Brokeback Mountain Soars

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2007)

In all of the thousands movies I see there is usually one common theme. Be it Jolie with Pitt or Crowe with Zellweger it is all 'boy meets girl'. Brokeback Mountain is a 'boy meets boy story'. There are plenty of gay centric movies that are released direct to video, however direct to video does not have the budget of a big picture or are as well done. And they certainly do not have a career performance that Heath Ledger gives in Brokeback Mountain. The movie starts out in 1963 with Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), a rodeo cowboy wannabe; and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), a man of very few words, as they get summer jobs herding sheep. They are to take the herd of 3,000 sheep to the highlands for the summer. Some whiskey and the cold mountain night gets both of them in the same tent together. One thing leads to another. Although the sex is pivotal in the movie it is not what the movie is about. The film looks at the men's relationship as it evolves over years. There is that uncomfortable period immediately after a one night stand. Ennis states that "He ain't no queer". What gets them through this is that up in the mountains there are no one else to turn to and you eventually have to talk. At the end of the summer they say goodbye, Jack is ready to take this relationship further but Ennis is engaged to Alma (Michelle Williams) and he has no intentions of leaving her at the alter. Ennis does marry, as does Jack, they have families that grow. After four years apart, Ennis finds Jack has sent him a post card. Ennis replies with "Hell yeah". We check in with Jack and Ennis several times over the next twenty years. We see the years pass in the fashions and as their children grow up. Jack and Ennis establish a "fishing trip" two to three times a year to return to Brokeback Mountain. The fishing trips comes at the cost of Ennis's marriage to Alma (he never brings home any fish), but it is something that Ennis can not give up. In 1963 Wyoming, two men just cannot live together with out raised eyebrows. Ennis recounts two "bachelor" ranchers in the community that he grows up in. After years together the "bachelors" were the local scandal. One year when Ennis was eight, a group of the local boys decided to teach the "bachelors" a lesson by torturing them, literally, to death. Ennis's father forces him and his brother to view a tortured corpse and it leaves a lasting impression on Ennis. Ennis pays this cost but not alone, he loves Alma but cannot commit to their marriage. Alma loves him but cannot live with his "fishing trips". Jack loves him but Ennis cannot accept that lifestyle. Ennis's Children also pay when he and Alma divorce. Gyllenhaal did a fine job as Jack Twist; It is Ledger's Ennis Del Mar that is amazing (could this be the same Ledger from 'A Knight's Tale'?). Ledger takes the role of a man that has not much to say and speaks volumes. Ledger shows how Ennis struggles with every short sentence. If Ledger fails to take home the Oscar, it will be yet another tragedy.