Sunday, March 05, 2006
Brokeback Mountain
During the first twenty minutes or so of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, we are introduced to Ennis and Jack, two cowboys watching over sheep in Wyoming. Ennis, a sulky, quiet redneck type, feels right at home being a cowboy. Bright eyed and chatty, Jack seems like he would have been better off growing up in the city. The two men watch over the sheep, hunt, and get to know each other. The film plays these scenes in a straightforward, simple manner, and if not for the massive hype surrounding the film’s content, it would be a total shock when they begin to have sex.
Quiet subtlety is Brokeback Mountain’s greatest asset. If a hundred directors were assigned to make a film about gay cowboys, it is doubtful that many would be more subtle than Ang Lee. The film does not take great pains to show us they are in love, nor does it twelve scenes where the characters spell out their every thought with tears streaming down their faces, nor does it stick around for soft pornography. The majority of what is going in is expressed in the characters faces, actions, and simple but effective dialogue. Heath Leder turns in a phenomenal performance as Ennis, who even when in a moment of peace, seems to be in agony. Jake Gyllenhaal is nearly as good as Jack, who impatiently wades through his life, waiting for the happiness he knows must be around the corner.
Ennis and Jack part when the summer is over, Ennis staying in Wyoming, Jack moving to Texas. Neither one is overly enthused about their lives, which include wives and children, but they carry on. One day, Ennis receives a postcard from Jack, and before you know it the two are going on "fishing trips" where no fishing takes place. Jack declares that the two should leave their families and get a farm together, but Ennis quietly scoffs. It is still the 1960’s, and as a boy, his father showed him firsthand the potentially violent death that can await a homosexual.
Brokeback Mountain is not so much about homosexuality or love as it is unfulfilled desire. Jack can not have what he badly wants, and Ennis’ is not willing to take the steps towards his own possible happiness. The film is not nearly as pro-homosexuality as some would have you believe; indeed, throughout the film, Ennis and Jack’s relationship destroys their own lives and badly damages that of others. Instead of giving into their desires or suppressing them entirely, they try halfway, which does not work. In one scene, Ennis ignores his own children in his desperation to run off to a motel with Jack. In another, Jack slinks through a Mexican border town, searching for a male prostitute. These are not happy men, certainly not the characters GLAAD would push.
Brokeback Mountain is a magnificent story of men doomed by impulses they would each rather not possess. One’s own opinions of the politics and morality of homosexuality need not matter much, as everyone can connect to the pain of not having what it is you want most. Is there any feeling much worse than that?
4 out of 5
Quiet subtlety is Brokeback Mountain’s greatest asset. If a hundred directors were assigned to make a film about gay cowboys, it is doubtful that many would be more subtle than Ang Lee. The film does not take great pains to show us they are in love, nor does it twelve scenes where the characters spell out their every thought with tears streaming down their faces, nor does it stick around for soft pornography. The majority of what is going in is expressed in the characters faces, actions, and simple but effective dialogue. Heath Leder turns in a phenomenal performance as Ennis, who even when in a moment of peace, seems to be in agony. Jake Gyllenhaal is nearly as good as Jack, who impatiently wades through his life, waiting for the happiness he knows must be around the corner.
Ennis and Jack part when the summer is over, Ennis staying in Wyoming, Jack moving to Texas. Neither one is overly enthused about their lives, which include wives and children, but they carry on. One day, Ennis receives a postcard from Jack, and before you know it the two are going on "fishing trips" where no fishing takes place. Jack declares that the two should leave their families and get a farm together, but Ennis quietly scoffs. It is still the 1960’s, and as a boy, his father showed him firsthand the potentially violent death that can await a homosexual.
Brokeback Mountain is not so much about homosexuality or love as it is unfulfilled desire. Jack can not have what he badly wants, and Ennis’ is not willing to take the steps towards his own possible happiness. The film is not nearly as pro-homosexuality as some would have you believe; indeed, throughout the film, Ennis and Jack’s relationship destroys their own lives and badly damages that of others. Instead of giving into their desires or suppressing them entirely, they try halfway, which does not work. In one scene, Ennis ignores his own children in his desperation to run off to a motel with Jack. In another, Jack slinks through a Mexican border town, searching for a male prostitute. These are not happy men, certainly not the characters GLAAD would push.
Brokeback Mountain is a magnificent story of men doomed by impulses they would each rather not possess. One’s own opinions of the politics and morality of homosexuality need not matter much, as everyone can connect to the pain of not having what it is you want most. Is there any feeling much worse than that?
4 out of 5
# posted by James : 12:09 AM
