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Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Release Date:
Friday, December 16, 2005
MPAA Rating:
R
Rating Reason:
for sexuality, nudity, language and some violence
Genre:
Drama
Starring:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams,
Written By:
E. Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry
Director:
Ang Lee
Synopsis:
A raw, powerful story of two young men, a Wyoming ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 sheepherding in the harsh, high grasslands of contemporary Wyoming and form an unorthodox yet life-long bond--by turns ecstatic, bitter and conflicted.  |
  
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Brokeback Mountain (2005) | Spiritual Article
MEGA CHURCHES
Elisabeth Leitch 
Why didn’t I like it? The easiest answer—it had so much hype, buzz, and preconceived notions about how “good” it was going to be, there was no way it could’ve lived up to what I expected. Decent answer. I always tend to like movies I’ve heard next to nothing about more than highly praised and publicized ones. On a strictly artistic level, it was well done. But it was not that well done. It would not have gotten my nomination for Best Picture. The acting was good, but none of the actors, save Michelle Williams, made me forget they were acting. And the music? Not bad. But even a day later, I couldn't have told you what it sounded like. The easy answer, however, usually isn’t the whole story. It wasn’t a bad movie. It was certainly better directed and acted than many of the mindless popcorn flicks that have filled our theaters for the past year. So my disappointment had to run deeper. My problem had to be the story, one so many have praised and applauded that I could not buy. Was I a bigot for not being able to praise the story? Was I just too intolerant to accept a story about romance different from what I've experienced in my own life? Was disliking the movie a slap in the face to one of my closest friends and his boyfriend? Was I turning my back on them in telling them I couldn’t condone this film? But then I realized, when I went into the movie, I had fully expected to like it. I wanted to see it. I wanted to watch a story about love. And I fully expected the story to make me believe in love. When it came down to it, it became clear to me that the true reason why I did not like Brokeback Mountain is that I barely saw any love in it at all. Cowboys Jack Swift and Ennis Del Mar are certainly attracted to each other. As someone who likes men, I can’t see why not. They seem happy when they are with each other. They like the sex. Their separation causes them pain and their union fills each other with excitement and arousal. But when it came down to it, all I could see in their pain and excitement was a desire to fill a hole in each of themselves. And, in a relationship where all I saw was two separate men seeking their own separate satisfaction, I could not see any love. I may be wrong, but as far as I can remember, not a single person even says I love you throughout the entire movie. But more than anything else, the thing that hit me most, the element that ruined any hope of me seeing Brokeback Mountain as a love story and simply cemented it as a story of brokenness, is that both Jack and Ennis are in the exact same place at the end of the story as they were at the beginning. Many reviewers have commented on Ang Lee’s choice to cast Jack and Ennis young, a risky move, but one that most felt was an excellent choice. As I look back on the movie, however, the casting only reinforces its sadness. The movie takes place over a course of 20 years, yet neither Heath Ledger’s Ennis or Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack appear to age a day. Around them life moves on. Eventually Ennis’ ex-wife remarries and actually seems to be happy. His oldest daughter grows from a newborn to a 19-year-old, planning her wedding, certain of her fiancée’s love for her, and eagerly looking to the future. Yet Ennis is just as lonely and sad as when the movie started. As much as Brokeback Mountain is a story about a forbidden relationship, the bigger story that I saw was a story about a search for happiness, for value, and for a place in this world. At the beginning of the story, neither Jack nor Ennis have any of those things. Jack has been raised to look down upon himself as man and thus on his position of value and purpose in this world. Ennis just can’t seem to connect with anyone. All he knows is distance, hardship, and loss. Neither is happy, both have lived too much of life alone, and it is in this state that they meet. Continue: 1 2 Copyright © 2005 Hollywood Jesus. All rights reserved.
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