Brokeback Mountain

For all of those who have been put off by the buzz around Brokeback Mountain or the content of the film, what are you waiting for? Brokeback Mountain is one of the best films of the year, gay cowboys or not, and it is certainly a film worth paying $9.50 or whatever exorbitant price local theaters are charging these days. Ang Lee has delivered a film that is poignant and beautiful and sad but that does not feel overwrought and artificial. For this he relies heavily on the magnificent performances of his two main actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal who deliver nuanced performances full of happiness and rage and confusion and sadness.

Yes Brokeback Mountain is about a gay relationship between two cowboys in the two decades following their meeting on Brokeback Mountain in 1962. The film makes no apologies about its topic and it pulls no punches in presenting its material. The first third of the film features some breathtaking footage of the Grand Tetons in Montana. It shows Ennis Del Mar, Heath Ledger, and Jack Twist, Jake Gyllenhaal, as they meet for a summer of sheepherding on the forbidding terrain. The two men develop a bond that is stronger than just friendship though both agree that they are not gay and that it is a one shot deal after which they will go back to their normal lives. Randy Quaid delivers his second notable performance of the year as a surly and demanding herd foreman who hires the duo. Lee does a wonderful job presenting not the movements and the glances and the framed shots that we expect to see but those that make things more poignant. There are furtive looks but they aren’t cast and there is one scene where Heath Ledger is framed a dark figure against a light sky heaving on his knees. The scene is notable because the audience is grossed out waiting for Ennis to throw up but he doesn’t. All that is there is the blankly white space surrounding him.

For all of the media hoopla and fundamentalist backlash this film has experienced there is a surprising restraint in the portrayal of the men’s relationship and the presence of the traditional double standard of Hollywood. When men are portrayed naked they are either hunched over or shown from 20 feet away. Lee even made sure to blur out any parts that might have been showing though paparazzi pictures weren’t as thoughtful. However, the two women featured in the film are as likely to be shown topless as with a shirt on and from a distance of no more than three feet away. Perhaps this is just bending to the prevailing winds of what sells in Hollywood. Or maybe it is a nod to the unwilling men dragged to this film by their wives that they finally get to see Anne Hathaway’s boobs but it seems unnecessary and is the one gratuitous point of the film.

Much was made that pinup boy Ledger would damage his career by playing a gay cowboy who ages 20 years, those pundits are now eating their words as the role of Ennis Del Mar brings his numerous kudos and awards. Ennis is the quiet stoic archetype of the cowboy. He is an orphan who thinks before he speaks and keeps himself at a distance from others. Most of the time Ennis sounds like he has a bunch of marbles or a wad of chew in his mouth but this enhances his reticent character and makes the few things he does say that much more important. Though he would be considered the ‘woman’ in the relationship it is hard to think of a more definitive male. He is the pursued but he is also the one with the power in the relationship calling the shots to Jack of how, when, and where they will be able to meet. In this way Ennis is charged with not only his own destruction but with Jack’s as well as the two try to make what they can out of the lives that they have chosen to pursue in lieu of the lives they wish to lead.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jack Twist the more outgoing of the two cowboys. Jack is a poor rodeo cowboy working on Brokeback Mountain to pick up enough money to make it back onto the rodeo circuit. He is a gregarious man whose contrast to Ennis is apparent not only in his open and talkative demeanor but in the choices he makes in his life. Jack marries some years after meeting Ennis but it is also he who reinitiates their relationship after four fairly quiet years of going their own way. Jack is also a far more sexual being seeking out the companionship of other men when he is unable to visit Ennis. This leads to a more ambiguous relationship. Is Jack in love with Ennis, is he willing to take the relationship as it is offered? Or does Jack seek out more from Ennis and from the other people in his life?

Ang Lee presents Brokeback Mountain in Montana as a final refuge for two souls that do not conform to the proscribed norms of 1962 and on. The sad thing is that in many places there are just as many societal forces at work today as there were then. Lee shows Brokeback at its best, in the summer with the grasses in flower. The two cowboys aren’t just cowboys in word, we see the deeds as well as they carry sheep across their saddles, herd them across rivers, and lead them up imposingly steep mountain slopes. Eventually just as their lives turn into facades, so too does their cowboy act. They bring horses to the mountain but they are never seen to ride. They go on hunting and fishing expeditions but they never bring a catch home to their families. This refuge protects them while they are there but it cannot keep the fragile lives that they have built in the world.

At its core Brokeback Mountain is a love story with the common theme that love is a powerful and irrational thing and that when it is denied or lovers try to be rational in its face lives and happiness are destroyed. Ennis and Jack starve their love because of fear of breaking social mores and as a result not only are the two of them unhappy and unfulfilled but the people in their lives like their wives and their other lovers are miserable as well. Michelle Williams delivers an admirable performance as Ennis’ long suffering wife Alma who knows what goes on during Ennis and Jack’s fishing trips but refuses to acknowledge it for many years even after their divorce.

Brokeback Mountain is a touching and subtle film that I cannot do justice to in this review. It has to be watched and experienced to be appreciated as so much more than a ‘gay cowboy movie’. Its characters resonate and the audience is left wondering what happens to Ledger’s Ennis in the years after the camera is turned off. This is the sort of intimate film that deserves to be recognized come awards time. It is an intimate film about what people will do to themselves and to their loved ones to live the semblance of live that is proscribed by society.