Brokeback Mountain - a review

When I was doing my journalism thing at college we had to write various article. I was chatting about one of them with someone today so I said that I'd post it.

So here goes:-

Brokeback Mountain

I was at first sceptical about seeing a ‘gay cowboy film’ as Brokeback Mountain had been described by mainly my male friends.

But within half an hour of the film starting I was gripped by the essence of love between two people, gender aside that this film captures. In fact I haven’t stop thinking about it since which I take as a good thing.

The film follows the love story of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy who meet in the summer of 1963 whilst driving cattle on a mountain range.

These two men, burley, macho cowboy types rarely speak to each other in the first 20 minutes of the film, barely spending a night together in the mountains whilst doing their chores separately. During this time you feel like you are also with them in a tent next to theirs, taking in the magical and spell binding landscapes of Wyoming.

In fact when Jack Twist (played excellently by Jake Gyellenhall) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) finally begin to get close and after too much whiskey end up sharing a bed, it feels like a natural progression. It feels like they and us, the viewer have been isolated from reality for long enough not to care about the consequences.

The first sex scene, which in my opinion is more suggestive than explicit contains no passion, no caring at all. It is over in a few short minutes, but the regret of the two characters seems to last hours.

I felt myself empathising with their regrets and fears about the situation. There seems to be an acceptance though and although Enis concludes their encounter by stating 'I'm no queer' the two men decide what has occurred on Brokeback Mountain should stay on Brokeback Mountain.

They continue their lives, both going their separate ways. They both marry and have children. But it seems that neither of them are fulfilled with their marriages and when, after 4 years Jack, the more forceful and excepting of his sexuality sends Enis a postcard it rekindles old feeling and their desires to be together. Not just for sex, to simply share experiences, laughs and loves (under the guise of men's fishing trip weekends away.)

Jack wants them to tell their secret to the world and move onto a ranch together but Ennis has been traumatised by a childhood event in which he saw a man being tortured for that very reason, because he was a 'queer'.

Whilst we are watching Ennis and Jack's desires to be together (which spans a 20 year period) it hits you that there has been no mention of those three words 'I love you' but it's as if we do not need to hear it just as they, the characters don't. You know implicitly, you feel their pain and heartache of the situation from their facial expressions alone.

This is a right person/wrong time love that fates won't allow, star-crossed lovers with whom we sympathise. A Romeo and Juliet of cowboy films if you will.

Brokeback Mountain makes you realise the beauty and sheer wonder of ever getting to feeling that much in love, some people never do.

This film isn't about a life defining sexual relationship that two men didn't get to keep, it's about life defining love that they didn't end up keeping.

'That ol Brokeback got us good' said Jack to Ennis after one of their nights together, and yes as a viewer you think about your life-defining loves, you feel almost under a ‘loved up’ spell.

This is simply one of the finest love stories in Hollywood in years; In fact as I was leaving the cinema, I didn't see a dry eye in the house, even from the men.

I simply must go to bed now otherwise I will never wake up in the morning. Last night I was dreaming that M and I stole some horses from a stables that I used to go to when I was about 10. It was all going fairly well until the farmer man (who I didn't see the face of) came back from his trip out and M was half way through stealing my horse.

I didn't even have time to put the saddle on before we had to try and ride off into the night. However, M stole me a really lame horse that was more like a Shetland pony and no matter how hard I tried it wouldn't move. Then I woke up. Rubbish.

Sweet dreams folks

P