Film Review
Brokeback Mountain
Dir. Ang LeeScr. Larry McMurtry; E. Annie Proulx (short story)
Heath Ledger
Jake Gyllenhaal
Michelle Williams
Anne Hathaway
Anna Faris
Official Site - www.brokebackmountain.com
Ang Lee is a compelling filmmaker. One minute he is introducing us to Chinese martial arts and ancient civilizations in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and then he is taking us to the American West in the early 1960s to tell the tale of two young ranchers who fall in love while working together in the isolated area that is Brokeback Mountain.
The film has drawn a lot of press, mostly positive, having been termed a ?gay cowboy? movie, by some over-eager film critics. I certainly don?t want to take anything away from the story but it is more than a gay story?it is a love story, ultimately about a love that cannot survive because of external situations and circumstances.
There is an innate sadness to Ennis, the character played with remarkable depth by Heath Ledger (do we hear Oscar calling?!), a young man whose life has been stunted by the early death of his parents and a subsequent life of solitude and deprivation. He is so withdrawn so bound up, that even when he speaks his mouth barely moves. Anger and frustration live so close to the surface in this man that when they erupt it is like a volcano. Basically a good man without the necessary tools to process all that troubles him, his life is made even more complicated when he begins a relationship with Jack Twist, played with equal depth and compassion by Jake Gyllenhall. Twist seems locked up in a different world of need, one that revolves more around issues of sexual identity and hunger than strictly issues of homosexuality.
After a summer together both men go off and get married and have children, but their affection for each other eventually draws them back into an unsatisfying relationship of stolen weekends fishing and camping together.
The film follows their twenty-year relationship at a painfully slow pace. This is not a film to see of you are tired or hungry or have plans afterwards. You?ll need to be fully awake and then ready to process the many feelings that will arise out of the film?s story line.
It is a beautiful film, sad, pathetic at times, and yet, continually reminding us that even when it causes us pain, there is nothing quite like true love. There is a little bit of redemption for Ennis at the end of the film when he discovers in the folding of his daughter?s sweater that the aroma of her body is as warm and comforting to him as the love he has kept in his heart for Jack.
It doesn?t sound like much, but if you watch the movie, you?ll realize that it is more than enough to walk away with a sense of satisfaction and understanding?regardless of one's sexual orientation.
The film has drawn a lot of press, mostly positive, having been termed a ?gay cowboy? movie, by some over-eager film critics. I certainly don?t want to take anything away from the story but it is more than a gay story?it is a love story, ultimately about a love that cannot survive because of external situations and circumstances.
There is an innate sadness to Ennis, the character played with remarkable depth by Heath Ledger (do we hear Oscar calling?!), a young man whose life has been stunted by the early death of his parents and a subsequent life of solitude and deprivation. He is so withdrawn so bound up, that even when he speaks his mouth barely moves. Anger and frustration live so close to the surface in this man that when they erupt it is like a volcano. Basically a good man without the necessary tools to process all that troubles him, his life is made even more complicated when he begins a relationship with Jack Twist, played with equal depth and compassion by Jake Gyllenhall. Twist seems locked up in a different world of need, one that revolves more around issues of sexual identity and hunger than strictly issues of homosexuality.
After a summer together both men go off and get married and have children, but their affection for each other eventually draws them back into an unsatisfying relationship of stolen weekends fishing and camping together.
The film follows their twenty-year relationship at a painfully slow pace. This is not a film to see of you are tired or hungry or have plans afterwards. You?ll need to be fully awake and then ready to process the many feelings that will arise out of the film?s story line.
It is a beautiful film, sad, pathetic at times, and yet, continually reminding us that even when it causes us pain, there is nothing quite like true love. There is a little bit of redemption for Ennis at the end of the film when he discovers in the folding of his daughter?s sweater that the aroma of her body is as warm and comforting to him as the love he has kept in his heart for Jack.
It doesn?t sound like much, but if you watch the movie, you?ll realize that it is more than enough to walk away with a sense of satisfaction and understanding?regardless of one's sexual orientation.