SUMMARY:

It’s 1963 and two young drifters, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), are hired to guard sheep for a summer on remote Brokeback Mountain. As the time passes, the two have what they both believe will be a short-term physical relationship. But when the job ends and the two men go their separate ways, they are unable to get each other out of their minds.

STEVE SAY:

I suspect this is a case of waiting too long to see a movie that is getting sensational buzz. The upshot is, the movie can’t live up to expectations. Not to say this is a bad movie in any way because it isn’t. I just don’t believe that it belongs at the top of so many critics’ “Best Ten” list for 2005. To be sure, it is beautifully filmed in a Canadian wilderness that doubles for the majesty of Wyoming. It is wonderfully acted by the two leads, particularly Heath Ledger, who sheds any vestige of his Australian heritage to play the stoic man of few words, Ennis Del Mar. The screenplay is smart and engaging. In short, it has all the elements of a terrific film. But at best, I can only call it “very good.”

The story stretches over the twenty years that follow the initiation of the relationship between these two gruff cowboys in the wilds of Brokeback Mountain. During that time, both men marry and have children, all the while longing for the kind of emotional connection that they shared during that long-ago summer. In fact, this is a movie about longing and, as such, is bound to be a bit of a let-down if the two principals don’t get what they’re longing for.

While I understand that the social dynamic regarding gays was different in 1963, there were still men and women who got together to form families, regardless of whether or not society approved. I found myself silently urging them to either get together or forget it and move on. Indeed, it wasn’t until the final ten or fifteen minutes of the film that I made any kind of emotional connection with the story and by then, it seemed to be too little too late. I was predisposed to like this movie and I did. I just didn’t love it as much as I felt I should have.

I can’t say enough about Heath Ledger’s performance. He should be one of the chosen five for Best Actor consideration. As the characters in the film age, Ledger is the one who seems to move believably into his middle years, with little help from make-up. (Indeed, the latex stippling around his eyes to simulate wrinkles was only a distraction...and the make-up department should have worked a little harder to hide the piercing hole in his earlobe). When Ledger first hit American screens, I dismissed him as another in a long line of pretty boys destined for a Fox TV series. I began to rethink my opinion of him when I saw his small but memorable role in as Billy Bob Thornton’s doomed son in MONSTER’S BALL. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN puts Heath Ledger firmly on the map as an acting force to be reckoned with.

Jake Gyllenhaal again distinguishes himself as Jack Twist, the latest in a series of challenging roles that the young actor has handled deftly. Since I first noticed him in the title role in DONNIE DARKO, I marked him as one to watch. Between JARHEAD, PROOF and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, Gyllenhaal has had quite a year.

If you take the extra step of lowering your expectations slightly before seeing BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, I’m sure you’ll come away with a thoroughly satisfying feeling, having seen a very worthwhile movie well-made. Just don’t expect the greatest thing ever committed to celluloid.

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Patty says:

Spoken like a man who has never actually lived in Wyoming.  It was only seven years ago that Matthew Sheppard, a Wyoming gay man, was kidnapped, lashed to a fence, beaten and left in the cold Wyoming October night to die.  While there are gay friendly resort areas, spit swappin’ between a couple of guys in Rock Springs or Gillette would get their asses soundly kicked.  Or worse. 

Unfortunately it’s not just Wyoming. 

 A 1999 study of 2300 gay and lesbian men and women in the Sacramento, California area found that nearly one-fifth of the women and more than one-fourth of the men in the study had experienced a crime or attempted crime based on their sexual orientation at some time in their life. One woman in eight had been victimized in the previous five years; one man in six had been a hate crime victim in that period. The types of victimization included assaults, rapes, robberies, thefts, and vandalism.   California.  Blue state.  Home of tree huggers and granola munchers. Toto, I don’t think we’re not in Kansas anymore.

In Wyoming in 1963 or in Los Angeles 1963, life wasn’t easy for gay people.  Had Rock Hudson come out, what would have happened to his career?  I don’t think it was a question of hook up or move to someplace more gay friendly.  Where, exactly would that have been? 

I do agree that BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN doesn’t live up to expectations and I also agree that it isn’t because there is a minute of bad acting.  BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN went to great pains to prove itself to be a relationship film, but I just didn’t believe the relationship.  The friendship that I saw develop on the mountain pre-sex was more like a couple of guys who found themselves stuck on a mountain with 1000 sheep for the summer and eventually the other guy looked better than the ewes.  They told stories, they kidded around, but if there was sexual tension there I didn’t see it.  That’s what was missing for me.  I didn’t see them lust for one another let alone fall in love.

The scenery in the Tetons is spectacular and the Canadian Rockies are almost as pretty but that could be my Northern Plains bias.  The story is well told but drags a bit.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger should get nominations out of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, but the film isn’t best picture material.  It’s definitely worth seeing, however.

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