Sunday, January 08, 2006

Brokeback Mountain - A Lot More

Brokeback Mountain

God, 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 @ IMDB

Go 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!

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:56 am

    I agree, I find straight guys who are completely at ease with their sexuality tend to be sooo confident that they go completely the opposite, getting naked in gay company at the drop of a hat, big slobbery kisses etc, in fact they seem to relish in the fact that they know it makes us uncomfortable as hell when they know they are turning us on with absolutley no chance of anything further developing...bstrds ;-) As jae says, you dont see us walking out of the cinema at every movie where theres a bit of hetro action, which lets face it, is every film nowadays with a 15 or above certificate, because we too are secure in our own sexuality. I can only see 2 reasons for guys to be so against seeing this movie for its gay content, as either a) As jae suggests, theres some internal doubt as to their own sexual identity that they dont want to deal with or are embarrased about or b) They have been brought up in an environmnet where homosexuality is portrayed as evil and wrong, and they are too dumb and retarded to be able to formulate an intelligent and reasoned opinion of their own and just missed out on being one of the thousands of extras in the movie themselves...yes im referring to the sheep.

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  2. I really *must* go and see this movie!
    Am I likely to bawl my eyes out while watching it? I can be a right softy at times.

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  3. you might... depends

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  4. Anonymous7:26 pm

    I completely agree that Ennis was more realistic than Jack. He accepted the impossibility of two men living together, even though he did want to be with Jack, and was making the best compromise he could. ("If you can't fix it, you've got to stand it.") It was impossible in 1963, certainly in Wyoming, but even in big cities then gay people were subject to constant police harassment, humiliation and violence.

    Ennis did commit himself to Jack, though. He never sought out other men and was violently jealous when Jack told him about his adventures in Mexico. His last words ("Jack, I swear ..."), even though he didn't finish the sentence, sound like a vow to love Jack and be true to him till the end of his life.

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  5. Thanks for the review. I want to see this movie and hope it comes to my city.

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