The top Republican in the Iowa Senate says culture to him means a good cowboy movie, but as Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports, Senate Co-Leader Stewart Iverson hasn’t rushed to the theater to see the controversial, Oscar-nominated, gay cowboy movie “Brokeback Mountain.”

With all the Oscar-buzz about the movie “Brokeback Mountain,” I asked Senate Co-Leader Stewart Iverson, a lover of the cowboy movie, if he’d seen it. “No, I have not,” Iverson replied. “Do you plan to?” I asked. “No,” he said. “It’s a cowboy movie,” I returned. “Maybe, but I don’t watch all cowboy movies.” Iverson did not cite the movie’s controversial story-line — the long-running relationship between two men who met while shepherding sheep — as the reason he has not seen the flick. “(I’m) trying to think of the last time I’ve been to a movie in a movie theater,” Iverson said. “Most of the time I watch them at home.”

After a bit of thought, though, Iverson did recall his last trip to a bona fide movie theater. “Last December we went to see (the movie about) Johnny Cash, ‘Walk the Line,'” Iverson says. “That’s the first movie I’ve been to in about five years.” Iverson says he doesn’t pay any attention to the Academy Awards. But his favorite movies have been nominated for Oscars. His all-time favorite movie is “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” starring Clint Eastwood, a movie nominated for an Oscar in 1977. The storyline sees the main character — a Missouri farmer — going after the Union soldiers who killed his family during the Civil War.

Iverson also likes a good John Wayne flick, particularly True Grit and The War Wagon. John Wayne won the best actor Oscar in 1970 for True Grit. The War Wagon won the Academy Award for best director. Brokeback Mountain has been nominated for eight Oscars.