The classic theme of an impossible love

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2006)

"Brokeback Mountain" is a beautiful and moving variation on the classic theme of an impossible love. To say it is about "gay cowboys" is comparable to saying that "Tristan and Isolde" or "Casablanca" is about "adultery" or that "Romeo and Juliet" or Mishima's "Spring Snow" is about "pre-marital sex." The acting is superb. The stars in "Good Night and Good Luck" and in "Capote" played well-known characters excellently. Heath Ledger has created what deserves to become a well-known character. Ledger's Ennis just might live with Bogart's Rick in film immortality (though the different film endings probably militate against it). The more knowledgeable Jack (see the brief mention of sins) can at least imagine escape from circumstance by retreat to his parents' ranch and can contemplate alternatives to Ennis ("I wish I knew how to quit you") with the rodeo clown, the Mexican, or the foreman. The inarticulate Ennis cannot escape his obligations to his daughters and is reduced to rage, tears, and despair, with no alternative to Jack. Postscript: Now having read the short story and the screenplay and seen the movie additional times, I am even more impressed with Heath Ledger's acting achievement in "creating" Ennis. As Annie Proulx writes in her commentary on the making of the movie, "Heath Ledger... knew better than I how Ennis felt and thought, whose intimate depiction of that achingly needy ranch kid builds with frightening power." It is additionally striking how Jake Gyllenhaal and the other actors all add depth to what the writers of both story and screenplay gave them in only suggestive sketch.