Brokeback Mountain REVIEW

If you’ve heard anything at all about Ang Lee’s new film “Brokeback Mountain”, your information is probably two-fold. First off, its “gay cowboy” storyline makes it a very likely lightning rod for controversy. And secondly, it is a very, very well made film. The degree of controversy garnered is yet to be fully determined, but I can concur on the second point that it is indeed very well made, if also one the saddest films I’ve seen in quite some time. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhal, two viable sad sack working stiffs if ever there were any, bring a unique and delicate blend of angst and rural authenticity to their roles as Wyoming sheep wranglers in the 1960s and seventies. Their performances are consistent and tremendous, even as they slowly (but suddenly) fall for one another while on the job. If the main characters in this film are guilty of anything, their greatest sin is betrayal, not practicing homosexuality. The question, however, of the nature of the betrayal (or betrayals) at hand is something left up to the viewer. (More on that later.) There’s no getting around it, “Brokeback Mountain” would be a hard sell even if it were a hetrosexual love story. Lee and company took a big chance with this, and as awkward and weird as a “gay cowboy movie” (an unfair label, really) sounds, this is a subtle and naturalistic endeavor of human emotion, wrong doing, and tragedy that is peppered with some of the finest performances of the year.

Believe me, I’m one of the last guys who would think of himself as a potential admirer of a film built on the admittedly snicker-worthy premise of cowboy man-love. But, having seen Ang Lee’s latest film, I can assure that “Brokeback Mountain” is truly, legitimately haunting. I can attest that it gets under your skin and stays there. Even in light of his under-rated notorious action flop, 2003’s “Hulk”, it’s easy to think of director Lee as the George Cukor of our day, i.e. the guy who makes emotionally fueled “women’s pictures”. True, he does have a knack for getting to the heart of the female psyche, as evidenced in his films “The Ice Storm”, “Sense and Sensibility” and even the wuxia melodrama “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, but Lee’s strengths and talents run beyond depicting the fairer sex, as he is, at his best, perhaps our greatest cinematic master of presenting the exposed rawness of the wounded human soul. That is why it is no small compliment, especially coming from a primarily conservative eccentric like myself, that this, his latest film, may be his career masterpiece.

Adding to both “Brokeback”’s authenticity and its accessibility is the fact that from beginning to end, this gay love affair story contains absolutely zero gay culture. In other words, no lisping speech patterns, no limp wrists, not even any S&M black leather chaps or expected pronouncements of quips such as “Ride, you big stud!” One character lassoing the other in a quick throwaway shot is about as close as the film ever gets to that obvious but thankfully ignored territory. By leaving such elements out, the creators of this film (among them “Lonesome Dove”’s Larry McMurtry as screenwriter, along with Diana Ossana) have imbued it with a believability most wouldn’t suspect, and a much wider comfort zone for the still skeptical.

It’s 1963, and two red-blooded (but obviously somehow soulfully wounded) cowboys are out on a sheep drive in the mountains of Wyoming. Slowly, they begin to share details of their lives with one another around the nightly campfire, despite the fact that neither one (especially Ledger’s character) is much of a talker. One night, circumstances land them together in the same tent, and before they know it one thing leads to another, making the next morning truly awkward. They say “never again”, but of course that doesn’t hold up. These guys have actually fallen for one another, even though it will take the time and distance of four years and well-intentioned marriages to women to bring them to realize it. In this plain and rustic world, it is simply reality that these guys wouldn’t know what to do about this most unexpected turn of events. Yes, there are one or two uncompromisingly close love scenes between the guys, but they have at least that many revealing love scenes with their wives (Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway (!)). These are very real characters with very real problems, never having been created to be some sort of perceived gay-agenda fantasy. The fact that their torrid affair plays out the way it does is proof enough of that.

Above all, “Brokeback Mountain” is a tragedy. All the great love stories are. But as I was saying previously, the degree and source of that tragedy can be debated by viewers long after the film has unwound. The popular line is that the story’s true tragedy is that these guys who love one another so much can never truly be together in the world they live in. But I propose another line of tragedy – that of the broken marriage vows and terrible heartache thrust upon the wives and families of these guys as they indulge their lust for one another. If one believes that love can be learned over time, and not every human urge is meant to be indulged, then that angle will resonate perhaps more profoundly than the former. The creators of the story are certainly not afraid to explore this avenue of consequence, as evidenced in the heartbreaking depictions of the wives as they must come to terms with their husbands’ secret lives. Secret lives of spouses have hurt, even destroyed many a marriage, and this film does not shy away from the brutal realities of the lead characters’ behavior. This fact, when coupled with the Oscar worthy performances of real life couple Ledger and Williams, is one of the film’s absolute greatest strengths and values.

Will anything I, or any film reviewer for that matter, really have much sway on those predisposed to mock this film sight unseen? Probably not – the mountain of social acceptance for something like this is probably ten times greater than the mountain of the film’s title. But for the few brave, adventurous filmgoers out there in the heterosexual mainstream who do give this a chance, you will be rewarded with a soul-searing film that may not knock you over immediately with its deliberate pacing and mumbled dialogue, but will lurk in the forefront of your conscious over time like any great movie does. If you want stereotypical gay wackiness, see “The Producers” when it arrives. It does a great job of having a lot of fun with those elements. But in the context of reality - brutal, living reality, - “Brokeback Mountain” is the peak achievement in its bumpy field.

- Jim Tudor