"Brokeback Mountain"
Starring: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway
4 stars out of 4
Directed by: Ang Lee
The two lead males in the film, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, share a key conversation early on in “Brokeback Mountain”, that paves the way for the rest of the emotional film. Ennis mentions to Jack something he saw as a boy. “There were two guys living together, they were the joke of the town.” Ennis tells Jack that one day they were found dead, as his dad showed him and his brother.
Jack and Ennis meet for the first time in 1963, they work together protecting sheep on the lonely brokeback mountain. At first glance we can tell Ennis’ past has been filled with loneliness and disappointment and were are told of his shortcomings later in the movie. Ennis is the type of person that struggles to get words out his mouth, it actually looks like hard work for him, assuming that he wants to talk. Jack has a bigger scope of life, he realizes he must get what he wants and run with it, without ever turning back.
Days turn to weeks on the mountain, and the two grow closer as they seek companionship without ever dreaming that they would find it within each other. They connect sexually and emotionally as they also don’t know how to understand there feelings and how to deal with them. That what makes this movie special, Ang Lee has directed a landmark film about love, having ever loved anything with immense passion, one can connect with this story once they get passed the cliché “gay cowboy movie.” It’s so much more than that, the story takes place in the 60’s and stretches on through the years, as both men eventually separate after there first summer on the mountain and go off and start families of there own with women. They both have kids, and seem to be living happy, until one day Jack writes Ennis from Texas with intentions of coming to visit.
When they connect after 4 years since there summer on Brokeback, we know this will be a hard film to watch, not only because of the time they were living in and the rejection of homo-sexuality , but because we as the audience don’t know where these two cowboys are going to take us. They both realize they have a “one shot thing going on.”
Ennis’s wife Elma, played by Michelle Williams sees Jack and Ennis kissing during there first meeting after Brokeback, she holds it in so long, and we identify with her as her denial turns into realism and she now cannot truthfully live with Ennis. Even though she holds the truth buried deep inside, we know it will take some time for her and her two girls to leave there dad. Jake marries Lureen, also seen as a victim of the male relationship.
Jack is able to undertake a little more willingly that he is undeniably gay. In defeat and sexual need, he goes to Mexico one night and finds a male prostitute. Ennis eventually finds out but realizes that all time without Jake is time passed to move on and look forward to eventual meetings and encounters, this is the same thing for Jack, but the feeling in stronger.
Jack looks for commitment throughout to Ennis, he wishes to move to his family’s ranch, and some day settle down, Ennis is shy towards commitment, because he fears himself. Ledger and Gyllenhaal with merit undeniable Oscar consideration, along with director Ang Lee, and possibly Michelle Williams.
“Brokeback Mountain” is obviously not for everyone, at one point during the film I told myself it wasn’t for me, then before I knew it I was sinking deeper and deeper into the film’s message and themes of undeniable and forbidden love. This is hands down the riskiest film of the year, it will stir up controversy, it will cause long discussions on a scene during the end and the themes, and it must be said that it is the one of the best films of the year, if not the best.
