Posted on 12/14/2005 11:22:00 PM PST by Antioch
"Brokeback Mountain" the much publicized "gay cowboy love story" adapted from a New Yorker magazine piece by Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx, arrives at last, and the film itself -- a serious contemplation of loneliness and connection -- belies the glib description.
While it is the story of an intimate relationship, more to the point it's the relationship of two emotionally scarred souls. Ranch hands Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) share a sheepherding assignment on a mountain in Signal, Wyo., in 1963. Ennis is a man of few words; Jack is somewhat more open.
Their friendship gradually grows despite Ennis' taciturn manner. At first, it's only Jack who sleeps in the camp near the sheep (with Ennis ensconced down the mountain), but come to realize it is more practicable to guard the sheep in tandem. Ennis resolutely insists he'll sleep outdoors, but the cold drives him into Jack's tent, where the two awkwardly, then roughly, have sex. Incidentally, that scene -- short and with the men mostly clothed -- is the only onscreen gay sexual encounter in the film.
In the morning, both are too embarrassed to talk about what has transpired, but a bond has formed, and we are led to understand that the relationship has deepened. Later, some outdoor wrestling is observed by their boss, the unsympathetic rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid), who watches them with a knowing eye. At the end of the season, they come down from the mountain, and dismissing what happened on the mountain as a "one-shot deal," go their separate ways. Ennis is engaged to Alma (Michelle Williams, Ledger's real-life girlfriend). But we see him crumple in despair as soon as he's alone. The first human connection he's had is coming to an end.
Jack, for his part, makes a tentative attempt to pick up an Ennis-like cowboy in a bar, but eventually meets former prom queen Lureen (Anne Hathaway). Both men marry and have children. Time goes by, and Jack sends a postcard to Ennis telling him he's coming to town. The air is rife with anticipation as Ennis waits for the reunion. When Jack finally drives up, the unexpressive Ennis can barely contain his excitement, and rushes out to meet him.
They embrace passionately, not realizing that Alma is sadly viewing the interaction from behind the screen door. She says nothing, but understands all. On the trip, Jack proposes that they chuck their families and buy a ranch, but Ennis -- who as a child witnessed the aftermath of a hate-crime murder of two rancher neighbors who had lived together -- can't bring himself to do it.
Thereafter, Ennis and Jack initiate meeting several times a year for "fishing" trips where they can be alone together. Lureen, for her part, senses the importance of these trips to her husband, but remains engrossed in her own business. As the Catholic Church makes a distinction between homosexual orientation and activity, Ennis and Jack's continuing physical relationship is morally problematic.
The adulterous nature of their affair is another hot-button issue. But the pain Jack and Ennis cause their families is not whitewashed. (The women are played with tremendous sympathy, not as shrill harridans.) It's the emotional honesty of the story overall, and the portrayal of an unresolved relationship -- which, by the way, ends in tragedy -- that seems paramount.
Director Ang Lee tells the story with a sure sense of time and place, and presents the narrative in a way that is more palatable than would have been thought possible. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana's screenplay uses virtually every scrap of information in Proulx's story, which won a National Magazine Award, and expands it while remaining utterly true to the source.
The performances are superb. Australian Ledger may be the one to beat at Oscar time, as his repressed manly stoicism masking great vulnerability is heartbreaking, and his Western accent sounds wonderfully authentic. Gyllenhaal is no less accomplished as the more demonstrative of the pair, while Williams and Hathaway (the latter, a far cry from "The Princess Diaries," giving her most mature work to date) are very fine.
Looked at from the point of view of the need for love which everyone feels but few people can articulate, the plight of these guys is easy to understand while their way of dealing with it is likely to surprise and shock an audience.
Except for the initial sex scene, and brief bedroom encounters between the men and their (bare breasted) wives, there's no sexually related nudity. Some outdoor shots of the men washing themselves and skinny-dipping are side-view, long-shot or out-of-focus images. While the actions taken by Ennis and Jack cannot be endorsed, the universal themes of love and loss ring true.
Strangely, this reviewer gives Brokeback an L rating (limited adult audience) rather than the toughest rating that can be given which would be “O” for “morally offensive.” Yet how can it not be morally offensive with this description?
"This film contains: tacit approval of same-sex relationships, adultery, two brief sex scenes without nudity, partial and shadowy brief nudity elsewhere, other implied sexual situations, profanity, rough and crude expressions, alcohol and brief drug use, brief violent images, a gruesome description of a murder, and some domestic violence.
which is all the more puzzling, when the USCCB gave:
“The Matrix” an O rating (Excessive violence and recurring profanity)
“Bad Boys II” an O rating ( stylized graphic violence, and a sexual encounter)
“Caddyshack” an O rating (obnoxious characters, lewd jokes)
Ping!
Any guy who sees this is gay.
You can't even claim your girlfriend dragged you to see it- if she is able to, then you are too gay for a girlfriend.
I predict the biggest box office flop of the year
The USCCB: An entirely morally bankrupt leftist institution that is entirely in communion with the Church. Or is it "subsisting in the Church"?
But your first line is the truest thing I've read about this movie. If a male willingly sees this--whatever he tells anyone else--he's gay.
Your last line is already wrong, though. It's breaking records for per-screen ticket sales, and it was such a relatively low budget that it will probably make money. Women will see this; they don't need straight men to see it.
The Matix should have gotten a PDB rating for Pretentious Derivative Bore.
Any guy who sees this is gay.You can't even claim your girlfriend dragged you to see it- if she is able to, then you are too gay for a girlfriend.
(laughing) Man, you need to get those lines into the comments section of every site on the Net that reviews this movie. That's funny...
I will see it, if only for the laughs.
I think your prediction will come true. But nevertheless it will sweep the awards and be called one of the most significant motion picture experiences of the year.
Bareback Mountin'
Domestic Total as of Dec. 13, 2005: $749,833
The Chronicles of Narnia
Domestic Total as of Dec. 13, 2005: $74,186,139
"Gay cowboys eatin' pudding...."
Uh oh...
That seems to be the plan...From the review on the Advocate, the reasoning is thus:
"...straight men may find the film less threatening than they fear. While Lee doesn’t skimp on scenes of physical intimacy, these moments are all very tastefully shot—honest and rather tame. In fact, Brokeback focuses more on Ennis and Jack not having sex than their actually going through with it.
And if straight women and men do turn out to see Brokeback, that will mean good things for LGBT people too. The movie challenges stereotypes in a way so-called gay movies, which usually exaggerate those stereotypes, cannot—even gay movies smart enough to subvert assumptions. Here the stereotype that’s being turned inside out is more universal. The movie questions the “masculinity” we attribute to emotionally unavailable men: By the end of the film it’s the expressive Jack we consider brave and the silent Ennis we find cowardly.
The reviewer sees the value of Brokeback strictly for its propaganda value, much like the opinion of the reviewer from the US Bishop's Conference
Here's a potential experiment:
In one week's time, someone out there who knows about pirate video internet sites should check out how many are ripping off King Kong versus how many (if any) rip off Brokeback Mountain.
Any bets as to how hard it will be to find a pirated Brokeback Mountain torrent?
I predict that Brokeback Mountain is so bad even the internet movie pirate websites won't touch it.
My boyfriend told me the only way I would get him to this movie was if it was about 2 hot lesbian cowgirls.
While the actions taken by Ennis and Jack cannot be endorsed, the universal themes of love and loss ring true.
***
No they cannot be endorsed, but this film review seems to endorse the whole concept big time.
I certainly do not pretend to have any knowledge regarding the film reviews, but isn't it rather odd that there is no byline for this review. Guess he didn't want to be "outed".
Look at this disgusting, slobbering kiss for a pro-homo movie.
...would die a quick death if people against homosexuality would just ignore it.
&&
Exactly.
It is truly distressing, however, to see such a slobbering review from the USCCB.
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