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  • Post last modified:September 24, 2020

Brokeback Mountain: Love Hurts

LOVE IS A FORCE OF NATURE.

This movie must be a nightmare to bigots everywhere. If only it was poorly made it would have been easy to dismiss it as hype, but it remains one of the best films ever to portray gay love, because it makes straight audiences recognize it as something that isn’t all that alien, but also because it doesn’t come across as too “vanilla” to gays. Written one year before Matthew Shepard was beaten to death in Wyoming for being gay, E. Annie Proulx’s short story showed how dangerous and difficult it is for anyone who’s gay and living in a very conservative place.

When the time came to make the movie, everybody involved in the production did their very best not to ruin it. The bigots would not get any free shots.

Hired to look after a herd of sheep
The story begins in 1963, when two young cowboys, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), are hired to look after a herd of sheep over one year on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. It’s a tough, demanding and lonely job. The cowboys are not very talkative, but they do what is required of them and get along fine. Then one night after hitting the whiskey bottle, the boys get a little drunk, end up together in a tent… and one thing leads to another. The next morning they decide that this thing they’ve got going is only between them and of no concern to others. A year passes and the cowboys say goodbye to each other, joining civilization again. They get married to women they like, Ennis has kids, but the ghost of Brokeback Mountain is always there to haunt them. Four years later, Jack and Ennis get together again and find themselves overwhelmed by passion. Over the following years, they go away on “fishing trips”, little knowing that Ennis’s wife Alma (Michelle Wiliams) knows what’s going on and that their romance is headed for disaster. Not that it should come as a surprise. At one point, Ennis tells Jack a story about how his dad took him and his brother to see the body of a man who had been beaten to death; the experience was supposed to teach the Del Mar boys that bad things happen to men who choose not to marry women but to shack up with men.

Ennis certainly took notice, but there are times when Jack forgets who and where he is and starts fantasizing about the two of them buying a ranch and growing old together. He finds it difficult to hide who he is, and that has consequences.

Well served by the beauty of mountainous landscapes
The correct label here is “tragedy” and Gustavo Santaolalla’s country music helps tug at our heartstrings – but director Ang Lee never treats his material in a cheap and unworthy way. Screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana also show how badly Ennis hurts Alma; by hiding his true nature out of fear for his own life he accidentally ruins his wife’s life. The women of this tale matter less than the men, but they are not forgotten. Williams makes us care for Alma and what she’s going through. It’s a constant struggle between love, duty and instinct, with Alma raising the kids and Ennis giving in to something society shouldn’t have made him deny from the start. 

Gyllenhaal is very good as Jack and Ledger was quite the eye-opener at the time; who knew that the punk from A Knight’s Tale (2001) had it in him to create such a convincingly, quietly passionate character? The actors are well served by the awesome beauty of the mountainous landscape (most of the film was shot in Alberta, Canada) and the period details of the stark working-class surroundings.

It’s no small thing that this film, in the most powerful way possible, gives an American icon, “the Marlboro Man”, a touch of pink. If that doesn’t matter to you, then you should at least recognize Brokeback Mountain as a superbly crafted slice of life and for showing Lee and Ledger at their most persuasive.

Brokeback Mountain 2005-U.S. 134 min. Color. Produced by James Schamus, Diana Ossana. Directed by Ang Lee. Screenplay: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana. Novella: E. Annie Proulx. Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto. Music: Gustavo Santaolalla. Song: ”A Love That Will Never Grow Old” (Gustavo Santaolalla, Bernie Taupin). Cast: Heath Ledger (Ennis Del Mar), Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack Twist), Randy Quaid (Joe Aguirre), Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Graham Beckel.

Trivia: Gus Van Sant and Joel Schumacher reportedly considered directing the film.

Oscars: Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score. Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture (Drama), Director, Screenplay, Song. BAFTA: Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Gyllenhaal). Venice: Golden Lion.

Quote: “I wish I knew how to quit you.” (Gyllenhaal to Ledger)

Last word: “I teach at Columbia University and one of the classes I teach is on the Western. And I love Westerns. But look. I take my daughter sometimes to Yankees games and during the seventh inning stretch they often play the Village People’s ‘YMCA’ and 50,000 Yankees fans stand up and move their arms to the shape of the letters. And then we all sing the national anthem. I feel like there have been a lot of precursors that have done their share to nuance the image of the cowboy long before we produced ‘Brokeback Mountain’.” (Schamus, Towleroad)

 

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Ezekia

    Thank you for that honest reivew. I’ve not had the chance to see the movie yet, as I live in a very conservative sort of town (unfortunately), but I’d grown tired ot hearing the stereotypes being applied to it without anyone even coming close to what I believe it must be about. The terms gay cowboy movie’ and others like it only denigrate instead of convey the real theme of the movie. I know this is all coming from someone whose opinion cannot yet be based on my actually having viewed the movie, but I’ve read just about everything out there about it, as well as the book itself. I’m also a long time fan of Heath Ledger’s work, and I realize already what he can do through his acting, so I believe I have a decent grasp on what the movie will be like. It was refreshing to hear from someone who was both honest and object, as well as well articulated. Thank you.

  2. GraPiks

    we will all miss and love Heath Ledger. His movies were ipsniering to us all. i just cant beleve hes gone, i am only 13 and i still understand the grate los are world has faced. i know that there will never be another like him. i am sadend to listen to the things i here about heath ledgers mysterous death. no matter what i hear are what people say. i will never beleve it was an overdose. why would sombody with such fame and milleons of loveing fans do sutch a thing. i will miss you. R.I.P. Heath.

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