Good to appeal to large audiences

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2017)

Brokeback Mountain is an academy award winning drama that was released in 2005. It was directed by Ang Lee and based off of a short story with the same name by Annie Proulx. The cast is lead by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film also stars Anne Hathaway and Michelle WIlliams. The film begins in the early summer of 1963 in Wyoming. Overall, it is a well made movie that was created to be enjoyed by large audiences. The film tells a story about how love can blossom in the most unlikely of places. Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) are both looking for summer work. They come to a ranch owner and he gives them the tasks to tend to the sheep over the summer. As the summer goes on, Ennis and Jack begin to bond closely with each other which eventually leads to a night of lustful passion. This is by no means the last time they act on their mutual attraction and eventually, their boss sees the two of them canoodling and cuts their summer work short. Both men were upset and eventually fought each other which resulted in a bloody nose for Ennis and a bruised jaw for Jack. The two then departed, not to hear from one another for over four years. Over the course of this time, they both married and had children. They made plans to meet up and would continue to have meet in secret.
I think overall this is a good film. However, I would not personally say I like it. I feel like however, that it was a film that was made for a heterosexual audience. Jack and Ennis were portrayed as these very macho and masculine men. It was almost as if the two of them would only have sex to fulfill their overactive sex drives that is stereotypical for these types of men. Moreover, Ennis especially is not shown very vulnerable throughout the film; when he is, he is either verbally or physically attacking others around him. The film focused on the problems the two had that would seem prevalent to a straight audience. The two men are both married with kids and we seem them leaving their wives constantly so they can meet up with one another and "go fishing". The film seemed to approach it by how their desires for another man affected their marriages rather than how being married affected them since they cannot be with the person they truly cared for. The film expanded on Annie Proulx's short story that focused on the homophobia. It was a terrific step forward for the LGBTQ community to have this film produced; a film made for mass consumption that focused on a same-sex relationship. It brought up many of the problems that homophobia can cause. It was a crippling fear for Ennis; he reveals to Jack that he saw a man who had been brutally and barbarically murdered for being a homosexual. This is part of the reason Ennis is so scared to live with Jack. The film accurately addresses the homophobia people have, but I would have liked for there to have been some moment of revolt against it. Ennis lets his fear control his entire life.
Additionally, this film is almost completely historically accurate. The two men lived in a time and place that would not have accepted them for their same-sex love; during the 60's and 70's the west promoted the ideals of the "masculine man" and anything less would be criticized and be looked down upon. Homosexuality would not have been accepted in this society, so it makes sense that they would want to keep their mutual attraction to one another a secret. This is shown accurately when Ennis constantly is picking fights and proving his masculinity. Ennis was so insecure about his feelings that he had to be hyper-masculine as an overcorrection. He fights the two bikers at the Fourth of July celebration when they were saying vulgar words, he threatens to hurt Alma when she insinuates what kind of relationship that Jack and him have, and he also tries to beat up a trucker who honks at him. Ennis has some major anger issues that could stem from his inability to live authentically with Jack.
However, one aspect might not be completely historically accurate. In 1976, the first gay rodeo was held in Nevada. Jack could have possibly come out of the closet and compete at this event. Throughout the movie, Jack wants to be able to live out his life honestly. I think that it would be a little odd that he would not have participated in gay rodeo event. On the other hand, we are not completely sure if he did identify as gay since he never explicitly expressed as much. Even if he did not consider himself gay, it would make sense for him to still want to go to this rodeo and watch at the very least.