There were less than 10 people in the theater for the 5:05 showing. Movie sucks on so many levels I hardly no where to start.
The story line can be taken very differently, in my opinion, than the propagandists might think. One could make the case that the protagonist of the film, Ennis Dela Mar (Heath Ledger), was lured into experimenting with homosexuality in the summer of 1963 when he was young and apparently still a virgin (if you pay close attention to the dialogue).
Ennis was drunk and freezing outside the tent and was invited into the tent to sleep next to Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who did the seducing.
The ensuing relationship ultimately led to the ruination of Ennis's life. After their summer on Brokeback Mountain herding sheep, Ennis went on to get married and have a family (2 daughters). He seemed happily married and loved his family. Four years later (1968)Jack Twist shows up from Texas (now married) and throws a wrench into Ennis world. Then begins the regular fishing trips between Ennis and Jack (3 times a year)
Ennis does not seem the least bit interested in pursuing a life of homosexuality outside this single relationship. After his wife dumped him, having figured out about his relationship with Jack Twist, Ennis has an affair with a woman for awhile.
Doomed to paying child support he lived a financially marginal life. He did not seem to mind paying child support and demonstrated great affection for his two girls, especially one of his daughters, the one he called "junior". He seemed prepared to go back to his wife. It was she who refused his return, although one time she seemed on the verge of taking him back.
To me one of the most tellings lines was when Ennis told Jack "You did this to me." This was near the end when told Jack he could not arrange one of the fishing expeditions for August and would have to wait until November because he could not get off from his job. He had quit jobs in the past in order to be with Jack. Jack throws a scene about wanting the two of them to live together and run a ranch and be happy. It was the last time the two were together. When Jack does not show up in November, Ennis calls his wife and learns that Jack died in an "accident" with one of the big pieces of farm equipment he sold, and the tire than blew out and the rim crushed his face. This was a lie, as Jack had been being beaten to death. We later learn Jack's father that Jack had taken up with the husband of a woman who was his wife's close friend. The husband and Jack were planning to go back to Wyoming to work Jack's parents ranch. We also learn that Jack had taken trips to Mexico to have sex with Mexican male prostitutes.
I think the movie makes it clear that Ennis loved Jack but then tries to exploit that love for propaganda purposes. The gay propagandists will say this is what happens when people are not permitted to live out the life they want to lead because of intolerance. Or it proves the enduring power of love.
Ennis seems to be in the most pain when he visits Jack's parents at the end and offers to take some of Jack's ashes to Brokeback Mountain, as Jack wished. Jack's mother shows him Jack's room. There he finds a bloody shirt that was bloodied during a final fight between the 2 and he takes it home. Jack's father refuses to give him the ashes and says he will bury them in the family burial plot.
There is a ray of hope at the end when Jack's daughter comes to visit him in a trailer and tells him she is getting matter. His very fatherly treatment of her was quite touching. He agrees to go to the wedding even if it means he will have to quit his job. Both father and daughter are very close and loving in this moment and this love is the only love in Ennis life that is not destructive. There's a clear lesson here that is not really developed.
Ham-fisted scenes are thrown in to reinforce a theme of homosexuals being persecuted and killed. Ennis as a boy was shown a dead homosexual by his father.The man was lying in a ditch after having been killed by hooligans after being dragged by his penis.
Yet, for me, the real message in this flawed attempt at propaganda is that those who succumb to homosexuality are doomed to a life of unhappiness, sorrow and tragedy. Further, a man who would otherwise have led a straight life is lured into a homosexual relationship and his entire life is desroyed as a result.
I think one of the reviewers who panned the film tried to make the same point -- that this was a tragedy about seduction into sin. Curiously, early in the movie the two young men talk about sin and forgiveness as they watched the stars on Brokeback Mountain. Ennis said he had never sinned, referring it would seem to the fact he was still a virgin.
I didn't start out to write all this stuff, but I just felt like I wanted to say something after seeing the movie. It was disturbing, to say the least.
Well, thanks. Roger Ebert didn't tell me any of that stuff. It was an interesting review. All the women in my family, daughter, daughter-in-law, niece (and me) want to see it...none of the men would go near it. Kinda weird.
Thanks. Sounds as though Lee should have used his sissors more, but if he had, then the film would not have received all the laurels.