'Brokeback Mountain' : a 'gay cowboy movie' or something more?
Two movie reviewers discuss the highly controversial Ang Lee-directed film
Issue date: 1/24/06 Section: Lifestyles
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By Anna Nguyen
Staff Writer
Taiwanese director Ang Lee is a man of many talents and has numerous different genres listed in his impressive filmography. Western audiences may know him from "Sense and Sensibility," "The Ice Storm" and his famous martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," but Lee was a familiar name before then. The first film that brought his name to the West's attention was the 1993 culture clashing comedy "The Wedding Banquet." It also showed one of Lee's reoccurring themes of sexual repression. Before "Brokeback Mountain," "The Wedding Banquet" was his first film focusing on gay men in love.
While "The Wedding Banquet" is a comedy, "Brokeback Mountain" is a Western drama starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film is based on Annie Proulx's short story with the same title, and it follows the 20-year love affair between two cowboys, Ennis del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal). The two men meet while working as a sheepherder and camp tender in the summer of 1963 in the isolated location of Brokeback Mountain. At first their attraction to each other is casual, but they realize their feelings are beyond that. After their summer job is finished, the men leave knowing that their love for each other is real, but both men know that their relationship is only idealistic and cannot continue. After their first sexual encounter, Ennis tells Jack, "I ain't queer," and Jack agrees, but they don't know how to describe themselves. The two separate and eventually each marry someone else and has children. Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams) and lives in an impoverished life compared to Jack's wealthy life, courtesy of his wife Lureen's (Anne Hathaway) privileged hierarchy. Despite the men's love for each other, both of them maintain their married relationship, but each is already doomed from the start.
The two continue their love affair after Jack manages to track Ennis down. They tell their spouses that they go fishing on Brokeback Mountain. Though Jack manages to keep his double life a secret, Ennis' family falls apart after Alma finds out. She and Ennis get a divorce and Ennis is barely getting by because he is required to pay child support and has a hard time finding a stable job because he is always going away to see Jack. Ledger and Gyllehaal play off of each other well and give brilliant performances. Gyllenhaal's character is the romantic one, who always dreams of living on Brokeback Mountain with Ennis, working as ranchers. Jack also gets angry easily when Ennis is unable to make it to their meetings. He goes as far as picking up a male prostitute in Mexico out of desperation to feel loved. Ledger's Ennis is more reserved and brooding, and seems to be more of the macho man compared to Jack. He refuses Jack's money offers and is less optimistic about the future of their relationship. Later in the film, the reason why Ennis is so reluctant to live with Jack is revealed, as it comes from his childhood memories. When he was a child, Ennis' father made sure Ennis saw the consequence of being a gay cowboy when he brings him to the scene of a hate murder, and the gruesome, bloody corpse that Ennis sees constantly frightens him. Though Ennis is a man of few words, his vulnerability is showed in one of the film's particularly memorable scenes. After Jack gets upset and tells him they shouldn't see each other anymore, a frusterated Ennis asks him, "so why don't you just let me be?" and breaks down. Ennis, who had sacrificed so much, blames Jack for making him the person he had become and losing everything that was important for him to satisfy Jack.
The film has stirred controversy for its theme. A theater in Utah canceled its showings for unknown reasons, according to movies.yahoo.com. The owner, Larry H. Miller, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is known for campaigning against same-sex marriages, according to the Web site. On "The Today Show," reviewer Gene Shalit called Gyllenhaal's character a "sexual predator" for stalking Ledger's character in the movie, according to glaad.org, but Shalit publicly apologized for his statement. And though critics have deemed the film as a "gay cowboy movie," Lee thinks that the film is about the impossibility of love, according to moviesonline.ca. "The idea of 'Brokeback Mountain' to me is the illusion of love," Lee said, according to the Web site. "It's a confusion. When they're inside they don't know what happened and they spend 20 years trying to go back. Just the act itself was very interesting to me. And they're chasing something when they got it, one character realizes the taste of love and that they passed it, they missed it. To me that's just a great story. It's very short, so I had to throw a lot of imagination and guesses."
Along with the cast's great performance, the setting is also very beautiful and captures the loneliness represented by the characters and the nature. The film has already won four Golden Globes, including Best Picture and Best Director. Those who enjoyed the short story will certainly enjoy the film.
"I liked the combination of true western as a movie western," Lee said in the article on moviesonline.ca. "The realist rural life America but it has a western aura combined with the repression gay subject matter. To me that work along with the western literature made it really juicy to me. And the writing was sparse but the prose is beautiful and invoking. Then it has a metaphorical attraction to me, too."
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By Evan Billingsley
Staff Writer
"Brokeback Mountain" is the haunting, melancholy tale of two cowboys (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) who enjoy the quite manly activities of bronco riding, sheep herding and holding each other ever so gently. Ennis (Ledger), the terse one, and Jack (Gyllenhaal), the yapper, at first seem as though they could never be friends, much less lovers. The first 15 minutes of the film make it seem as though they may never end up together, but, eventually, all it takes for true love to blossom is some selectively-edited quality time alone on the vaguely dirty-sounding Brokeback Mountain. Throw in some whiskey and a night too cold to spend alone, and you have a recipe for the love that dare not speak its name unless some Golden Globes, or perhaps an Oscar, are in the offering.
Unfortunately, "Brokeback" is set over a 20-year period beginning in 1963, a dark time in America's history when bigotry against gays ran rampant, and persecution of such a lifestyle, especially in the rodeo-centric states of Wyoming and Texas, was a sad fact of life. Thus, Ennis and Jack's initial affair is cut short by the end of sheep herding season, and by Ennis' upcoming marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Alma (Michelle Williams). The boys both take it pretty hard, and in their final day together on the mountain, simultaneously make out and beat the tar out of each other. It is a stunning example of the kind of romance not typically seen with most heterosexual pairings. Then, after an emotionally-masked good-bye, Ennis, the terse one, expresses his feelings in the form of punching a concrete wall repeatedly. Careful, Ennis! We all know you are the terse one, but boxer's fractures are serious.
Jack and Ennis spend the next four years of their lives apart, trying unsuccessfully to fill the voids in their hearts with wives and children. And, in Jack's case, some male Mexican prostitutes. However, they eventually find each other again, and begin a series of sordid "fishing" expeditions behind their respective families' backs. You just cannot stop true love.
The trips to the mountains together last for more than a decade, until the lies and thoughts left unsaid culminate in a scene where Jack expresses his desire to be able to "quit" Ennis. "I wish I could quit you," he says, unintentionally providing the greatest line ever for a Marlboro ad parody, which can be found at www.towleroad.com.
The "quit you" line is not the only memorable quote from the film, just the most publicized. One of the greater strengths of "Brokeback" is the folksy one-liners peppered throughout it. Each cast member, especially Ledger, provides a natural delivery for such lines, as when Ennis states, "You know the most traveling I ever done has been around the coffee pot looking for the handle." Overall, Ledger's comfort in the natural humor of some of his lines, coupled with his terseness, make for a memorable performance.
Another strong aspect is director Ang Lee's assured pacing of the film, which never lingers too long on a shot or rushes through a scene. At just over two hours, "Brokeback" covers two decades, but gives every moment the time it deserves.
Staff Writer
Taiwanese director Ang Lee is a man of many talents and has numerous different genres listed in his impressive filmography. Western audiences may know him from "Sense and Sensibility," "The Ice Storm" and his famous martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," but Lee was a familiar name before then. The first film that brought his name to the West's attention was the 1993 culture clashing comedy "The Wedding Banquet." It also showed one of Lee's reoccurring themes of sexual repression. Before "Brokeback Mountain," "The Wedding Banquet" was his first film focusing on gay men in love.
While "The Wedding Banquet" is a comedy, "Brokeback Mountain" is a Western drama starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film is based on Annie Proulx's short story with the same title, and it follows the 20-year love affair between two cowboys, Ennis del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal). The two men meet while working as a sheepherder and camp tender in the summer of 1963 in the isolated location of Brokeback Mountain. At first their attraction to each other is casual, but they realize their feelings are beyond that. After their summer job is finished, the men leave knowing that their love for each other is real, but both men know that their relationship is only idealistic and cannot continue. After their first sexual encounter, Ennis tells Jack, "I ain't queer," and Jack agrees, but they don't know how to describe themselves. The two separate and eventually each marry someone else and has children. Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams) and lives in an impoverished life compared to Jack's wealthy life, courtesy of his wife Lureen's (Anne Hathaway) privileged hierarchy. Despite the men's love for each other, both of them maintain their married relationship, but each is already doomed from the start.
The two continue their love affair after Jack manages to track Ennis down. They tell their spouses that they go fishing on Brokeback Mountain. Though Jack manages to keep his double life a secret, Ennis' family falls apart after Alma finds out. She and Ennis get a divorce and Ennis is barely getting by because he is required to pay child support and has a hard time finding a stable job because he is always going away to see Jack. Ledger and Gyllehaal play off of each other well and give brilliant performances. Gyllenhaal's character is the romantic one, who always dreams of living on Brokeback Mountain with Ennis, working as ranchers. Jack also gets angry easily when Ennis is unable to make it to their meetings. He goes as far as picking up a male prostitute in Mexico out of desperation to feel loved. Ledger's Ennis is more reserved and brooding, and seems to be more of the macho man compared to Jack. He refuses Jack's money offers and is less optimistic about the future of their relationship. Later in the film, the reason why Ennis is so reluctant to live with Jack is revealed, as it comes from his childhood memories. When he was a child, Ennis' father made sure Ennis saw the consequence of being a gay cowboy when he brings him to the scene of a hate murder, and the gruesome, bloody corpse that Ennis sees constantly frightens him. Though Ennis is a man of few words, his vulnerability is showed in one of the film's particularly memorable scenes. After Jack gets upset and tells him they shouldn't see each other anymore, a frusterated Ennis asks him, "so why don't you just let me be?" and breaks down. Ennis, who had sacrificed so much, blames Jack for making him the person he had become and losing everything that was important for him to satisfy Jack.
The film has stirred controversy for its theme. A theater in Utah canceled its showings for unknown reasons, according to movies.yahoo.com. The owner, Larry H. Miller, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is known for campaigning against same-sex marriages, according to the Web site. On "The Today Show," reviewer Gene Shalit called Gyllenhaal's character a "sexual predator" for stalking Ledger's character in the movie, according to glaad.org, but Shalit publicly apologized for his statement. And though critics have deemed the film as a "gay cowboy movie," Lee thinks that the film is about the impossibility of love, according to moviesonline.ca. "The idea of 'Brokeback Mountain' to me is the illusion of love," Lee said, according to the Web site. "It's a confusion. When they're inside they don't know what happened and they spend 20 years trying to go back. Just the act itself was very interesting to me. And they're chasing something when they got it, one character realizes the taste of love and that they passed it, they missed it. To me that's just a great story. It's very short, so I had to throw a lot of imagination and guesses."
Along with the cast's great performance, the setting is also very beautiful and captures the loneliness represented by the characters and the nature. The film has already won four Golden Globes, including Best Picture and Best Director. Those who enjoyed the short story will certainly enjoy the film.
"I liked the combination of true western as a movie western," Lee said in the article on moviesonline.ca. "The realist rural life America but it has a western aura combined with the repression gay subject matter. To me that work along with the western literature made it really juicy to me. And the writing was sparse but the prose is beautiful and invoking. Then it has a metaphorical attraction to me, too."
----------
By Evan Billingsley
Staff Writer
"Brokeback Mountain" is the haunting, melancholy tale of two cowboys (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) who enjoy the quite manly activities of bronco riding, sheep herding and holding each other ever so gently. Ennis (Ledger), the terse one, and Jack (Gyllenhaal), the yapper, at first seem as though they could never be friends, much less lovers. The first 15 minutes of the film make it seem as though they may never end up together, but, eventually, all it takes for true love to blossom is some selectively-edited quality time alone on the vaguely dirty-sounding Brokeback Mountain. Throw in some whiskey and a night too cold to spend alone, and you have a recipe for the love that dare not speak its name unless some Golden Globes, or perhaps an Oscar, are in the offering.
Unfortunately, "Brokeback" is set over a 20-year period beginning in 1963, a dark time in America's history when bigotry against gays ran rampant, and persecution of such a lifestyle, especially in the rodeo-centric states of Wyoming and Texas, was a sad fact of life. Thus, Ennis and Jack's initial affair is cut short by the end of sheep herding season, and by Ennis' upcoming marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Alma (Michelle Williams). The boys both take it pretty hard, and in their final day together on the mountain, simultaneously make out and beat the tar out of each other. It is a stunning example of the kind of romance not typically seen with most heterosexual pairings. Then, after an emotionally-masked good-bye, Ennis, the terse one, expresses his feelings in the form of punching a concrete wall repeatedly. Careful, Ennis! We all know you are the terse one, but boxer's fractures are serious.
Jack and Ennis spend the next four years of their lives apart, trying unsuccessfully to fill the voids in their hearts with wives and children. And, in Jack's case, some male Mexican prostitutes. However, they eventually find each other again, and begin a series of sordid "fishing" expeditions behind their respective families' backs. You just cannot stop true love.
The trips to the mountains together last for more than a decade, until the lies and thoughts left unsaid culminate in a scene where Jack expresses his desire to be able to "quit" Ennis. "I wish I could quit you," he says, unintentionally providing the greatest line ever for a Marlboro ad parody, which can be found at www.towleroad.com.
The "quit you" line is not the only memorable quote from the film, just the most publicized. One of the greater strengths of "Brokeback" is the folksy one-liners peppered throughout it. Each cast member, especially Ledger, provides a natural delivery for such lines, as when Ennis states, "You know the most traveling I ever done has been around the coffee pot looking for the handle." Overall, Ledger's comfort in the natural humor of some of his lines, coupled with his terseness, make for a memorable performance.
Another strong aspect is director Ang Lee's assured pacing of the film, which never lingers too long on a shot or rushes through a scene. At just over two hours, "Brokeback" covers two decades, but gives every moment the time it deserves.
