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Have
you seen the film? ... Tell us what you think
here |
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| Brokeback
Mountain is due for release on the 24th April.
Winning various film awards including a BAFTA
for Best Picture, it’s a film that has
gained both huge praise and fierce opposition.
Here Phil Hoyle reviews the film and asks,
‘might the film be bringing an important
challenge to the Church?’ |
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| Directed
by: |
Ang Lee |
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| Screenplay by: |
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana,
Based on the short story by E. Annie
Proulx |
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| Starring: |
Heath Ledger (Ennis Del Mar), Jake
Gyllenhaal (Jack Twist),
Anne Hathaway (Lureen Newsome), Michelle
Wilson (Alma) |
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| Rating: |
15 |
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It’s the
summer of 1963 and, whilst herding sheep on
the beautiful, isolated slopes of Brokeback
Mountain, Cowboys (Er…shepherds?) Ennis
and Jack form a close friendship that develops
into a passionate sexual relationship. However,
as the summer ends and they return to their
separate lives, where does their relationship
stand?
Since it’s release, Brokeback Mountain
has received pretty much universal praise
from critics and contemporaries, winning its
director an Oscar for his work, as well as
the BAFTA for Best picture. However, it’s
also contended with fierce opposition from
those who disagree with its moral stance and
trivialisation at the hands of the mainstream
media, who were quick to label it simply as
‘that gay cowboy movie’.
As you might expect, Christian response has
followed largely along these lines, either
condemning it outright as ‘gay propaganda’,
or almost ignoring the storyline completely
and opting to comment on how beautiful the
mountainsides are, as if the film’s
narrative was inconsequential. Both responses
are a real shame, as Brokeback Mountain is
actually a heartbreaker of a movie, an extremely
beautiful and hauntingly tragic story that
has much to challenge the Church about.
Exploring issues of freedom and constraint,
the movie certainly stuns with its opening
panoramic views and the genesis of the relationship
between extrovert rodeo cowboy Jack, and quiet
and suppressed ranch-hand Ennis. Of course,
the shots of the mountain aim to reflect the
freedom that they find as their relationship
(helped along with time, liquor and scenes
perhaps a bit too strong for some) begins.
However, it’s all too short lived. Ennis,
working to raise money to marry his fiancée
back home and bound by his fear of the repercussions
of pursuing a homosexual lifestyle in 1960’s
American West (fuelled by his childhood memory
of seeing the corpse of a man murdered for
living with another man), cannot accept their
relationship as a sustainable reality. Denying
his feelings, he refuses Jack’s offer
to set up a ranch together, and, instead,
violently rejects him, forcing the couple
to return to separate lives.
On leaving the mountain, the tone of the film
turns markedly oppressive, following the characters
through the next 20 years hindered by secrets,
fear and lies. Both Jack and Ennis marry;
both have children, both keep what happened
on Brokeback a secret. Their wives, on suspecting
the truth, do not talk openly with their husbands;
few people are honest; even with themselves,
and all the time we get the growing feeling
that if only someone would tell the truth
to anyone then things might work out ok. As
Ennis and Jack reunite and their feelings
for each other are rekindled, we get an increasing
feeling of tragic inevitability, injustice
and anger. Which is the point, in hindsight,
where the film really hits home.
You see, at first watching, I felt the film
was thoroughly depressing, frustrating and,
at times, achingly slow. However, as I reflected
on it, I realised that this growing feeling
is the true power of the movie. This atmosphere
of constraint and despair is the reality that
Jack and Ennis live with, battling to keep
their desires in check and their fears unrealised.
It led me to think about others that I might
know that are living these feelings as they
try to hide their sexuality from a hostile
world, maybe even from a hostile church. We
are led to ask whether Jack and Ennis’
lives, and therefore the lives of many others,
might be better if, instead of trying to be
something they aren’t, they were able
to continue their relationship in the open.
This suggestion, when it occurs to us, may
not rest easy. After all, it’s not often
an idea happily bandied about in church, but
the challenge remains none the less. It’s
made all the more powerful by strong performances
from Ledger and Gyllenhaal, the former of
which gives a career best (I preferred Donnie
Darko for Gyllenhaal). Ang Lee directs astutely,
helping focus on the relationships between
characters, avoiding navel gazing monologues
and the script only very briefly veers into
the cheesy (Jack’s ‘I wish I knew
how to quit you’ line).
Whatever your view or philosophical stance
on homosexuality, I’d definitely recommend
you watch the movie and ask yourself about
how your reaction and actions towards gay
men and women builds up or pulls down lives.
By bringing one relationship into clear focus
and making us think about the issues surrounding
homosexuality without being able to remove
them from individuals, Brokeback Mountain
packs a painful punch.
Brokeback Mountain is released on DVD on 24th
April.
Review
by Phil Hoyle |
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