a breakthrough film

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2006)

Is it possible for a film - any film - to truly make the world a better place? I have no way of confidently answering that question, but if any movie COULD do such a thing, then "Brokeback Mountain" would be that film. Here's that rare work that has the power to transform not only how the individual sees the world but how society sees itself. By putting something never before seen on the screen, director Ang Lee and writer Larry McMurtry earn their place in movie history - and the undying respect of film lovers everywhere.
By now, most people know that "Brokeback Mountain" tells the story of Ennis and Jack, two young cowboys who, in the summer of 1963, sign up to herd sheep in Wyoming and wind up falling in love. Jack is the outgoing one of the two, seemingly more in touch with his homosexuality than is Ennis, who is introverted and taciturn almost to the point of somnambulism. Something powerful takes hold of them up there on Brokeback Mountain, and while they both end up going their separate ways - Jack to become a rodeo rider and get married, Ennis to settle down on a ranch with his wife and two little daughters - the attraction they feel for one another never lessens. In fact, it becomes only more intense over the years, as the men come to realize that each has found in the other his true soul mate, his ideal partner for life - if only circumstances and society weren't conspiring to keep them apart. Instead, all they have to hold on to over the next twenty years are a few fleeting but passionate encounters in the one place where they are free to be who they truly are.
Tales of unrequited love have, of course, been a staple of literature since storytelling began, but by making this a GAY love story, the filmmakers bring a renewed power to the genre. Forced to look at it from a novel perspective, we feel as if we are seeing romantic love being played out for the first time. There are those who have accused the film of trying to "glorify" adulterers, as if this were the first time in which a story of unrequited love involved cheating spouses. Would these same people object to "Anna Karenina," "Doctor Zhivago" or "Brief Encounter" on such spurious grounds? If anything, "Brokeback Mountain" points out the absurdity of a society that tells gay people they shouldn't even BE gay but should live their lives as heterosexuals. If Ennis' and Jack's wives are victims, they are far more the victims of a society that forces gays into loveless marriages than of Ennis and Jack, who are simply conforming to what society itself claims it wants them to be.
By making the two central characters rugged macho cowboys, the author of the original short story, E. Annie Proulx, not only shatters a gay stereotype, but brilliantly finds the hitherto elusive portal into the consciousness of a mainstream audience. Certainly, this story would not have worked commercially had it been about two gay hairdressers living in San Francisco. For the first time in a Hollywood film, we have major gay characters who are not AIDS victims, psycho killers or limp-wristed best friends of the main female character. Moreover, the movie subtly plays with the latent homoerotic undercurrents that have always been a part of western folklore but which have heretofore been hidden safely enough under the surface so that only those looking for them could find them. Yet, for all its sociological significance, this is, first and foremost, a story about love - deep, raw, all-consuming love - and it is that which makes the movie connect with all audiences, regardless of sexual orientation.
As Ennis, Heath Ledger's performance is nothing short of a revelation, a triumph of minimalist acting. With his tightly pursed lips, barely whispered monotone and slumped shoulders, Ledger brilliantly conveys the soul of a man struggling with the truth about himself and straining with every fiber in his body and being to avoid acknowledging that truth. So tormented is he in his life that Ennis seems to be trying to pull back his words even as he's uttering them. A masterpiece of understatement, Ledger's work here quite simply ranks with the great screen performances of all time. As Jack, Jake Gyllenhall provides the perfect balance for Ledger, a free spirit more willing to take a chance and defy society, if only he could get his partner to go along with him. Michelle Williams hits amazing dramatic heights as Alma, Ennis' bewildered wife, who suffers in silence after she learns the heartbreaking truth about her husband.
Ang Lee's direction is intense, lyrical and visually ravishing, zeroing in on the human drama with laser-like precision and making the stark Wyoming landscape an integral part of that drama. Lee makes it so that it is the SILENCES that really matter here, those moments between words when love and feelings are most completely communicated.
Just to show that even a great film need not be perfect, there are times when the movie - a tad too long at two hours and 15 minutes - sags a bit by wandering off into one too many subplots. But the emotions in the film are so raw and engulfing that the film at its best makes us realize just how insignificant and piddling most movies really are. This is one movie that actually stays with you long after you've left the theater.
When the history of the movies comes to be written, "Brokeback Mountain" will take its place among the handful of films that can truly be termed "watersheds" or "landmarks," movies that helped to redefine what cinema could be and do. And it will be one of the few, in the long run, that really mattered.