State pans decision to show inmates 'Brokeback Mountain'

Movies about tender, tortured gay cowpokes may win Academy Awards, but they are not suitable viewing for men behind bars.

That was the message of a dust-up at MCI-Norfolk, where a prison recreation officer faces discipline for showing the critically acclaimed movie ''Brokeback Mountain" to inmates at the state's largest prison. As a result, state Correction Commissioner Kathleen M. Dennehy has ordered a review of how movies are chosen for viewing in the state's 10,500-inmate prison system.

The officer, whose name was not disclosed, presented the movie about the conflicted cowboys at the medium-security prison Thursday, said Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the prison system. A deputy superintendent came in as the movie was playing and asked if the officer had reviewed it. He said no, but the superintendent allowed inmates to watch until the end, because the movie had only 20 minutes left.

The officer was later informed that he faces punishment for allegedly failing to evaluate the film for content not permitted in prison: excessive violence, nudity, sexual content, or assaults on prison staff. Wiffin said the objectionable content was the film's frank sexuality, not its homosexual theme.

The movie, which was nominated as last year's best picture at the Oscars, features a scene in which two Stetson-wearing sheepherders tear off their dirt-caked jeans passionately amid their bedrolls.

If the cowboys coupling had been a man and woman, but everything else about the scene had been the same, ''it still would have been banned," Wiffin said.

Wiffin declined to specify what disciplinary action the officer could receive, but said it might not have been the only movie shown to Norfolk inmates without appropriate vetting.

The ''Brokeback" brouhaha was not the first time a prison officer has run afoul of film censors. On Christmas Day in 2004, Wiffin said, a sergeant at MCI-Plymouth was disciplined for failing to follow the prison screening process. Wiffin said she did not know the name of that movie.

Plenty of popular movies have recently been rejected by prison officials as inappropriate for inmates, including several Academy Award-nominated films and a couple of clunkers.

Movies with a lot of nudity or violence failed to pass the screening process.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.