Review: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
samseescinema
Reviewed by Sam Osborn
-www.samseescinema.com
Rating: 4 out of 4
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams
Screenplay: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana (based on the short story by
Anne Proulx)
By now, Ang Lee has treaded through nearly every genre with amazing,
staggering success. From The Ice Storm, to Sense & Sensibility, Hulk,
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and now Brokeback Mountain, Lee has
clearly proven himself to be one of the most intriguing and
genre-bending filmmakers of his generation. He twists each genre with
the film he enters into it, and now with Brokeback Mountain, he aims to
wring the western genre with a beautiful and honest love story. It'll
be met with controversy, especially in today's political climate
where homophobia reigns along with stiff, intolerant religious values
even in the highest of political positions. But it's a story that
doesn't aim to preach a message of acceptance and tolerance. Its only
objective is to tell its story, as any great film aims to do, and do so
with as much honesty and affection as possible.
Opening in 1963 in Wyoming, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist
(Jake Gyllenhaal) meet when taking work sheepherding on Brokeback
Mountain. Protecting the sheep from coyotes and the harsh consequences
of the land, one is required to camp out with the sheep while the other
keeps camp back in the hills. This first act of the film works like any
Western we've come to expect from a Larry McMurtry script (Lonesome
Dove, Terms of Endearment novel). There's the unspoken camaraderie of
the western rancher, where masculine intimacy is communicated through
loyalty and reliance. McMurtry doesn't plague this act with dialogue,
but lets the actors and the music and the landscape pull the weight.
Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (21 Grams, Alexander, Original Sin)
photographs the land with exquisite beauty, making the area into a kind
of lonely, quiet and somber Eden with which both the characters and the
audience can revere later in the film, where the characters' live are
riddled with dilemma
As the weather turns colder, with snow coming and going with the time
of the day, Ennis and Jack find themselves becoming closer friends,
speaking of their histories in different areas of the western United
States. One night, while passing around the Jack Daniels, Ennis passes
out at camp before getting out to the sheep. Inviting him into the warm
tent for the night, Jack lends Ennis his blanket. In a flurry of
brutal, guilty and violent passion, the two find themselves making
love. Unsure of their situation, the two part at the end of their
Summer work and go on to lead their lives under the identity of
heterosexuals. The rest of the film chronicles each of their lives,
with both of them meeting for "fishing trips" at Brokeback Mountain
each month and reliving their memorable Summer.
Ang Lee's film, although focusing on homosexuals, doesn't fit into
the "gay film" genre that peaked during the 70s. It's too honest
and affectionate to be thrown into that exploitation genre. The story
isn't trying to prove anything about gays. It's brilliantly
directed and written to force audiences to look past the characters'
orientation and realize their love as it is. Jack and Ennis'
orientation is supposed to divide their lives with the other
characters, but isn't supposed to divide the audience from them.
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal each do spectacular work with
Brokeback Mountain. It was incredibly daring, for both of them, to even
accept the film at all. With the help of McMurtry and Ossana's
screenplay, the actors inherit that unique cowboy mentality so rarely
translated to film these days. We follow Jack and Ennis through another
twenty years, and with each development, we realize how complete each
character is. Both the writers and the actors inhabit these characters.
Because if the characters can't be believable, neither can their love
story.
Brokeback Mountain reminded most of an ancient, heartbreaking folk
song. The kind cowboys and ranchers told while picking at the guitar
around the campfire. It's something quiet, somber, and thoughtful.