Brokeback Mountain
August 22, 2006 at 5:20 Yesterday I finally watched the film Brokeback Mountain. I wasn’t sure what to expect after all the hype, gossip, critical reviews, and Oscar night drama. Would it live up to its reputation? Over and over again I’d read this was not a “gay cowboy movie” but a love story. And while I didn’t know the plot in advance, I fully expected to shed a few tears as it progressed.
As I watched the movie on a gray day with rain pouring off the roof, I was surprisingly unmoved. The relationship with Jack and Ennis didn’t seem to unfold as much as it exploded. Even knowing what was coming, I didn’t see it coming. Was that intentional on the actors’ and director’s part? Was it supposed to convey how these forbidden feelings were suppressed and denied by the characters until they couldn’t be contained?
Probably. And while the understated performances were magnified by the contrast of the grand sweep of the Western scenery, I had a hard time capturing the essence of the relationship between Jack and Ennis. Maybe that's because they didn't understand their relationship either. Why did they love each other? What was the basis of their attraction? What bound them to one another?
The scenes where they scuffled, in fun or in anger, were brilliant, illustrating their inner struggles and the way they were masculine in every sense of the word. Heath Ledger did an incredible job of conveying a man in a man’s world grappling with the social expectations that imprison him. His facial expressions, his body language, his restraint say so much more than his dialogue. Jake Gyllenhaal does a great job of conveying Jack’s’s unease with his place in society and yet his refusal to give up his dreams of happiness. Neither actor nor director falls into cliches depicting gay men.
And yet despite these fine-tuned performances, I didn’t cry as these men two-stepped through unfulfilling marriages and strained family relationships. I didn’t even cry when Ennis called Jack’s wife to get the details of his death or during the heart rending scene with Jack’s parents. His father’s wary, hardened face makes his disappointment and latent disgust with Jack palpable, and yet there are hints of wistfulness as he recalls Jack’s talk of plans to help run the ranch with a buddy. His mother’s resignation and ambivalent acceptance of who her son was is there in her compassion for Ennis. And they all sit in a spartan house on a windswept plain and privately consider how all traces of happiness have been scoured from their lives.
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana wrote the screenplay for Brokeback. McMurtry is one of my favorite writers—his writing is spare, subtle, and restrained, yet his novels are loaded with emotion. His books not only earn coveted space on my shelves, but his stories nest in my subconscious.
I’m not surprised then that while I didn’t cry during Brokeback, I can’t stop thinking about Ennis and Jack and the world they inhabited. Like their attraction to each other, the story just won’t leave me be, haunting me long after the screen faded to black and the TV clicked off.
August 22, 2006
Reviews
Reader Comments (16)
Yeah, I guess I did lose my romantic streak. Shit.
I hear ya on that. It's all I could do to keep from saying, "Of course they didn't get what they wanted. Who does?"
It's sad. I used to be a Nice Grrrl and now I'm Mighty Cynical. When I go to gushy weddings, I try not to smirk--or I cry for all the wrong reasons.
I did cry at the end, but only a little. I cried for how lonely Ennis was in his life. He could have made things so different, not just with Jack, but with his kids, and that felt so sad to me.
:)
The relationship has tons to do with lust, in my book. With a type of lust that Jack is much more savvy about than Ennis. And, let's face it. What did Jack find in Ennis, a guy who can barely put two words together? I am not saying that there is no love that builds between them, but the initial feeling is very primal.
One scene that absolutely hit home for me was the scene when Ennis gets frantically ready to go on his weekend tryst with Jack. He frantically gathers his gear, totally oblivious to his surroundings, of those around him - his wife and kids - he has simply obliterated them from his life at that very moment. There is only one thing on his mind: getting away with Jack, for a lustful weekend of mad sex. Believe me, I have seen this before. It's not pretty.
I did like the film, not nearly as much as <i>Walk the Line</i> and <i>Capote</i> and, I have to say, I concur with your analysis of it. And, as a friend of my daughter's put it: "The sheep were very good in that movie."
Thank you for filling in the blanks a little. Will you do more movie reviews? I liked this one a lot.
Considering most of us were raised in a world where gays were reviled and hidden, it's not surprising that acceptance and understanding comes to us in increments. Recognizing where we are in that process helps us move forward.