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Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Focus Features, 2 hrs. 14 mins.
Starring:
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid, Anne
Hathaway, Anna Faris, Linda Cardellini, Scott Michael Campbell, Kate Mara,
Cheyenne Hill
Directed by:
Ang Lee |
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It’s going to be a tough sell in
promoting Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee’s nostalgically mainstream gay
cowboy western Brokeback Mountain as a viable love story in the
unconventional sense. Despite whatever reservations that “the straight
world” may hold for observing a couple of cozy cowpokes exchanging
off-limits intimacy and physical affection along the scenic range, there’s
no denying the eloquence of Lee’s sleepy and thoughtful ode to
homosexuality amidst the homestead. Exquisitely shot and vast in its
emotional take on forbidden love, Brokeback Mountain is compassionate and
compelling in its risqué examination of perceived manhood (in this case
rough-riding macho cowboys as the ultimate imagery in masculinity) and the
societal violated boundaries of taboo sexuality.
Brokeback Mountain is not the easiest film to digest since its
confrontational bid to showcase spur-wearing studs cuddling under the
blankets to sucking face profusely may produce some awkward grimaces for
some to consider with serious forethought. Nevertheless, Lee’s fearless
leading men in Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger command forceful
performances as the repressed sheep-herding twosome whose self-imposed
isolation and alienation awaken hormonal feelings. This seemingly quiet
and lyrical saga of two distant men attached by an inexplicable surging
attraction for one another is brutally honest if not resonate in its
poignancy. Both Ledger and Gyllenhall provide thoroughly brave and
complicated portrayals of devoted male companions whose ill-advised love
are dictated by the restrictions of their caustic times. Hopefully, the
Oscars will remember Ledger and Gyllenhaal’s sobering yet courageous
on-screen work as well as Lee’s amazing direction.
Interestingly, Brokeback Mountain is based on Annie Proulx’s 1997 New
Yorker short story. Screenwriters Larry McMultry (Lonesome Dove) and Diana
Ossana handle the brilliantly bittersweet material with a contradictory
stroke of stark firmness and tenderness. Consequently, Lee’s visionary
outlook for the serene script has a simmering explosiveness because this
film never hesitates or apologizes for actually demonstrating the
physicality and psychological needs for these self-inflicted cowboys to
embrace their passion and pain. Effectively, Lee oversees the slow burn in
these complex men as the ambivalence of their convenient arrangement
manifests itself into a solid romance that’s as rampant and reassuring as
any other hand-holding narrative to date.
The setting is in 1963 rural Wyoming. A momentary silence in front of
sheep owner Joe Aguirre’s (Randy Quaid) office trailer is where the
withdrawn Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and impish Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) first
lay eyes on each other. As out-of-work ranch hands, Ennis and Jack are
looking for seasonal employment from Aguirre to watch over his expanding
flock on breathtaking Brokeback Mountain. The job requires the tandem to
operate a campsite and guard Aguirre’s sheep while downplaying their
presence because this sheepherding mission appears to be an illegal
practice on the mountain.
The guys are faced with one particular stipulation—they must be each
other’s sole company during this task for about four long months. Hence,
things are pretty boring but Ennis and Jack gradually warm up to one
another. Although their personalities differ, they find some common ground
in the fact that they are financially challenged as both maintain the
unshakable habits of smoking and drinking. Plus, the duo is harboring
unkind childhood memories of their difficult fathers to boot. Friendship
soon takes center stage and makes the work of minding the sheep seem more
tolerable as the days and nights trudge on by.
Drunk and freezing in the chilly nighttime air, Ennis is urged by Jack to
come into his tent to seek warmth and shelter. As the two men bundle up
under the covers, an innocent gesture of Jack grabbing Ennis’s arm during
the night leads to a misunderstanding of scuffling until the men are
overcome by animated, spontaneous sex. Did it take this unexpected moment
to reveal the true sexual orientation of these confused cowboys? Why would
these guys engage in such unspeakable activity, especially when Ennis in
particular has a pretty gal Alma (Michelle Williams) waiting to be married
once his round-up chores are done? In an attempt to be rational about
their irrational act of intimacy, they both insist that they are not
“queer” and what they did will stay within the confines of their buttoned
lips. After all, it’s their business—no one else’s!
After their employment with Aguirre is over and done with, the guys split
and carve out a family life. Ennis marries Alma and eventually has two
little girls with her. Returning to Texas, Jack tries to uphold a
rodeo-riding career but this is destined to go nowhere. Eventually, he
meets his future wife Lureen (Anne Hathaway from The Princess Diaries
flicks) at the rodeo and they end up with a boy. Years later, Ennis would
receive a postcard from Jack which would set the tone for these guys to
ignite their friendship—and more important—their lusty gay-oriented
encounters. Despite being saddled with beautiful, supportive wives and
loving children, Ennis and Jack cannot escape the loving urgency that
refuses to abandon their hungry psyches. Ennis struggles with making ends
meet professionally but Jack marries into a well-to-do family in the
farming equipment business.
Through the so-called “legitimate” planned fishing trips on Brokeback
Mountain (as a sneaky way for them to reconnect away from their
unsuspecting spouses) and an occasional rendezvous in shady motel rooms,
the gay lovers find comfort and joy in each other’s allotted presence.
While Jack persists that they buy a ranch together and live in harmony,
Ennis is realistic and skeptical and won’t take a chance in doing such a
thing in a world that would surely prosecute their “deviant” sexual
behavior.
Undoubtedly breathtaking in its picturesque mode, Brokeback Mountain is a
tranquil treat that’s strangely incomplete because we’re left wondering
what would become of the love affair had these pair of wranglers been
allowed to wallow in their preferred skin. Lee and his cinematic handlers
(particularly cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (21 Grams) and composer
Gustavo Santaolalla) concoct an extraordinary piece of cinema that
visually pleases the naked eye and creates a wistful spirit. Artistically
realized and drenched in skillful sentimentality, Mountain delivers one of
the unlikeliest resourceful love stories filled with unassuming silent
rage while tapping into a sympathetic pulse.
As the sullen Ennis, Ledger is cynical, emotionally wounded and trapped as
a suffocating soul looking to make sense out of his sexual malaise.
Convincingly, he carries the scars of guilt, shame, and trepidation on his
sinking shoulders. We are triggered by the fact that Ennis may be hampered
more than his sexual confusion—that other underlying issues are unanswered
within this soft-spoken individual. Gyllenhaal’s Jack is more liberating
and accepting of his discovered sexual identity and you feel the
anticipation of him wanting to shout his unorthodox love all over the
world. Clearly, Jack is as cornered by his homosexual revelations as is
Ennis. But Jack’s spry attitude won’t dampen his loving commitment to the
man responsible for reinforcing his unclenched heart in the reserved
person of Ennis Del Mar.
The supporting roles by the female cast are sturdy and phenomenal. As the
puzzled wives, both Williams and Hathaway compliment their big screen
husbands with a relenting disillusionment that’s just as riveting. And
Linda Cardellini is desirable and uniquely vulnerable as Ennis’s waitress
girlfriend who dares to get close to her special cowboy yet doesn’t quite
understand the barrier that halts her progression. Overall, the character
studies are robust and refreshingly heartfelt in surfacing gleefulness and
suppressed despair.
In a film that doesn’t skirt the topical proposal of a gay western
romance, Brokeback Mountain is audacious as a soul-searching narrative
about yearning for that desired someone that can never be totally
acceptable in a judgmental world of self-righteous cynics and moralists.
Whether one subscribes to the homosexual lifestyle or not, it doesn’t
change the fact that climbing this particular Mountain may be one of the
best involving and gutsy experiences you’ll ever have at the movies in the
remainder of 2005. |
