The credit for this movie lies in all involved. Director Ang Lee holds the camera down and lets the scenes play out for themselves until necessary, while Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana give a sense of restriction and imprisonment to the script to make the tension and passion both real. The actors themselves, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal should be given credit for translating all that to the screen. Lastly, praise should largely be given to Annie Proulx’s short story with its combination of the American cowboy with a twist on the sexual preference of the usual male cowboy characters seen in Western stories.
If it seems to be an average story to you and more for something for your girlfriend, take her with you. You might need to cry on her shoulder when you are done--it’s that kind of movie.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - chantal stone
when i first read this i thought "oh no, not another 'Brokeback' review...." but i have to admit, this was well written and you nailed it when you said:
"The genius of the movie lies in the fact that it treats the subject matter of love and homosexuality as if it's an everyday issue......There's nothing special about falling in or out of love, being gay or being heterosexual, but there is in the way you deal with it."
love is love is love is love......and the tragedy of the story is how these two people were denied their love due to extenuating circumstances.
it reminds me of a movie i saw years ago, and for the life of me i can't remember what is was called, but it was about a black man and a white woman who fell in love (like in the 50's or 60's i think) but could not marry because in Virginia interracial marriage was illegal.
same premise...the tragedy of 'forbidden' love. and the point of telling these stories, i believe, is to make us ask why is this love forbidden in the first place?? (rhetorical question)
the conversations that this movie has inspired will only do good. conversation inevitably will lead to progress.
2 - Matthew Milam
I appericate your comments, thou I'm embrassed to say that I wrote Romero rather than Romeo and Juliet in the article.
3 - A.L. Harper
I think this is very well written. I like that you see that love is love even when it happens between people of the same sex. Excellent commentary.
4 - Jet In Columbus
I like that you "got" the movie, and expressed yourself well. This is from someone who has taken so many people to see it, so many times, that I've watched it 11 times!
5 - bloodjet
"it treats the subject matter of love and homosexuality as if it's an everyday issue..."
well the thing is, it IS an everyday issue for many of us.
meanwhile the film is an extraordinary work of art, and it would stand on its merits if the love at its center was heterosexual or homosexual.
there's one big difference though: heterosexuals can say "I Do" and acknowledge their unions, but right now homosexuals must still say "I Do, But I Can't." thats part of the lesson of the film. it's unfair.
6 - Jet from Columbus OH
Brokeback Mountain thought for the day...
First they came for the Jews, but I wasn't Jewish so I didn't speak out
Then they came for the Catholics, but I wasn't Catholic so I didn't care
Then they came for the gays, but I wasn't gay so I didn't complain
Then they came for the Buddhists, but I wasn’t one, so I didn’t protest
After the Catholics and gays and Jews were marched off to the gas chambers and death houses-because the Bible (Leviticus in particular) teaches that they must die (look it up), they began looking for anyone else who didn’t believe in their “fundamentalist” beliefs, and rounded them up to be retaught to their way of thinking, and since I didn't agree with them, I was taken too, but there was no one left to speak for me
7 - goombah
IT'S ANNIE PROULX!!! Please correct. Pathetic that you can't get the author correct.
8 - Matthew Milam
It probably is pathetic I can't get the name correct, at least when I mention it the second time.
Please find a way to be more careful with your words in the future.
9 - Joelline
Love may or may not be "a force of nature"; but I'm sure of one thing: whether or not to ACT on an emotion and whether or not to betray others is a CHOICE! I'm so darned tired of the soap-opera "I didn't mean to sleep with him/her" stuff (so, therefore, it's OK). The men in Brokeback Mt. betrayed their wives, their children, and themselves--and I can't forgive them for that. I have nothing but contempt for those who break vows because they were "overcome by a force of nature."
10 - Jet in Columbus
Oh Joelline,
You poor thing, you need to go see the movie again, if you actually saw it the first time.
They betrayed each other by marrying women. They were forced to marry, or be judged by narrow-minded people such as you.
Ennis feared for his life (and it turns out he was right) should his/their secret come out, which is what happened to Jack and was illustrated a little too graphically in the movie for you to have forgotten...
Or did you go out for popcorn when that happened?
11 - Matthew Milam
You should also remember that this is a movie.
12 - jay
there is no such thing as a gay cowboy.every cowboy i know is a real man. not a fag who cheats on his wife with another man.
13 - WTF?
Chantal, was the movie you're thinking of called "Far From Heaven" with Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert (and she was married to Dennis Quaid)? It has a similar-sounding plot.
Jet, your comment was awesome.
Jay, every cowboy you know? And how many is that? And do you think a gay cowboy would reveal to you that he is, in fact, gay, when you seem to not be open to that at all?
14 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks WTF, It's a quote I've carried around since High School, but I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it. I'll say this, It's gotten a lot of mileage lately.
15 - Jet in Columbus
Brokeback Mountain comes out on DVD April 4th and I thought it might be a good idea to post my review of it again, for those of you too nervouse to go to a theater to see it...
Brokeback Mountain is not for everyone. It has no mincing fairies, no comic-relief lisping queens, and absolutely no preaching or hidden messages or agendas. In fact the main character-Ennis is probably one of the most "manly" men ever seen in a movie.
Two young men, a ranch hand, and a up-and-coming rodeo bull rider, (the very definition of the word “cowboys”) are so down on their luck, that they’re forced to do something no cowboy wants to do-herd sheep over the summer on Brokeback Mountain. (Some have critisized, asking how it could be a cowboy movie if they're herding sheep... read on)
Straight men who see this movie identify with them… and there lies the problem. The movie hits a little too close to home. Jack and Ennis regularly go camping in the wilderness, were brought up to own guns and know how to use them well, hunt elk and wild game, fish, carry hunting knives and know how to survive in the forest on their own. They own dogs, love life on horseback, tend cattle, ride bulls in rodeos, live on ranches, date women, father children, drink whiskey and beer, get into bar fights, and own and repair old pick-up trucks.
The two men never planned to fall into the situation they find themselves in, and have no idea how to react to it themselves. They don’t even know words to describe their feelings-Ennis can only call it “This thing”. When the summer ends, they go back to ranching, herding cattle and horses, competing in the rodeo, selling farm equipment and existing in the standard cowboy life, fathering children, attending church and Fourth of July celebrations, and arguing with their wives.
As for the explicit sex scene-Huh???? Oh, there’s nudity, and it’s ALL between the husbands and their wives. In the intimate scenes between the men-hell they’re never shown with their jeans off, and only one is shirtless! If all you attend a movie for is sex scenes, you’ll be better satisfied being straight, gawking at the women in their sexy attire and total nudity during the sex scene. The sex between the men is done in classic Alfred Hitchcock fashion and you’ll swear you saw more than you actually did, because it’s left to your imagination. If you see it a second time you’ll be astonished that no sexual contact is actually shown at all-except what you “thought” you saw!
And there lies the proof. This movie is just a damned good simple love story, and anyone too scared to see it, is probably so unsure of their own sexuality, that they feel determined to review a movie they’ve never seen, and probably never will.
If ever a movie made you walk in someone else’s shoes, this is it.
So go grab your masculine pride, your wife/girlfriend to put on your arm to prove you’re straight, and head to the nearest video store and rent or buy it. You'll be shocked when you laugh, and then cry while seeing a damned good movie…
As you hit STOP on your player, you’ll know undoubtedly, why the two shirts worn by Jack and Ennis brought in $101,100.51 (!) recently at auction to benefit a children’s charity.
To date, the movie has made 81.5 Million domestically, and over $150 million worldwide. I expect that figure to double once people too shy to go to the theaters, begin buying the DVD…
16 - chantal stone
WTF....no it wasn't that, although "Far From Heaven" was a great movie. in that movie, interracial relationships were just frowned upon....the movie i was referring too had an interracial couple who wanted to marry, but were legally barred from doing so. i still can't recall that name of that film.
anyway, Jet...you should try to become a blogcritic and post your review when the dvd comes out....just a thought.
17 - Jet In Columbus
Thanks Chantal, but somehow I don't think Dave would like that.
18 - chantal stone
i'm not sure which "Dave" you're referring to, but either way, i'm sure he'd get over it. :)
19 - Dave Nalle
He's referring to me, and I agree with you, Chantal. He should get his ass on the BC wagon and write and post his own reviews. With one name, preferably.
Dave
20 - nugget
Angels in America opened my eyes to gay relationships in a less offensive and more challenging way than did Brokeback Mountain.
21 - Jet in Columbus
I'm intrigued Nugget, what exactly offended you?
22 - Jet in Columbus
It's interesting that men have no objection to seeing two women kissing on the street as a greeting, or even walking arm in arm without giving it a thought, but the same consideration can't be given to men.
This is the same up in arms reaction to when another sacred icon was tarnished when K. D. Lang came out of the closet as a lesbian, when all female country singers were the very ideal of sexy or motherly women.
For the record Jack and Ennis were a couple before either were married, so if anything the cheating was done between them and not against their wives!
23 - Jet in Columbus
The 1950 restored GMC truck driven in the movie has just been put up for sale. Hopefully it'll go to shut Randy Quaid up. No one, not even the producers, had expected the movie to gross over 190 million worldwide (and that's before the DVD sales start rolling in), but now everyone wants a piece of the action.
...but that's just my opinion
24 - nugget
Jet in Columbus. The entire premise of Brokeback Mountain offends me. It should many others. (and does) It's not so much a slap in the face to middle America to have two guys in New York city, unbutch and eloquent speaking intellectuals be in holy gay love with each other. It is a slap in the face to straight male cowboys and men that identify as masculine to dig into some unknown demographic like wyoming cowboys and plaster a big homosexual billboard in their front lawns. It's called ANTAGONIZATION. It didn't open anyone's mind. It pissed people off that it was in their dollar theater. Ultimately, that's what Brokeback Mountain accomplished.
25 - Jet in Columbus
No nugget, it pissed you and your little group off, not everyone, and when the DVD sales go through the ceiling, that'll prove my point. You're also the people that said that this film would never gross over $20 million and relagated it to "arthouse" status too.
The movie is still playing in red-state theaters for over 4 months, and according to Entertainment Weekly, it's still as of this week in the top 20 most CURRENTLY watched movies in America-so apparently SOMEONE'S watching it. Worldwide ticket sales should top $200 Million by Mid April-Obviously there's a lot of people somewhere that don't agree with you.
What two guys in New York??? Heath Ledger's from Australia and Jake Gylenhall's from California.
The masculine macho icon cowboy that you love so much lives only in the movies, and the biggest icon of them all, John Wayne, was an actor-NOT a cowboy, he also never served in the War, but he played a war hero in the movies.
The same percentage of cowboys are gay, as in the general population-maybe more! Ever heard of the Gay construction workers union, or the gay auto union workers? No of course you haven't, but I'll bet you've heard of the Gay Rodeo circuit that is quite popular across the West.
Obviously you didn't see the movie and are self-righteously trying to judge it, and proving how moral you are by advertising how judgmental you can be by posting your overly appalled reactions here, which offends me.
If you have no interest in the film/DVD why are you posting comments here, unless it for the purpose of ANTAGONIZATION???
I click on, read, and post comments only to subjects that interest me. You must obviously be interested in the subject matter, or you wouldn't be here.
Go hide back in your closet, and convince yourself of how outraged you are.
No one else is interested.
...but then that's only my opinion