Film Review

‘Brokeback Mountain’: Not Just a
'Gay Cowboy Movie,’ But a Beautiful, Heartbreaking Love Story

By Margaret Lipman (December 29, 2005)

If you’ve heard anything about “Brokeback Mountain,” you’ve probably heard that it’s “that gay cowboy movie.”  Which, of course, it is.  But beyond that, this film is also an incredibly gripping and dramatic love story that hopefully anyone, if they can set aside any assumptions, misconceptions, and stereotypes, can enjoy.

I know that this review still probably won’t convince some people to see this film, and I can completely understand that.  The very idea behind this movie isn’t exactly alluring to many heterosexuals, especially guys.  I have to admit that even I felt a tiny bit uncomfortable at certain points, and I know that many others in the theater probably did as well.  But that’s all the more reason to go and see it. 

The film, based on E. Annie Proulx’s short story, opens in Wyoming in the summer of 1963.  Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) land a job watching a flock of sheep up on Brokeback Mountain for the summer.  Both are broke and have been hardened by a harsh childhood and life on Wyoming ranches.  If I hadn’t seen the trailer or heard the hype, I would never have guessed that they would soon be involved in a secret homosexual relationship.  Ennis is sullen and silent.  Jack, though slightly less reserved and introverted, is equally stoic and almost as gruff.  Ennis is planning to marry in November.  Neither could be more like our idea of a Wyoming ranch-hand and more unlike our modern stereotype of a homosexual   

Alone up on Brokeback Mountain, they watch the sheep and endure the harsh weather and the monotonous diet of beans.  Though each character’s main purpose for taking the job is to simply earn enough money to buy a ranch, they form a friendship and share their tumultuous pasts and shattered hopes.  One frigid night, as Ennis sleeps outside so he can periodically check on the sheep, Jack hears his friend shivering in the cold and invites him into the warmth of his tent.  Terribly lonely and cold, Jack and Ennis fiercely embrace and –hardly aware of what they are doing-- end up having sex.

The next day, they both make sure that the other knows that this is a “one shot thing” and each vigorously affirms that he is “not queer.”  But their relationship continues and grows deeper throughout the summer.   They are forced to end this brief spell of happiness in lifetimes of hardship when they bring the sheep back down the mountain and abruptly separate, though not without much silent inner turmoil.

Soon, both are married and have young children.  They seem to believe that they will never see each other again, until several years later, when Jack sends Ennis a postcard saying that he will be passing by the small Wyoming town where Jack lives.  Ennis is eager to see Jack and tells his wife, Alma, that they were old “fishing buddies.”  For the next 20 years, they see each other several times a year, going into the Wyoming wilderness to share what they can hardly speak of yet cannot live without.  Ennis refuses Jack’s suggestion that they purchase a ranch and live together, telling him of the horrible murder of an old cowboy who had been discovered to be gay when Ennis was a child. 

And so they meet in secrecy as often as they can, but are not satisfied with this arrangement.  They call their relationship “this thing” and never even acknowledge that they are in love.  As their lives change and they grow older, their time together and the memory of Brokeback Mountain is the one constant they can hold on to, until the film’s heartbreaking conclusion changes all of that.

“Brokeback Mountain” is an extremely gripping story and left me shaken and completely changed.  It’s truly unforgettable.  Besides the incredible story, the scenery is perfect and so is the score.  It’s a heavy, atmospheric, and melancholic film and it moves rather slowly, but I enjoyed every enthralling frame.  Director Ang Lee did a fantastic job.  Heath Ledger should definitely receive the Academy Award for his performance as the restrained, taciturn, and terribly conflicted Ennis, although Jake Gyllenhaal was very nearly as good.  Even if the story doesn’t enthrall you, Heath Ledger should.  He completely transforms himself into Ennis and was amazing to watch (and not just because he looks great in a cowboy hat!)

This film has been described as revolutionary, and I hope that is a fitting description.  This film completely transformed my already liberal perceptions of homosexuality and erased any stereotypes that I had subconsciously harbored about it.  Hopefully, it will do the same for everyone else. 

But surprisingly, while I was watching the movie, I hardly even thought about how Ennis and Jack were gay.  Their love seemed so natural, even if their circumstances were anything but.  It was hard to disapprove of their relationship, despite the extramarital affairs, the lies, and the pain it would eventually cause everyone.  “Brokeback Mountain” is simply a love story of the best kind; it transcends sexuality and labels and will hopefully leave as deep of an impression on you as it did for me.               

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