I wish I could quit you.

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2006)

When we think of the Western genre, we think of staunchly heterosexual images of a swaggering John Wayne, shootouts at the saloon, epic bar brawls, prostitutes, scalpings. It's all very masculine. For the corn-fed wahoos that think there's nothing gay about cowboys: one of the Village People is a cowboy. Come on.
With all the furor of controversy the film caused simply because it involves two men, it is essentially a story of doomed love just like Romeo and Juliet, Heathcliffe and Cathy, or Othello and Desdemona.
It is the story of two ranchers: the surly, quiet Ennis Del Mar (portrayed by native Australian Heath Ledger, who seemed to be chewing on something the entire film to stop his accent coming out) and the wily rodeo clown Jack Twist (played here by the very dashing Jake Gyllenhaal, whom I loved in Donnie Darko). They meet as they're hired one summer to corral sheep, and their bond soon spirals into a frenzy of passion and forbidden love. Fear of discovery forces them to pursue normal lives, get married and have children, but it all feels so hollow and routine. Four years on they rediscover each other and have illicit "fishing trips" up on Brokeback Mountain, until tragedy strikes.
This story comes to us from the 60's, an era where homosexuality was persecuted much more than it is now. It also takes place way out in rural Wyoming, not Metropolitan New York where gays are a dime a dozen.
The material is handled with typical sensitivity from Ang Lee, who brought us The Ice Storm. As in The Ice Storm with it's wintry landscape, I think the mountain was as much a character in this film as Jack Twist or Ennis Del Mar. With it's lofty green hills, rolling fields, and birdsong; with it's fierce rainstorms that pummeled the camp, it symbolised the turbulent passion between the two men and was an ideal backdrop for them to consecrate their romance. The story unfolds at a deliberate pace with a lot of attention to detail and gorgeous photography enhanced by the beautiful, lonely, country tinged score by composer Gustavo Santaolalla (well deserving of his Oscar). I love how the nightscenes are almost silvery black as Jack puffs on a cigarette under the moon.
What really gets me about this film is how convincing the intensity of Ennis and Jack's relationship is. When they embrace, they're almost pulling each other down. They have such strong feelings about each other and don't know what to do with them that they have a punch up and break each other's noses. That's real love.
Summary: a tragic tale of forbidden love in the untamed wilds of the American mountains, told completely without sentimentality. Plus two beautiful men snogging. Well worth a watch.