A new euphemism for repression

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2006)

Brokeback Mountain rides in on four Golden Globe and four BAFTA wins and is widely tipped to do well in this years Oscars. Ang Lee is once again revisiting his favourite themes of the unspoken love, constricting traditional values and relationships filled with lies and deceit (The Ice Storm gets a cheeky name check) with a tale of forbidden love between cowboy Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and rodeo rider Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal).
The two meet in 1963 when they are assigned shepherding duties on the eponymous mountain. In true Western fashion, both are men of few words, but after living and working together a bond slowly develops between them. When they end up in the same tent the night after a storm, curiosity and unbridled passion gets the better of them, and their clandestine affair begins. Both subsequently get married and have children, but their illicit meetings (masquerading as fishing trips) continue well into the seventies.
It's a story of two men coming to terms with something that's bigger than both of them. Should they bite the bullet and surrender to the love they have for each other or just be good cowboys and live the American dream? The spectre of Brokeback Mountain looms over them in judgement and Lee, following on from the Incredible Hulk and his earlier Chinese films, once again examines the influence a dominant father can have over his son. When Jack presses Ennis about the possibility of living together, Ennis recounts a time when his father "made sure he saw" the body of a gay man who had been tortured and killed by enraged locals. It's a reminder that it's not so long ago that the "crime" of being homosexual could result in a lynching.
Of the two, Jack is more promiscuous, regularly travelling to Mexico to meet rent boys and willing to make the long journey up from his home in Texas on receipt of a one line postcard from Ennis. Ennis on the other hand settles for having sex with his wife from behind. Jack is also the more pushy and outspoken, and regularly tries to engage Ennis in conversation about their future, suggesting that they could find a ranch somewhere and run it together.
Gyllenhaal is certainly convincing in a nagging wife kind of way, but ultimately, it's Ledgers film. His portrayal of a man racked with guilt and repression builds as the film goes on, culminating in an emotional showdown with Jack. By the end he looks as if his life has been sucked from him, the broken wreckage of a man sitting alone in a dinner eating a solitary piece of that age old symbol of American "family values"- apple pie.
The performances from the women are equally impressive in their portrayal of despair and rejection as they learn of their husbands' misdemeanours. When Ennis' wife Alma (Michelle Williams, a dark haired, more wholesome version of Renée Zellweger) catches a glimpse of her husband in a passionate embrace with Jack, she says nothing and stands by her man. But the pain shows and gradually their marriage crumbles. Jack marries Lureen Newsom (Anne Hathaway), the daughter of a bigoted farm machinery dealer. She sticks by Jack to the very end, but there is no doubt that she knows exactly what is going on, her terse treatment of Ennis on the phone at the end of the film showing both contempt and understanding.
The film is handsomely photographed making good use of the rugged Wyoming exteriors, hard drinking bars and macho rodeos to frame the dilemma faced by the two leads. It's the America of old movies, tourist brochures and adverts. You can imagine Lee showing his cinematographer old Marlborough adverts and saying "that's what I want this film to look like". These are Marlborough men on the outside but confused little boys on the inside.
Lee has made an important film which will be remembered for decades to come. The subject was also covered recently in Todd Haynes film Far From Heaven, but this stands as a definitive statement on the subject. The phrase "they're living on Brokeback mountain" may well become common parlance to describe anyone who is living a repressed life, especially gay people who are unable to face the consequences of coming out - a situation which has improved since the period the film was set in but is still sadly in evidence.
Patrick Bliss.