Pretentious and Over-hyped

Rating: 3/10 (6 February 2006)

I know my opinion is going to be grossly unpopular, but I feel the need to express it in order to round out the (IMO) undeserved showers of praise this film has received.
I read the short story about a week before I saw the movie, and was hardly impressed. In fact, I was rather insulted by it. The only reason I saw the film at all was because a friend offered to pay for my ticket. As we walked out of the theatre, I felt so guilty about her paying for me to see a movie which angered me that I insisted on reimbursing her for the admission and my drink.
I hated it. I really did. It was as if the most patronizing, badly-written, mind-numbingly worst piece of slash fiction jumped onto the screen and demanded to be worshipped. The only reason it's getting three stars from me was the soundtrack.
For one thing, it seemed Heath Ledger had no clue what a believable Midwesterner was supposed to sound like, and decided mumbling through the script was the only way to make it passable. His wooden, washed-out demeanor gave the entire film a mega-dose of Novocaine, which for me defeated the purpose of being powerful and heart-wrenching. How am I supposed to feel sorry for anybody when the characters on the screen don't seem to feel anything themselves? The story itself was an insult to the very point it was trying so hard to get across. It's supposed to be about two men who fall into forbidden love with each other while on a sheep-herding job out in the middle of No Man's Land, Wyoming. Deciding that they can't make it work because homophobia won't let them, they part ways and marry women, all the while carrying on a twenty-year love affair behind their spouse's backs. The viewer is expected to pity these characters for loving someone they can't have, and for making destructive decisions because our homophobic society pressures them into it.
THIS is what insults me. That gays are all poor, defenseless bags of depression who can't love the people they do openly because doing so just isn't convenient.
Yes, violence against gays happens. It happened then and it still occurs today. But not on a scale such that it was impossible for two men to make a life out in the middle of nowhere. The threat of violence was there, yes. And it's a threat that many gay couples who actually are in love faced every day, because they viewed their bond as more important than their own safety. They were willing to sacrifice literally everything to be with each other.
Had Jack and Ennis opted for this decision instead of making their ultimately stupid decisions I would've respected them. Instead, Ennis declined the offer because safety and convenience were worth more to him than Jack.
To is credit, though, Ennis had the excuse of not being exactly secure in his sexuality, and he'd been engaged to Alma before he ever met Jack. But there was nothing to excuse Jack marrying a woman he didn't love to please parents who didn't love him. Society may have expected it, but it was ultimately Jack's choice to abandon his spine and give in to social pressure. I honestly would have respected him much more if he'd remained a bachelor and hooked up with another man.
What angered me the most was that Jack and Ennis, however spineless and selfish they were, could do no wrong because they were supposedly in love. Instead of being brave enough to face the consequences being themselves and pursuing their love in a very unfriendly world, they hid behind their wedding rings and empty marriage vows, and in the end hurt not only themselves, but their spouses and children.
I've seen so many people cry "BUT THAT'S THE POINT! THEY HAD NO CHOICE! HOMOPHOBIA MADE THEM DO IT!," and for the life of me I feel like I'm the only one who sees that in fact, they DID have a choice, they just chose the physically safer, yet emotionally destructive one.
In short, I can't feel sorry for people who, when faced with what is right and what is easy, choose the latter no matter selfish and foolhardy it is. Homophobia is wrong and disgusting, but even as a lesbian, I find it downright insulting to use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card when you make a bad choice.
If there's anyone in the story that I do feel sorry for, it's the wives of Jack and Ennis. They truly believed their husbands loved them with all their hearts, only to find out they'd been lied to and cheated on for 20+ years. THAT'S the real tragedy.