I haven’t heard anything about any “community outcry” against this film in Sandy. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one, but I am a local guy who listens to NPR in the morning and I try to keep up to date on local issues. Then again groups like the Eagle Forum tend to make a disproportionate amount of noise considering their numbers, your classic tempest in a teapot. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/82 "2006-01-09T20:54:55Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > …slowly expanding to new locations. Thus igniting Larry David’s fears. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/83 "2006-01-09T21:39:53Z")
What if a large theatre circuit, basically ran by a single person, decided to not show a type of movie? That would make that type of movie a significantly profit risk if the studio couldn’t get played at the large circuit. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/84 "2006-01-09T21:44:12Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I think the topic of censorship, and the question of whether it applies to this situation, is a bit less cut-and-dried than some of you are thinking. > > There’s an idea that frequently comes up in discussions of this sort, which is the concept of someone “owning a printing press”. That is, if the government didn’t censor an idea, but if everyone who owned a printing press did, (where “owning a printing press” basically means controlling some means of distributing ideas), then the idea would be 100% censored. > > What if the guy who owned Yahoo actually WAS one of those mythical foaming-at-the-mouth-anti-Christian-atheists, and decided that since, hey, he owned Yahoo, then he had the right to control what content was distributed via Yahoo, so he’d set up some filters so that no Christian content could ever pass through Yahoo. Would that be OK? > Now, obvoiusly, a movie theater isn’t the same as Yahoo. But it’s also not 100% NOT the same as Yahoo either, as it is a means by which ideas are conveyed to the public. > So while I’m not going to get outraged by a decision made by the owner of a single theater, I’m also not totally copacetic about the whole situation… what if, instead of a single theater, it was a single CHAIN of theaters? What if that chain had an effective monopoly over a region of the country? And so forth… I think this is a good point. I fully agree that the owner of the theatre should have every right to show whatever he/she wants. It’s a private business in a capitalistic society, and so the market should be the primary force involved in such decisions. But I remember the fears I was having just after _Fahrenheit 9/11_ came out, when the Carlyse Group bought Loews (I think it was Loews). Surely that deal had nothing to do with the movie, as it would have probably been in discussions long before the movie came out. But immediately I imagined the movie would be banned from all Loews theatres. I don’t believe that happened (at least I didn’t hear anything about it if it did). But it could have, couldn’t it? What if major conglomerates with certain political affiliations did own all the theatre chains and did decide what to show based on their own sociopolitical leanings? Would that still be defensible by the same arguments used here to defend the theatre owner? ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/85 "2006-01-09T22:18:51Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > What if the guy who owned Yahoo actually WAS one of those mythical foaming-at-the-mouth-anti-Christian-atheists, and decided that since, hey, he owned Yahoo, then he had the right to control what content was distributed via Yahoo, so he’d set up some filters so that no Christian content could ever pass through Yahoo. Would that be OK? Yes? I fail to see why it wouldn’t be. Freedom of press and freedom of speech != requirement to show/talk about/report everything. A free press and free speech means just that, if everyone _freely chooses_ not to talk about something, there’s nothing wrong with that. The internet is a competitive arena. If Yahoo chose to become a mouthpiece for the religious right, it would instantly see a massive drop in number of people visiting their website and Yahoo would quickly become marginalized. More than likely other competition would come into the market, and existing competition would become more prominent (Google, MSN, et al.) And the problem of “100% of the people who own printing presses” is something that can only happen in theory. IN a country like the United States that _has_ a free press, and an enormous proliferation of people who can get their message out, such a situation could honestly happen only in theory and never in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/86 "2006-01-09T23:50:11Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > And the problem of “100% of the people who own printing presses” is something that can only happen in theory. IN a country like the United States that _has_ a free press, and an enormous proliferation of people who can get their message out, such a situation could honestly happen only in theory and never in fact. What if Rupert Murdock bought CNN and NBC? Sure there is a multitude of ways these days for people to get info (radio, internet, print, etc.) but could they compete with TV and the cable news stations? I agree with you regarding the internet example, and that the free market can sustain itself there, but what about my movie chain example? I don’t mean to sound like some anti-corporation, pinko lefty, because I often find myself arguing from a libertarian stand point, but I can also envision a future where, more and more, media outlets of all types are owned and operated by the wealthy. As **Max** said: > [@](#): > > what if, instead of a single theater, it was a single CHAIN of theaters? What if that chain had an effective monopoly over a region of the country? And so forth… Again, I’m not saying there’s any legal reason a single theatre owner shouldn’t be able to show anything he/she wants, and so, as regards the OP I don’t think this is all that pit-worthy beyond one’s own need for some personal venting at something stupid (which I’m never opposed to here anyway), but I can’t help but explore some of the possible logical ends that this might imply. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/87 "2006-01-10T01:14:50Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Yes? I fail to see why it wouldn’t be. So if Yahoo announced a policy wherein they were applying anti-Christian filters to everything that went through their website, including personal email sent by people with [xxx@yahoo.com](mailto:xxx@yahoo.com) email addresses, your response would be “ahh, a capitalistically foolish choice! Surely the market will punish them! I love America!”? And aren’t all internet packets sent basically by relay through other people’s computers? What if one of the people who owned one of those big internet backbone sites decided to start applying such a filter to all packets of info that went through his site? Clearly I’m being a bit alarmist here, and clearly this is now VERY far removed from a single movie theater in Utah. My point, though, is that a truly free democracy can not function without free exchange of ideas. Therefore, anyone in a free democracy who controls part of the medium of exchange of ideas DOES have certain responsibilities as part of that democracy that are greater, and thus more limiting, than just being a capitalist. Now, a single movie theater is a pretty small part of the entire exchange-of-ideas infrastructure. I’m just saying we shouldn’t dismiss issues like this with a “he owns it, he can do whatever he wants, NEXT?” attitude. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/88 "2006-01-10T02:16:40Z")
**Max** , could we sum up by saying “With rights come responsibilities”? ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/89 "2006-01-10T02:19:09Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Would you have any interest in the movie if it were a heterosexual couple that were unable to overcome some societal pressure that kept them apart? Let’s say one was an Anglo and one was a Native American or Hispanic. I guess it depends on who was in it and what kind of reviews it got. But yes, I probably would want to see that movie, because I could easily relate to it. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044/90 "2006-01-10T09:22:13Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > **Max** , could we sum up by saying “With rights come responsibilities”? Not really, no, as that implies that this is something that applies to all situations in which one has rights. Restaurants have the right to serve nothing but dishes with peaches in them if they want, and I can’t think of any long-term slippery-slope type problems that could come from that. The press (broadly defined) is special, because democracy can’t function without it. Or am I being too didactic? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-theatre-refuses-to-show-brokeback-mountain/339044.md?page=4)