My reactions to (or a review of) Brokeback Mountain

Warning: Spoilers

Before I discuss the movie itself, I would like to address the press the movie received. Brokeback Mountain has probably received more press than any other movie this year. Furthermore, it has acquired an epithet: the gay cowboy movie. This view of the movie is simplistic, at best. The movie deals with the hardships of life, forbidden romance, and family. The press the movie has gotten as a movie has been extremely positive, and while I enjoyed it thoroughly, I neither believe it is the best film ever or the best film of the nomination year. Brokeback Mountain has been called groundbreaking. However, movies such as Yossi v'Jagger and Fire predate it and have similar effects.

Beginning of Spoilers

If you're still reading this, and you don't want to find out what happens you should stop. Seriously.

Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet each other trying to earn some money in the summer of 1963. Over the summer they cultivate a relationship, emotionally, intellectually, and sexually. Ennis is quiet and reserved, while Jack is talkative and outgoing. Ennis is the epitome of masculinity while Jack wavers to the feminine side (and of course that places Ennis as a top and Jack as a bottom -how stereotypical.) Anyway, the character types remind me very much of the ones in Yossi v'Jagger. (Annie Proulx's short story predates Yossi v'Jagger, so it should be the other way around, but because I saw Yossi v'Jagger first, the parallel works the other way in my head.) Even some scenes seem to be the same in both movies. A scene with the men tumbling down a hill together comes to mind particularly.

Ennis and Jack's boss discovers the sexual nature of their relationship and ends the drive over Brokeback Mountain early. Then he denies Jack the opportunity to work for him the following summer. In November 1963, Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams) They have two children. Jack eventually marries someone as well. In 1967, Jack contacts Ennis to arrange a rendezvous. When they are reunited, they kiss, and Alma sees them. Jack and Ennis continue their "fishing expeditions," with Jack insisting that they ditch their wives and build a ranch together.

Ennis's marriage goes down the tubes as his wife's knowledge of his relationship with Jack increases. It ends in divorce. After the divorce Alma and Ennis still have their problems, and Ennis explodes at her over Thanksgiving dinner.

Warning: Ending Spoiler upcoming

Jack and Ennis continue their trysts until they both get frustrated with the situation and decide to break it off. Ennis writes to Jack and his postcard is returned stamped "DECEASED." Ennis calls Jack's wife to find out what happened, and she says there was an accident when Jack was changing a flat tire. Ennis, of course, know the truth (or suspects a reality), that is, that Jack was beaten to death on the road for being gay. Whether Ennis's suspicions are actually true is left a mystery in the movie, but his mental image of Jack being beaten is not. Although the bulk of the movie could or could not be about homosexuality, this part unmistakably was. That scene was especially hard for me to digest for two reasons. First, I have been physically accosted for being queer. Secondly, my beloved ended her life in a violent matter because of gender/sexuality issues. Anyway, although the scene was short, I almost vomited. During the phone call, Jack's wife said he wanted his ashes scattered over Brokeback Mountain, so she sent (half of) them to his parents. Ennis goes to see Jack's parents. Jack's mother is very accepting of Ennis and tells him to go up to Jack's room where he finds one of Jacks shirts and one of his hanging together, spattered with blood from the first summer they spent together. She lets him take the shirts, in fact, she wants him to take them. Jack's father thinks the whole thing sick, but still insists that Jack will be buried in the family plot. Jack's mother invites Ennis to come back to see them.

I would have ended the movie here. However, it continues. We see the girl Ennis briefly had something with enamoured with someone else. This scene is followed by one in which Ennis's older daughter comes to see him to tell him she is getting married and she wants him at the wedding. Although these scenes may show that life goes on despite hard circumstances, I think they are gratuitous.

End of Spoilers

Overall, the movie is excellent. The score and cinematography are amazing, the direction nears perfect, and the acting is very good. Heath Ledger's acting is quite good, although I think Jake Gyllenhaal's might be better even than his. However, Michelle Williams's performance as Alma was the best acting in the movie. One flashback was entirely unnecessary and stylistically inconsistent with the movie. Nevertheless, I would recommend this movie highly. (It is rated R, just for your information.)