Raw, Powerful, and Unforgettable

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2011)

I remember when this movie first opened and it was being casually referred to by nearly everyone as "the gay cowboy movie." Knowing Ang Lee's work as I do, I knew before I saw it that it would be so much more than that, and I was not disappointed.
1963. Two young cowboys, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), show up at the office of Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) looking for work as sheepherders. Jack is a friendly sort who introduces himself immediately, whereas Ennis is painfully shy and even getting his name out of him is like pulling teeth.
The two young men are hired to tend the flocks on Brokeback Mountain. "Tending the flocks" involves some unforeseen hardships; they have only one tent, and each night one of them stays up to guard the sheep while the other sleeps. The nights on the mountain are frigid, however, and perhaps inevitably, they end up in the tent together for warmth. Up to this point there has been little communication between them; Ennis is shy and repressed to the point where he can barely string two words together, so Jack does most of the talking, getting little or no response. But in the tent that night, something clicks and the two men find themselves in the throes of passion, making love almost violently.
Thus begins a love story that lasts through marriage and children and Jack's occasional trysts with male prostitutes. Every few years the two men get together for "fishing trips" on which no fish are ever caught, and even Ennis's somewhat naive wife Alma (Michelle Williams) gets the idea that something is up, especially after she sees the two of them kissing, a sight that shocks her but about which she does nothing since she has no frame of reference for what she has seen.
Jack, too, has married. His wife Lureen (Anne Hathaway), however, is more sophisticated than Alma and at some point in the film catches on to what is happening, leading to increased tension in the home, and, if memory serves, divorce (It has been some time since I saw this film).
Ang Lee's films range from the delightfully silly THE WEDDING BANQUET to the brilliant homage to martial arts films CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, to this lovely and tragic love story, set at a time when love between two men (or two women) was not just an aberration, but the participants could find themselves in danger.
As is his wont, Lee places his characters under a microscope and looks at them close-up, pores and all. Ledger is brilliant in an Academy Award-nominated performance as Ennis, a man so tied up inside that expressing himself is almost impossible; on more than one occasion, his frustration at his own lack of eloquence leads him to use his fists. Left alone at the end of the film, Ennis finally expresses the depth of his feeling for Jack in a silent scene that speaks louder than pages of dialogue.
But for my money, as good as Ledger is, in many ways this is Gyllenhaal's film. Also Oscar-nominated, but in the Supporting Actor category, not only is his role every bit the equal of Ledger's, but a good portion of the story is told through Gyllenhaal's expressive eyes. Less repressed than Ennis, Jack is more willing to give voice to what he feels, and whenever he looks at his lover, it is with a longing that will bring tears to your eyes.
The film also makes good use of the opportunity to make a few statements on what life was like for gay people in the period. Ennis is torn between the man he loves and his sense of obligation to play out the role of what he has been taught a "real man" should be. And in all fairness, he is not totally lacking in feeling towards Alma; he simply loves Jack more, a fact that shames him and makes him even more repressed except for the rare get-togethers with Jack.
Jack, on the other hand, less repressed than his lover, finds himself drifting away from the woman that he married more out of convenience than real love, and in one rather sordid scene, availing himself of the services of a male prostitute in Mexico. Degrading, perhaps, but at least more honest than Ennis's life of near-total repression.
The wives here are more than just accessories. Michelle Williams is brilliant as the innocent girl who marries Ennis, only to discover his secret later on. Totally unprepared, she initially says nothing, because she has no words to confront him with. The marriage does not last, of course, but the breakdown is painful to watch.
Anne Hathaway as Lureen brings a cool breeze to the proceedings. Far less naive than Alma, she picks up on the fact that her husband is hiding SOMETHING fairly early on, and when the marriage ultimately collapses, she remains perfectly in control of herself; the impression is that she has seen this coming.
Of course, the love story is what drives everything else in this film. It is the story of a love that endures despite societal disapproval, and in the face of marriages and children. It is perhaps inevitable that this story does not end happily for either of these men, but in the final moments of the film, Ennis at least acknowledges what he has had so much difficulty in putting into words.
A beautiful film that rewards multiple viewings.