Movie Reviews
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest is love."
– I Corinthians 13:13
If I thought Hollywood was going down the tube with “Fahrenheit 9/11,” I was miserably mistaken. The politics of that film were disgraceful, yes, but politics mean nothing when it comes to the topics set aflame in Ang Lee’s new film “Brokeback Mountain.”
For those of you who’ve heard other critics saying that this is not what the public has deemed a “gay cowboy movie,” you have heard right. It’s not a gay cowboy movie. And it’s not even about the cowboys, really. “Brokeback Mountain” is the story of how two gay cowboy’s selfishness topples the foundation of their heterosexual marriages.
But before I get ahead of myself...
The movie begins with Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) getting set up as colleagues to herd about a thousand sheep onto Brokeback Mountain. They’re to camp out for the duration of the job, and one of them is to sleep outside for the sheep’s sake. As the job drags on, Ennis and Jack slowly begin to repel the boredom by talking to each other, discussing their pasts and futures. It’s on Brokeback Mountain Jack and Ennis give in to their secret desires.
That first summer on Brokeback stays in their minds as they lackadaisically part ways, Ennis goes to Wyoming and Jack to Texas. Over the next four years, they both get married and have kids.
It’s a clouding, anticipatory day when Ennis receives a postcard from Jack saying he wants to meet up and “go fishing.” Despite having a loving wife and kids who have no idea who this Jack guy is, Ennis sits at his window all day, nervously smoking cigarette after cigarette in anticipation for the arrival of Jack. There’s a genuinely gut wrenching scene shortly thereafter when Ennis’ wife, Alma (Michelle Williams) witnesses Jack and Ennis kissing outside their apartment.
Alma has no idea what to do, as anyone in the same situation would, and it is almost unbearable to see her watching as Ennis kisses her and their daughters goodbye for the week.
Over the next two decades, Ennis and Jack will meet two or three times a year to “go fishing,” all the while leaving their families wondering.
I’ll tell you who I identified with. Ironically, it was the wives, Alma (Williams) and Lureen (Anne Hathaway). The pitch-perfect performances by Williams and Hathaway only push my belief that “Brokeback Mountain” is one of many missiles Hollywood has fired directly on the value systems that are fundamental to the sanctified institutions of marriage and family, and the true meaning of love.
Every time Lee shows us Jack and Ennis off on one of their trips, it is as if Jack and Ennis are as they’re supposed to be; like they’ve needed each other’s company and each other’s sex to comfort them amidst caring about their wives and kids. Now, granted, neither one of them have it perfect. Ennis is struggling to make enough money and Jack’s father-in-law suspects that Jack is gay. But you watch how differently Lee frames a shot in a scene where the men are with their wives as opposed to being with each other. Listen to how Gustavo Santaolalla’s score broadens and becomes more beautiful when Ennis and Jack are in each other’s company. There’s visual manipulation going on here.
Visual manipulation is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it is essential to nearly any kind of filmmaking; a way to get your point across, if you will. Rodrigo Prieto is a very talented cinematographer, and his lighting is brilliant. There’s a sensational shot where Ennis stands to the left of the screen in the foreground while a fireworks display unfolds in the background.
Aside from Prieto’s photography and some affective performances, “Brokeback Mountain” offers little technical flavor to praise. There is nothing especially notable about Lee’s direction that couldn’t be attributed to the actors. The editing by Geraldine Peroni and Dylan Tichenor sometimes cuts a scene short, or fades when it should’ve directly cut. Both cases strip a scene of its potential power when Ennis battles his heart and his mind after leaving Jack for the first time. He crouches in an alleyway and vomits, but the intrusion of a background character and the premature fade to the next scene cut the emotion far too short.
Then there is the treatment of characters. We have roughly three types of people who dominate the story: Obviously, there are the ones who can’t have what they want. Jack and Ennis are portrayed like Romeo and Juliet or Rick and Ilsa, the tragic lovers who heroically give up what they want the most for the sake of the people they love. That’s not the real case here. The decisions Jack and Ennis make are completely selfish. They’re not meeting in secret to protect their wives. On the complete contrary; they’re doing it for fear of their secret getting out at all. If they really loved each other, their love would have conquered all fear and Jack and Ennis would’ve never gotten married.
The next type of characters are the gay-haters, men like Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid), their initial boss who sees them wrestling shirtless together on one of his visits up the mountain. He says nothing about it until the next year when Jack comes back hoping for the same job. Aguirre brutally insults him, and Jack leaves defeated, and – unless I’m misinterpreting this – a little confused.
Let me make one essential, un-opinionated truth perfectly clear: hate in any form is sin against humanity, and despite my belief that homosexuality is wrong, gay-haters, gay-oppressors and everyone in between are just as evil. Those who would target and persecute homosexuals, those who would “quote” the Bible as saying “fags go to Hell” may just be sending themselves there in the process.
The third and final set of characters is the truly victimized: The wives, the kids, and the parents (some of them anyway). Ennis’ wife, Alma, fighting to forget what she saw happen between her husband and another man. Jack’s wife, Lureen, enduring the pain of seeing the one she loves being judged by her own father. Ennis’ daughter, who tries to reach out to her father even after nineteen years of lies and neglect. These people are the true heroes of “Brokeback Mountain.” It’s a shame they had to be the heroes in this particular movie, a film that undermines the very thing they stand for: family.
I will leave you with this: I believe in God, and I believe that He is love. For a movie to even suggest that homosexuality (an abomination according to God) is true love is to humble the One who created us in the first place. It is to spit on our own existence. And because God is love, it is to deny Him entirely. For those of you who’ve seen “Brokeback Mountain,” keep in mind that true love never fails. * ˝
Note: There is a reason why movies like "The Passion of the Christ" (beautiful, historical film-making) and "The Chronicles of Narnia" (similar to the multi-Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings") receive little or no Oscar nominations, and films like "Brokeback Mountain" receive more than any other film of the year.