First of all, “Brokeback Mountain” is a Western. Although it begins in 1963, it has all the earmarks of the mythical West of movies: the grand, endless outdoors; the dream of freedom without fences; the elegance of taciturn men riding horses.
The dudes sitting atop the horses love each other. Now, if you’re a fan of Westerns, this comes as no surprise, since many a Western has been built on the deep comradeship of cowboys. But Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were never quite like this, for “Brokeback Mountain” puts the love in the forefront.
Because of this, it has been labeled “the gay cowboy movie,” which is a woefully inadequate way of describing what the picture is about. Ang Lee’s film is about a lot of things.
| Western first: Two cowboys come together in the summer of 1963, and can’t quite get over their mutual passion as their lives continue. Much more than its “gay cowboy” label, Ang Lee’s film is a superb Western, well acted by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Rated: R rating is for language, violence, nudity. Now showing: Egyptian, Harvard Exit |
In the summer of 1963, two strangers sign up to herd sheep in the Wyoming mountains. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are cowboys from hats to boots, with little need for words. They both need something, though, and alone up in the magnificent hills, they come together in a way both sexual and emotional, and probably other things too.
After the summer is over, there is no way these guys would maintain that connection (certainly not in 1960s Wyoming), and neither of them thinks of himself as homosexual anyway. The years roll by, both men marry and start families, and both are bedeviled by the bond between them.
They occasionally meet for fishing trips, which take them back to Brokeback Mountain. They keep trying to get back to some lost paradise, like most people. Ang Lee’s direction emphasizes this, soaring aloft whenever mountain and river come into view (Alberta substitutes for Wyoming), remaining earthbound when viewing the flatness of life on the modern Plains.
The film doesn’t romanticize the rocky relationship of Ennis and Jack, which frays under the strain of keeping itself hidden. Their wives, well played by Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, pay a price as well.
Ang Lee, who made “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Sense and Sensibility,” is exactly the right filmmaker for material about strong passion kept in reserve. He is a master at suggesting character and motivation, without spelling things out, and he also understands the visual language of the West.
And who better to write this story than Larry McMurtry, the author of “Lonesome Dove”? Working with co-writer Diana Ossana, McMurtry has fashioned another terse-but-eloquent scenario (expanding on an Annie Proulx short story). Ennis and Jack might be versions of McMurtry’s young pals from “The Last Picture Show,” just given a nudge in a different direction.
Gyllenhaal (late of “Jarhead”) is very good, and Randy Quaid gives a malignant short turn as the sheep rancher. Heath Ledger, an actor who has taken some unusual chances before (in “The Brothers Grimm” and “Ned Kelly”), gives a memorably throttled performance of withdrawn gestures and buried voice.
“Brokeback Mountain” already has reaped a bunch of year-end awards, notably the best picture nods from the New York, Los Angeles, and Boston film critics associations. Maybe the acclaim will help it get out from under the “gay cowboy” label, and put it where it belongs, as a fine addition to the list of America’s great Westerns.
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star in “Brokeback Mountain.”
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