Brokeback Mountain

So much more than a gay cowboy movie, this is a story about wounded people beaten down by events not of their making.

By:Bob Brown
   On the face of it, everything about this production says "winner." E. Annie Proulx’s short story about two cowboys, turned into a screenplay by Larry McMurtry and directed by Ang Lee, with a cast of the most promising young actors — what isn’t to like in this combination? Top it off with some of the most gorgeous Western scenery on film and you’ve got movie magic. The film has already garnered seven Golden Globe nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a harbinger of Oscars to come.
   Of course, when Hollywood is involved, there’s no guarantee that it translates to a runaway hit at the box office. The subject is controversial enough that this movie may not play well in certain parts of the country or for those who think same-sex relationships deserve no respect. But this isn’t merely a gay cowboy film, as some have described it. It’s really a story about good but wounded people who are beaten down by events not of their making, and by times and a culture that don’t yield.
   Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are two cowboys who first meet when they apply to tend sheep on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. The boss, Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid), is a tough nut who doesn’t stand for nonsense. (A sign on his trailer door says, "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.") Ennis and Jack are stuck all summer up on the ridge. The loneliness throws them together and the normally reticent Ennis opens up to Jack. On a cold night when they tent together for warmth, Jack’s subtle gesture prompts Ennis over the edge and the two plunge into a fierce embrace and act on their feelings.
   In one recent interview, Gyllenhaal described the intensity of the characterization and the effect this scene has to have on the audience: "We knew we had to consummate this somehow. It couldn’t just be a story about friendship because there’s a part of two people connecting intimately, sexually, that drives that intimacy through the years. In my opinion when you see the movie, as soon as that happens, you’re like, ‘OK, I’m here now. I’m ready to see what’s going to happen.’ Or, ‘I’m out of here. I’ll see you later.’ But either way it does knock you into something. We knew that it was going to have to do that and we were going to have to commit to it."
   Without that intensity, which is a cross between love and hate — at least for Ennis — the rest of the film would not work. But it does, because the actors are utterly fearless. The two performances, perhaps the best of their careers so far, are brilliant. And yet these are two very different men. Ennis is the more complex character. As he tells Jack his history, a tale of early loss and abandonment tumbles out. Ennis is alone in the world, left behind by family to the point that he has put a lid on emotional investments, which have only ended in pain. Nevertheless, he marries his sweetheart, Alma (Michele Williams), and has two daughters.
   Although Jack and Ennis never work together again, their bond, more than an affair, remains. But it also troubles Ennis: it’s an admission that he is gay, but also that he is vulnerable in giving himself totally. He can’t live with this love, but he craves it. Ledger portrays Ennis as having withdrawal symptoms when he and Jack part.
   Jack, also now in love with Ennis, nevertheless allows himself to be corralled by a rich man’s daughter, Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway), to get the steady income of the farm-machinery business of his father-in-law, L.D. (Graham Beckel). Jack is a dreamer, but he is more persistent in pursuing male liaisons when he can’t see Ennis often enough. Unlike Ennis, who denies himself attachments even while he burns to have them, Jack needs to feed his appetites. Ennis increasingly pushes him away, indeed pushes everyone around him away, and suffers silently.
   The story takes place in the West of the mid-1960s through the 1970s. It’s a time and place when gay relationships were hardly discussed, let alone looked on sympathetically by the vast majority. What the film does very well, thanks to Lee’s excellent direction, is to depict the family and friends as acknowledging the situation without mentioning it. They talk around it as though it’s a shameful social disease. Knowing looks, innuendo and white lies are the ways of dealing with things. Even Alma, who has discovered the truth early on, cannot confront Ennis with what she knows, not for years.
   The film is freighted with symbolism, in names and in the imagery — shepherds tending their flock by night, carrying lambs on their shoulders, etc. It takes on an almost allegorical dimension, complemented by Rodrigo Prieto’s beautifully photographed landscapes (Canada stands in for Wyoming), bringing heaven to earth. The score by Gustavo Santaolalla (21 Grams, Motorcycle Diaries) is a tasty guitar-liscious twang, augmented by strings.
   Brokeback Mountain has made a lot of 10-best lists this year. It’s a quietly intense movie that is so involving. Do yourself a favor and see it on the big screen.
Rated R. Contains sexuality, nudity, language and some violence.