A story with an important message

Rating: 9/10 (25 December 2005)

I saw Brokeback Mountain tonight. I think it is a superb film, the heartbreaking story of two men who fall in love in Wyoming in 1963, but who can not make a life together because at that time and in that place, men were not allowed to be gay.
Now that things are so open, when gay and lesbian couples can actually be legally married in Massachusetts, when we have "Will and Grace" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" on TV, when being gay is even fashionable in places like South Beach, we might forget that 40 years ago, none of this was true. But those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s, in families where homosexuality was never even mentioned, or only in a derogatory way, understand why Ennis Del Mar, who was traumatized in his youth by the murder of a man known to be living with another man, could not take a chance that anyone would discover his relationship with Jack Twist.
Perhaps in those times it was possible to be gay in Greenwich Village or San Francisco or Provincetown, but only if you kept quiet about it. It wasn't until the Stonewall revolt of 1969 in New York that things began to change, ever so slowly. It took how long - 15 years of lobbying? - to get the legislature to pass the Gay Rights Bill that added sexual orientation to the anti-discrimination law in Massachusetts. Brokeback Mountain reminds us of the pain that people can suffer when the world tells them that they are not acceptable - and it could be for any reason, not just because they love someone of the same gender.
My only regret about this film is that the love scenes don't show much tenderness between Ennis and Jack. Perhaps this is meant to be part of demonstrating the difficulty that Ennis has expressing his emotions; the only people with whom he seems comfortable showing affection are his daughters. But it makes gay love look too much like a wrestling match.
Now I want to read the short story by Annie Proulx on which this movie is based. And I applaud the team that made the film; it has a real message for the world.
Tom Sheaffer