The Flipcritic

A friend of mine recently asked me what good love stories of the past year he could go see at the cinema or on DVD. Aside from THE NOTEBOOK, I could not come up with a single worthwhile recommendation. Filmmakers these days seem to be averse to making good old fashioned romances, probably because today’s audiences go to the cinema more to be entertained than to be moved. But a movie that makes you cry can be just as meaningful (if not more so) than one that makes you laugh. Though it makes us feel vulnerable, it is cathartic, and underlines our common humanity.

If you’re looking for just that, look no further. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is the most moving love story I have seen since Vincent Ward’s MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART. It isn’t big on sweeping emotions, nor is it epic in scope. Its moments are never melodramatic or sentimental. Its happenings never feel fabricated and no messages are ever laid out bare. Yet it is sincere, intimate, and heartbreaking. A work of tremendous honesty and sensitivity, this is Ang Lee’s masterpiece.

Yes, the film’s romantic pairing is not traditional. It has been called “the gay cowboy movie”, and that it is (as even Ang Lee will attest to). But calling it such, as Roger Ebert rightly says in his review, is “a cruel simplification”. It shares the same misfortune of MILLION DOLLAR BABY, which people call a boxing drama, when it is really a parental love story (whose protagonists who just happened to be in boxing). BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN isn’t just about the pains of hidden homosexuality; it’s about the universality of love, and the barriers that it breaks through. Its same-sex context can be substituted with any other constraint, be it race, religion, profession, or tradition. Romeo and Juliet would have welcomed these lovers.

The lovers in question are two men with deep cowboy roots. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) has a ranching background, while Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) has his in rodeo. Set in the 1960s, they meet by chance while looking for work, and end up tending sheep on a Wyoming mountainside. They go about their duties over the seasons (one is a lookout for predators, while the other keeps close watch over the herd), and hardly spend any time together, let alone converse.

I remember feeling an acute tension within the audience when I first saw it. Knowing of the film’s subject, the theatre seemed to be waiting for that wanton look, touch, or dialogue. But the film never gives us that satisfaction. Gone are those comfortable homosexual clichés most of us have been accustomed to. In those first 30 minutes, Ang Lee calms us down.

Instead of what we expect, we are treated to Ennis and Jack doing their jobs, and doing them impressively. It dawns on us how lonesome and difficult their toil is, and what a glorious backdrop the mountain makes against it. By the time their desires come to the fore, I cared less for their orientation than I did for them.

Ennis and Jack don’t fall head over heels in love. After a cold night of much drink, they are surprised by their passions as nothing prepares them for how to deal with what they’ve discovered. The next day, they’re in denial:

Ennis: “I ain’t queer.”
Jack: “Me neither.”

But after a second night together, they know they’re in deep. Once they go their separate ways in the most awkward of partings, they both wed and start their families: Ennis with his longtime girlfriend Alma (Michelle Williams), a regular country girl who mothers his 2 children; and Jack with Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway), a rodeo-queen whose father heads a successful tractor business.

When Ennis receives a letter from Jack, his spirit soars. Devoid of contact for several years, their longing consumes them upon meeting once more. The concerns of their spouses fall on deaf ears, as each tryst they embark on becomes more and more essential. They return each year to Brokeback Mountain, their haven, their solace, and in a way, their prison.

There have been those who have criticized the film as much ado about nothing; that if both of its protagonists were heterosexual, it wouldn’t have garnered much attention or acclaim. Such comments overstate the obvious and completely miss the point. Of course it wouldn’t have been as significant, as the film is meant to addresses this specific type of forbidden love. But forbidden love has always been a powerful subject, regardless of its type. The most powerful of love stories have always shown that love is beyond such matters. It’s no wonder why this film has struck a chord among viewers, regardless of affiliation or sexual orientation.

The film also does something that I’ve never seen before. Aside from showing the hardships that homosexuals have in the face of overwhelming societal pressure, it shows the indirect victims of “staying in the closet”. Jack and Ennis marry their women not out of affection or duty, but out of the need to conform and be accepted. As fathers, they love their children dearly as any other, but emotionally are always at arm’s length from their wives. Needless to say, this affects them and their families in profoundly painful ways.

One cannot overstate the contributions of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal to this movie. Mr. Ledger’s Ennis Del Mar is a clenched fist. Withdrawn, sinewy, a man of few words, he is the archetypal cowboy. Yet his closed nature belies a simmering pain. Here is a man who has been taught (by his own father at that) to hate his own nature, and it shows when he and Jack first have sex. Wrangling, afraid, and resistant, he is the more physical of the two. Mr. Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist however is more accepting. At peace with himself, he willingly risks retribution for their happiness. But due to Ennis’s trauma, he becomes the long-suffering lover, as he thanklessly tries to persuade Ennis to consummate their relationship (his rant towards the film's end is heartfelt and angry). Together, they are one of filmdom’s most memorable star-crossed lovers.

Michelle Williams, as Alma, provides an insightful moment in the film upon her character’s discovery. As when Jack and Ennis discover their feelings, nothing equips her for her own realization. In a way, it is both trauma and disbelief, as she confronts him years after the fact. Her pain is sad in that she still holds hope that what she saw, though obvious to us, might have meant something else.

It also doesn't hurt when you have Gustavo Santaolalla (AMORES PERROS and THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES) providing the music (Ang Lee listened to his recordings during filmmaking as continuing inspiration). His guitar driven score is resonant and expansive, giving the film a larger-than-life quality. Adding to the movie's texture is Rodrigo Prieto (21 GRAMS and THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES), who gives us the widest and bluest skies one could ever want. His shots of vast swaths of sheep herds moving across mountain vistas not only look majestic, but alive.

Ang Lee has always one common thread running through his films: A love and willingness to understand characters struggling with their contextual norms. Whether it be Elinor Dashwood of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, the family members of THE ICE STORM, Wai-Tung of THE WEDDING BANQUET, Jiao Long of CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, or even right down to the green goliath in HULK, he weaves careful and affectionate portraits of misunderstood people who are pressured by what is expected of them. When asked in an interview whether a gay director would have been best suited for this film, he wisely replied, “I don’t think it’s important that you’re gay. I think it’s important that you’re sensitive.” And that he has always been.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN isn’t just an important movie, it’s a cultural hallmark. Rarely has a film made me realize this kind of worth. It shows cowboys, the great symbols of independence, lacking the freedom to pursue their happiness, as the mountain becomes their damnation and salvation. Ang Lee has crafted one of the greatest love stories of our time. It’s a portrayal so honest that anyone who has ever loved deeply and with abandon cannot deny its truth. This is the best film of 2005.

Posted by FLIPCRITIC at January 21, 2006 04:58 PM