Brokeback MountainGod, this movie lingers with you! So I thought I'd talk about it (it's a Sunday and none of you read this on a Sunday so I can be a little self indulgent today).
I've been reading other interpretations of the movie by other people. A lot of these have said "this isn't a gay movie, it's a great LOVE story". Which I will agree with to an extent. It is a great love story. A beautiful, heartbreaking and sexual love story. But to ignore the underlying gay themes would be to reduce the movie in a major way. This is a movie about a love story set against the background of poverty, closeted homosexuality and the power of nature. So to say it's a love story, or it's a gay story, is wrong. It's a well rounded drama.
The scenery is AWESOME and the camera work on this movie is amazing. It made sheep look dramatic. That's an achievement!
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal both act their hearts out in this and really escape any preconceptions I had of them from previous movies. Michelle Williams far exceeded my expectations of her, considering some of her other roles that really stank! Anne Hathaway to get an Oscar? She wasn't bad but she didn't blow me away!
The story was touching. To see Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) fight against his feelings for nearly 20 years made me really feel for his character. I wanted to reach in and beat him round the head at some points though for being an idiot. I wanted to shout "Run away with Jack and join the gay Rodeo" several times. Alas... Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) was so endearing, though his never failing love for Ennis and his devotion to a dream that would never be was devastating.
It's interesting that this movie spends most of it's time detailing the emotional fallout of Ennis' struggle (broken homes, bitter recrimination, and violent outbursts), which at the time was actually fairly rare. The way Jack lived, as a closeted man who slept with other closeted men all of whom are like him married, was far more the done thing back then. It felt to me that Jack was fooling himself a lot more than Ennis was. Ennis ended up pushing people away to avoid hurting them. Jack didn't seem to care who he hurt in pursuit of his dreams. Although I have to say he could of beat his wife with a baseball bat and not hurt that emotionally void creature.
The movie doesn't end the way you wanted to... that's why I like it. No happy endings here.
Jack Twist: That's more words than you've spoke in the past two weeks.
Ennis Del Mar: Hell, that's the most I've spoke in a year.
Brokeback Mountain @ IMDBGo see this movie now.
EDIT: Straight people are weird (see
here and
here). Are straight men so girly and weak nowadays that they can't even sit through one minutes of seeing... erm... well not much actually... there's a shot of two men in clothes moving against each other... Woo... no big deal! I have to put up with your shitty sex scenes in sooo many movies. I'm not worried I might turn straight. Are you so emasculated as to actually think it possible for you to turn gay? If you think that then you probably are a little bit of a poof.
Big props to the straights who don't moan!