Reviews of the Past: Brokeback Mountain Haunts

From December 31, 2007:

You are probably aghast, thinking, "What, you haven't seen this movie until now??" Well, no. Truth be told, when this movie was out, and the buzz and controversy surrounded it, I knew the experience of watching it would be cheapened if not altogether ruined. This was why I was so happy to have seen Crash when I did, at least three or four months before it unexpectedly snatched Best Picture honors from this film, the heavy favorite at the time. I figured I'd see this one when I saw it. No rush. Then, my happy-to-lend friend had it amongst her traveling collection, and the rest is history.

The story is relatively simple. Emotionally scarred and introverted Innis DelMar (Heath Ledger) and gregarious Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are cowboys hired as sheep herders by seedy boss Gary (Randy Quaid). They are expected to take the sheep up into the mountains, specifically Brokeback Mountain, for grazing. While there, they form a friendship and then an emotional bond - and then a physical bond (though seeds are planted that Jack may have fancied this from the get-go). The job comes to an end, and the pair forage ahead with separate lives. Innis marries Alma (Michelle Williams), stays a rancher, and becomes a father of two girls. Jack marries Lorraine (Anne Hathaway), works for her father, and becomes a father of one son. Except, Jack takes fishing trips from Texas to Colorado for the purpose of carrying on his affair with Innis, and it goes like this for 20 years, as the pair repeatedly visit Brokeback while trying to live lives of lies.

I know this film has been much overhyped. Some people think it's overrated. Some people think it's a poor example of a "mainstream gay" movie. I think all are wrong. I thought the picture was moving, poignant, and beautiful. First, let me provide the disclaimer that Ang Lee is easily one of my favorite directors. There is not a film of his that I have seen that I didn't like. He has the ability to elicit emotional responses from his actors, regardless of the situation being probed under his watchful eye, that simply blow my mind. Heath and Jake were no less than courageous to undertake such roles, which are headier (no pun intended) than most mainstream movie fans can handle. We're talking about a largely conservative mainstream, and this movie had some graphic elements to it that people unaccustomed to accepting the notion of homosexual love would probably be put off by. Yet, this director and these actors handled it with grace and beauty, giving it a delicate perspective.

The cinematography was simply breathtaking. It was extremely effective to use the panorma of the Rocky Mountains and foothills for this unorthodox love story, and it also added to the feeling of intimacy created, since it was just the two boys out in the wide open world. It was like the movie Blue Lagoon, only better acted with a better story and in the mountains-and with two men.

The performances by the two leads were so underrecognized. Heath Ledger was particularly nuanced, playing an already emotionally stunted man unable to express his feelings even when he wasn't engaged in an illicit affair with another man. The progress of his character was tremendous, and while no doubt captured in the script beautifully by the original author and screenwriters, Heath showed every emotional change and iota of progress in a painfully exquisite manner. Jake also was very good; I get the feeling that his character always knew he was gay, and the careful use of his expressions to create that question or possibility was skillful. He also conveyed the pain he felt at his regular separations from Innis quite effectively.

Yet, the supporting performances were equally as good. Michelle Williams was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and deserved it. That scene in her new kitchen in her new house with her new husband, where she confronts Innis about the unread note in his unused tackle box, was powerful beyond measure.

The score was also impressive (and won the Oscar) and was something truly unique that added so much texture to the film.

I did find flaws with the movie, though. My biggest problem was the make-up. Innis and Jack aged 20 years according to the timeline of the movie, and yet failed to age physically as characters very well. They worked hard and had lots of pain but still looked like they were 20 when they were supposed to be 40. By the end of the movie, Innis had a 19 year old daughter, yet he still looked like he was 25. That made maintaining suspension of disbelief difficult for what was an important final scene. Also, Anne Hathaway's obvious wigs to "age" her were atrocious. They looked like wigs, specifically Dolly Parton's castoffs. They might have considered more face makeup to make this amount of time elapsing seem more realistic on the faces of the actors.

Also, the ending of the movie, or, at least, the climactic event that I can't spoil seemed altogether too hurried for me. We already saw Jack in different places like Mexico by himself; it would have been important for me to see how and why the manner in which the end unfolded (trying not to spoil) eventually took place, rather than just through some quasi-imagining of Innis' or odd flashback of Lorraine's.

Still, I find the film haunting in the end. It's the mark of a great movie, I think: exploring an uncomfortable subject with grace and beauty and making it seem as if it were comfortable all along, at least on some level. I also found the film, as a character study of Innis, to be insightful in many ways, though I don't have the time or gumption to discuss all of them - that's a whole other entry. I rate Brokeback Mountain an 8 for minor flaws/very good. I don't think it passes the test, however. I'm not a fan of westerns in general, and this is the kind of film that is most powerful on first viewing. I don't think I would want to watch it again. The memory of it is enough by which to appreciate this very good film.