Thursday, January 5, 2006
Earlier this year I viewed a 10-minute montage of Howard Hawks movies - mostly westerns. Through clever editing, the point that was quickly and hilariously brought out by the compilation was that there was a clear homosexual subtext in some of these good ol' boy movies. Many featured John Wayne, whom I'm sure wasn't the slightest bit aware of the sexually charged content he was delivering. It just goes to show that the themes Hawks and other directors of his ilk kept returning to were those of men and their relationships with other men. How ironic then, that the "gay cowboy" movie is turning so many heads today.
Whether it was women who came between them or their own divergent loyalties, men's honor has always been the focus of attention in the western genre. "Brokeback Mountain" is what some may call a "revisionist western." It begins in 1963,and spans around 20 years in the life of two cowboys who experience the unique male bonding that comes with being alone in the great outdoors. The only difference is, where Robert Mitchum and John Wayne chose to be buddies forever, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist go one step further and act on their physical attraction. While you'll be able to find high camp and cheeky dialogue in the old Hawks westerns, you'll find none of that in "Brokeback Mountain," as director Ang Lee ("Hulk," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") plays it all very serious and close to the heart.
Movie
Brokeback Mountain **
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are sublime in director Ang Lee's new forbidden romance story. Much has been writen about the bravery of all involved to make a movie about gay cowboys. Once you step back from the hype, "Brokeback Mountain" is a simple, yet finely nuanced relationship picture that uses our preconcieved notions of the Western film against us.
Heath Ledger, in the best performance of his career, plays the guilt-ridden Ennis like a time bomb waiting to explode. His path in life is the one of least resistance, as if it were pre-determined to include a wife, some kids, and whatever odd jobs he can find. He finally gets a chance to let off some of that steam, but only when he is with another man. That other man is freewheeling Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal), a drifter who eventually finds a girl and marries into her rich family. But neither lifestyle is enough to keep the men from thinking of the summer they spent herding sheep together on Brokeback Mountain.
Like any forbidden romance, there is a certain attraction to this kind of material. Just for a moment, let's pretend that we are not dealing with cowboys, those stereotypes of ultra-hetero manliness, and instead with a more straightforward boy/girl romance. Would "Brokeback Mountain" have all the hype? No. Would it still be an effective and interesting movie? Not really. Let me explain.
The script, adapted from Annie Proulx's short story by screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, is the model of economy, despite Lee's insistence on slowing things down with endless shots of photogenic countrysides. Even as the story progresses far into the characters' lives, so many details are revealed in every scene that it creates a fairly full picture of Ennis and Jack. Their relationship is complex, tortured by the fact that neither men have any idea where to find these feelings on a road map. Time, however, finds Jack slowly growing into his sexual identity and exploring homosexual life, while Ennis lives in secret agony, unable to form new relationships with women or men.
Lee knows that audiences understand the specific societal rules that create drama out of such timeless conflict. So he exploits the landscape to its fullest potential with wide, expansive shots of the horizon and other iconic Western images. By presenting anomalies in the style of a universally recognized genre, he has turned that genre, and our expectations, on its head. When Ennis and Jack are together on the mountain, Lee lets the (in)action unfold at a contemplative pace. It is an immediately familiar sense, as anyone who has ever been camping can tell you. Out in the wilderness, the men are unburdened by the pressures of structured life.
By giving the doomed romance an idyllic location, and one so perennially associated with good old-fashioned "family values," the movie makes ever more clear the contrast when the men have to resume "normal " life. If Ennis and Jack's stomping grounds are a paradise, then the moment we return to civilization, we know how to feel about "normal" life. It's restricting. The status quo has now become limiting. It is a brilliant and subtle turnaround that should work for even the most conservative of audiences.
So you can't take the "gay" out of the "gay cowboy" movie. It's as simple as that. What gives "Brokeback Mountain" its punch is the (no pun intended) straight way in which its romance is told. With sublime performances from its two lead actors, and solid support from Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway as the couple's long-suffering wives, the film is already finely nuanced and effective. It is the very nature of the central relationship, however, that makes it so interesting.
