Being revolutionary is both an asset and a burden for movies. Their success and, in some cases, their acclaim is spearheaded by the controversy they trigger. Ultimately, however, these movies are remembered only for the controversy they stirred and their other virtues (if any) are all but forgotten. When a movie offers little value outside of its innovations, this is just. When, however, a movie’s greatness extends beyond its controversy, this is sad. It is especially sad in the case of Brokeback Mountain, which is one of the greatest screen romances.
By now the film is well known even to those marginally interested in cinema as the first mainstream film to deal frankly with homosexuality. Like few other movies have done, Brokeback Mountain has lead to discussions outside of the arena of cinema. Discussion is healthy and the treatment of gays in society deserves the kind of seriousness that Brokeback Mountain gives it, but lost in all this controversy is the fact that Brokeback Mountain is a beautiful movie outside of its controversy. Even conservative film critic Michael Medved admitted as much when he said that the film was “deeper than that”. This is a sweeping tale of forbidden love, stunningly filmed, and superbly crafted. Like many of Ang Lee’s love stories, it uses the surrounding natural beauty to symbolize the moods of its leads.
Frankly, a mainstream gay love story was well overdue in Hollywood and it is fitting that, when it was finally made, it was as a Western. Jon Stewart may have been joking when he commented in sarcasm that there have never been any homosexual undertones in Westerns during the 2005 Academy Awards, but the subsequent montage of clips from various Westerns demonstrated that inhibited homoeroticism has long been detected in many Westerns. The Western, after all, is the cinema’s ultimate playground for developing masculinity.
Brokeback Mountain was, then, the first film to take the American genre out of the closet. But this film is by no means exploitative or an expose. It is a sincere and heartfelt movie and one of the best Westerns ever. How fortunate that the first film to give homosexuality with the seriousness and sensitivity it deserves, is also such a well made film.
The story is simple enough. In 1963, two young cowhands are assigned to watch a grazing herd of sheep in the isolated mountains of Wyoming. Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the more idealistic of the two. Ennis (Heath Ledger), by contrast, is withdrawn and taciturn. They are strangers when they first take this job, but as they spend days of loneliness in the mountains, Ennis becomes comfortable enough to open up to Jack. He tells him of his troubled childhood and the struggles of his family when his parents died. One night it gets cold and they share their single tent. That is when their romance starts.
This ostensibly simple story is magnificently told by a master director and two talented lead actors. Beginning first with style, Brokeback Mountain is a triumph. Lee’s use of color palettes is amazing. The scenery is naturally breathtaking, but there is one shot in particular that stands out. Jack Twist sits on a hill overlooking a flock of sheep. For a moment, everything is tinted in a mysterious blue, reflecting the loneliness of the character.
Brokeback Mountain also makes great use of narrative devices. In subliminal ways, the film uses Realization of Danger technique. This is when the characters, at first oblivious to the danger in their midst, gradually become aware of its presence. In Brokeback Mountain, the danger is the watchful eyes of bigotry. In a chilling scene after their first passionate night, the two young men are happily chasing each other in the hillside unaware that their rancher boss (Randy Quaid) is spying on them from a distance. When their job is done, the rancher expresses displeasure in their work performance. To Ennis and Jack this seems to be because they did lose a few lambs, but the viewers know the real reason. That spring, when Jack returns to the rancher looking for another job, the rancher makes it clear that he knows what happened between the two of them. The look on Jack’s face is telling. He knows that the secret is already known, and if it spreads it would mean death for any hope of getting a job in Midwest of the middle of the 20th century.
Ang Lee’s use of nature as it relates to the love between the two leads is evident in Brokeback Mountain. They find love in the wilderness, they bond through a job that pits them against nature and, in the scene right before they make love for the first time, there is a quick shot of the full moon watching over them. It is nature that brings them together and the conventions of “civilization” that forces them apart.
Of course, Brokeback Mountain is an important film because of its subject matter. It is a film that is innovative only because homosexuality is so often ignored by Hollywood in the first place. By seeming so revolutionary and causing so much controversy, it reflects how far we still need to work to remove discrimination. Brokeback Mountain is a brave film in the way it condemns society’s treatment of gays. In the film, both Ennis and Jack go on to marry and have kids. They can only share their passion once a month when they meet near the mountain where they first found each other, covering by telling their wives that they are going on fishing trips. In a truly tolerant society, Ennis and Jack would not have had to hide their love and could have been together. Indeed, intolerance has not only hurt them, but their wives as well since Ennis and Jack married them only because that is what society mandated them to do. That a film like Brokeback Mountain was even released in mainstream theaters is a sign of progress, but a sign of the ultimate demise of bigotry will be when a film about gay lovers comes along in which the two lovers have to make no secret about the love they share.