Believe the hype — this movie is as good as you've heard. It may even be better. Brokeback Mountain is a sweeping tale of stymied love spanning twenty years, directed by the master of uncomfortable, unfulfilled love stories (The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Ang Lee. Lee knows how to wrangle pain from his actors, and here he is in his element with two characters who have spent their lives tamping down the feelings that could get them killed.
Yes, if you have to label everything and tie up the characters and story into neat little packages, then okay: Brokeback Mountain is about gay cowboys (but before you ask, alas, no pudding). But writing this film off with a few controversial labels doesn't do it justice. If nothing else, one hopes that this movie can help to shed light on the notion that labels and stereotypes are often inadequate when it comes to sexuality. Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist are men (fully realized in tremendous, career-making performances by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) who fall in love, but does it make them gay? Are we defined by labels, or by the actions in our lives?
Part of the controversy surrounding this film lies in the perception that the movie is encouraging homosexual men to marry and live out “traditional” lives with a wife and children, the nuclear family American dream. There seems to be some feeling that this is a particularly unhealthy idea to propagate now when the delicate issue of gay rights is being debated across the country. What these people don’t seem to realize is that this film doesn’t advocate anything except the idea that being true to one’s self is difficult in any time and any place – and everyone struggles with that, homo- or heterosexual, male or female, rich or poor. For Ennis and Jack, their inability (due to upbringing, culture, and society) to live out the lives they might have otherwise chosen is their downfall. There’s nothing in the film that encourages gay men to act “straight.”
Nor is the film some sort of flamboyant cavalcade of homosexuality that some would like you to think. It’s difficult for me to refer to Ennis and Jack with the accepted labels of sexuality because sexuality is a rich facet of our selves, multi-layered and deep. It is not a simple question for many, and that struggle is one of the story’s strengths. Is Brokeback Mountain really about “gay cowboys?”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jenifer Gonzales
See? This is what I was saying about having to pick a "best of 2005" movie before the end of December (in my review I submitted to you last night). This movie won't be out in Seattle until NEXT weekend. But I can bet that it would be among my picks for the best. Damn that deadline!
Nice review, though. I definitely want to see it now!
2 - Alisha Karabinus
I know -- it definitely usurped the two I was considering for my own pick. But we have to be able to get it together before the end of the year. :(
translation: all BC editors should be beaten with sticks.
But oh my god, go see it. It's incredible. I'm an Ang Lee fangirl, but still, go see it.
3 - Silas Kain
If anybody proclaims this is one of those queer propaganda movies, as certain Christian groups are trying to assert, they do not know what they are talking about. In fact, they are bearing false witness. This isn't one of those movies. It's a bona fide love story that plucks the strings of one's heart like an angel's harp.
4 - Silas Kain
Alisha, thank you. You found the words that I couldn't find. This movie has left me drained and shaken to the core. As you well know, that is no exaggeration. I finally figured out the best way to describe it:
5 - Mary K. Williams
I'm not sure if I'll get to see it or not - but it does sound good.
The whole idea of this set up - homosexual situations that might or might not define a whole movie - reminds me strangely enough of Monster.
I did not want to see that movie, not because of the possiblity of same sex scenes, but because it just sounded SO depressing! But a friend insisted I give it a try. Well it was good - still very depressing, but good.
What struck me was the scene outside the skating rink - when (damn I forget the names!) Charlize Theron's and Christina Ricci's characters are making out like crazy.
It was arty, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't porn, it wasn't college boy fantasy (eg American Pie 2. And I almost forgot that they were of the same sex - or not forget, but that was minor to the scene.
It was hot. Those women conveyed the need, the lust, the 'I have to have you RIGHT now' feeling that hopefully we all can identify with.
Diversity is great - wonderful to acknowledge what makes one group unique from another, and respect those who are different and etc etc --
BUT -
Isn't it also great to just 'be in the moment'? No labels, no minorities - just a sharing of love or lust or desperation - no matter who is doing the sharing?
6 - Silas Kain
Mary, how wise and compassionate your words are in your closing above! Thank you. Paul Clinton writes a review of Brokeback on CNN today and his closing is similar:
Indeed, instead of curing 'it' maybe what's in order is compassion and understanding. Even at a half century of age, I have been irrevocably affected by the power of this film. Ang Lee has done this to me for a second time. The first was with his wonderful The Wedding Banquet. This has been a tumultuous year. So much has happened - two Popes, the escalation of War, Katrina, Tsunami, etc. You would think that these major events around the world would have softened our hearts a bit to the idea that love does come in all shapes and sizes. Anyway, enough pontificating. Thank you, again.7 - Mary K. Williams
very welcome Silas -
I don't wear the rose colored glasses all the time - I'm getting increasingly disturbed with life in general -
but I still have hope for compassion and tolerance.
If you can't have hope - you don't have much.
OHH and maybe I'll blame it on the rose colored glasses, but I screwed up in my earlier comment #5. I meant to say.. "it isn't arty"
8 - Mike
What a wonderful review. You articulated everything I experienced in the movie.
This movie has really stuck with me, far more than I expected. The morning after I saw it I cried for half an hour just thinking about it. I think it connects with any experience the viewer has had with loneliness, fear and the desperate desire to hang on to personal authenticity no matter how painful.
9 - Chris Evans
I saw this movie last Thursday at an Advanced Screening, and let me say...it is truly amazing. It's really one of the best made films I've ever seen--AND WHAT AMAZING ACTORS! Anne Hathaway and Heath Ledger in particular...I felt were phenomenal.
10 - Alisha Karabinus
Thanks so much for all the kind comments. This was a really tough film to review because it is so very emotional and it does stick with you... I found myself thinking about it over the next several days after seeing it, and it was still such a fresh wound, if you will, that it was difficult to pull my thoughts into line.
And Mary, that's lovely. That's EXACTLY the feeling I get from this movie, too. It's just a love story. There's been so much BS written about this being a "gay romance" or the doomsayers bitching because it makes westerns look bad or oh no, positive gay stories and blah blah blah, but if it weren't for any of that, if we could all just look past it, it would just be a movie. About a romance that went, to a large degree, unfulfilled. And it's a great MOVIE. It's a great STORY.
Let's hope it's a hallmark of how things can be, maybe, in a few years.
11 - GoHah
I think I've said this elsewhere on another post, but I do recommend the novella/short story--I think its been published by itself now(?) but it was originally a short story in Annie Proulx's "Close Range: Wyoming Stories."
12 - Mary K. Williams
"That's EXACTLY the feeling I get from this movie, too. It's just a love story. There's been so much BS written about this being a "gay romance"
Alisha - Yup. I think if that's the kind of thing you can take away from a film, then the director has done something right. (Oh and the actors too : )
13 - Alisha Karabinus
GoHah -- I LOVE the story. And I think the adaptation was excellent. I'm death on adaptations, typically... I can think of a spare handful I think did the original work full justice, and this one comes in very close to the top.
14 - Paul
Does anyone know where to find out of what cities this movie will be released? I live in Spokane, WA. Thanks lots.
15 - marc
I saw the film on Thursady at the 12:00 AM showing. I don't cry in movies, but I did in this one. It was so beautiful and thoughtful. I cried once I got home. This movie, as did the short story moved me.
16 - Victoria
Excellent review. I haven't seen the film and I don't know if I will, but this was a very thoughtful, well-written article. You should have Roger Ebert's job.
17 - Mung
I still need to wait until Jan when it's on in Leeds, can't wait though after reading all the reviews and watching the preview. It's not this gay cowboy love story fascinates me, it's the hidden side of ourselves.
18 - Moe
Gay cowboys?
I'll pass.
19 - ClubhouseCancer
Too bad, Moe. It's quite an affecting love story. Maybe you'll catch it on cable sometime and see why so many folks loved it.
20 - Moe
NO I don't think I'll be watching this movie. EVER!
Now if someone were to make a "love story" about two hot lesbian plumbers that couldn't keep thier hands off each other I'd watch it though.
21 - fastlad
Alisha Karabinus's review of Brokeback Mountain is one of the most thoughtful and well written I have yet read; in fact it may well be the most insightful one I've seen to date.
22 - Rick
I love America! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and here is my on this dreadful movie: I think it is another example of left wing liberal Hollywood wackiest people trying to impose their immoral ideas on American society thru media. Brokeback Mountain is a movie that should have never been made. Two male sheep farmers getting it on in the mountains; how sick is that? The men depicted in the movie are both married have families to think about; it is just despicable. Infidelity and homosexuality, Is this what you really want to teach you children?
Homosexuality - is it genetic? I do not believe that because some people might be genetically predisposed towards something (like being gay), that it is therefore ok. According to the Bible, God gave us free will. Free will which we can either use to give into our sinful urges, or we can use to resist unnatural urges. In my opinion, one of the main points of the story of Adam and Eve is to say that we are all predisposed to sin and that we all have significant temptation to overcome in our lives and we should do our best to not give into sin but make appropriate moral socially acceptable choices. Another thing I got out of the story of Adam and Eve was God created Eve (a woman) as a companion for Adam to help populate the Earth. Notice, he did not chose two men or two women for the task at hand, it was man and women he designed to accomplish this task.
I don’t consider myself a bible thumper in fact I do not even attend a church but I do use and read the Christian bible in hope that the guidance provided within will help me make good moral decisions in this turbulent life. The following are a few scriptures that I find interesting in my non-gay lifestyle.
Leviticus 18:22 - Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Leviticus 20:13 - If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
1 Corinthians 6:9 says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."
The choice is yours; Chose wisely.
23 - Mark Saleski
Mark 1:1 - What a big loada hooey.
24 - Carol
Ahhhh, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.....such a simple black and white concept, but then,life was never meant to be simply figured out. We are left with many shades of grey aren't we?
25 - Scott Butki
Great review. Very well thought out.