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Brokeback Mountain
Year: 2005
Country: USA
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid
Synopsis: Perhaps the most highly-anticipated gay movie of all time tells the story of two cowboys who fall in love one summer while guarding sheep on Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain.
Quick review: Many gay Americans have heaped too many expectations onto this film and the recent awards being handed down have done nothing to lower those expectations. Some are hoping this is the movie that will crossover and get a large straight audience willing to throw down their $10 per ticket to see a story about our lives. That's asking a lot of any gay movie. Outside of some AIDS films like 'Philadelphia,' straight men avoid gay movies. On top of asking 'Brokeback' to do that impossible task, there is Oscar buzz building because Lee's movie earned the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, was named best film of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and won three of the top four awards from the New York Film Critics Circle (best film, best director and best actor for Ledger). So the Oscar buzz is deafening. Could any movie live up to all these expectations? When I finished watching the film I was sitting with two co-workers from the Blade. They were both highly complimentary and thought it might be among the best gay movies ever made. I was silent (which is very unusal for me). They obviously wondered why, and I really didn't know what to tell them. I said I wanted time to reflect on what I just saw. I realize now that I was viewing the movie not as just a gay film, but as this monumental gay movie that is going to attract straight audiences and sweep the Oscars. And I have to admit, with those ridiculously high expectations, I was disappointed. This movie is not going to change the world. It has taken me a while to step back and view the film simply as another movie. In that regard, it stands as one of the best gay movies ever made. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance as Jack Twist is strong, but Heath Ledger steals the show with his best performance to date as the quiet Ennis Del Mar. This film adaptation of Annie Proulx's short story begins in Wyoming, where Del Mar and Twist are looking for work. A rancher hires them both to work on Brokeback Mountain for the summer, guarding his sheep from wildlife and poachers. It's lonely work and Del Mar is hardly Oscar Wilde when it comes to conversation. Still, the two men make it work. Slowly the love affair begins. In interviews promoting the film, Gyllenhaal has said that he didn't consider his character gay, but just someone who fell in love with another person. I hate to break it to you, Jake, but Jack Twist is gay. There is no doubt of that by the end of the film, despite the character's marriage to a woman. The sex scene is raw and powerful, but doesn't show too much so as not to scare the straight people. When the summer ends, the two men head in different directions with no real plans to see each other again. Like many closeted gay men of their generation, both end up getting married and having children. But, over the course of the next 20 years, the men find they cannot stay away from one another. The scene when they reunite is powerful and shows immediately that their love still remains. As with any good love story, there is tragedy in this one. For those who are inclined to tears, bring a hanky. You will need it. This is a beautiful film with incredible images and a powerful love story. The pace is a bit slower than most American films and Lee -- who also directed the gay movie 'The Wedding Banquet' -- gets the most out of the actors and the story. Will it change the world? That remains to be seen. But if you see it without those expectations you will see a great movie that just happens to be gay.
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