Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Jake Gyllenhaal (left) and Heath Ledger in 'Brokeback Mountain'. - CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
WATCHING A film after it has been surrounded by hype and super-hype is always a particularly hard undertaking. One tends to get swept up in expectations created by the buzz that swirls around the film, so Brokeback Mountain presents such a challenge - and then some.
ENGAGING STORY
Fortunately Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, is a beautifully crafted, well-told, engaging story. The cinematography is awe-inspiring, whether when depicting a mountain dotted with sheep, a ramshackle house framed against a beautiful sky, or the intense emotions of its main characters. Every frame of this flick is beautiful and it is often beauty with a purpose, as even the landscape is used to frame the loneliness and inner turmoil of the main characters.
It is the story of the forbidden love between two ranchers, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and their lives over the years. Of course, though its main characters are two cowboys, this film is no more a western than Michael Jackson is a gangster. They both just wear the uniform.
LOVE BETWEEN TWO MEN
Of course, the story deals with an issue many westerns do - love between two men. This time, however, the love turns romantic. This is what has allowed Brokeback Mountain so much power to make tongues wag; it deals with the forbidden.
To describe Brokeback Mountain as a love story, a romance, seems ineffectual. There is love here, and Ang Lee makes sure to give it a chance to grow and keep its presence a tangible thing throughout the film, but by the end of the story that love is a broken, bleeding thing. It is a story about two people who are denied (and to some degree deny themselves) the freedom to express their feelings for each other in public, but it is not very romantic.
FORBIDDEN DESIRES
Simply, were Jack and Ennis a man and a woman kept apart because of family or class, it would have been a tale of two cheaters. What makes them interesting is the forbidden nature of their desires and it is fascinating how the film paints their unfulfilled wishes eating into them.
It is particularly careful in highlighting that these men are men, wrangling their humanity away from all stereotypes. None of the limp-wristed, fashionista homosexuals who populate many comedies (who could not hide being gay if their closet led to Narnia) are allowed to parade across the screen. There is no titillation. The story gets to the heart of the matter.
HAUNTING PERFORMANCE
Heath Ledger delivers a haunting performance and his role is particularly successful at steering the movie clear of stereotypes. He is your typical cowboy. He hardly speaks. He is a loner. He has so many pent up emotions that get expressed through anger. Yet, even Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) is allowed to wrest his manhood away from his father-in-law and show his strength.
Michelle Williams, who plays Alma, also turns in a wonderful performance, one which her years on Dawson's Creek as the angst-ridden Jen gave no indication she had in her. Anne Hathaway, as Lureen Newsome, also to some degree rescues her career from the travesty of The Princess Diaries II.
THE COWBOY AND THE QUEER
So, despite all the trampled hearts that are displayed in heart-wrenching detail in this flick, I hesitate to call it a romance because it doesn't seem to be the point. The story is built on the back of two masculine stereotypes, neither of which is allowed to show his face as we know it: the cowboy and the queer. They, as they are often defined, are supposed to be opposites. One is the ultimate man and the other the not man.
What Brokeback Mountain depicts best isn't love. It's longing and loneliness and suffering. But I guess to some that is romantic.
Either way, it is a beautiful tale.
