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Home   |   The Socialist 19 - 25 Jan 2006   |   Join the Socialist Party

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Review

Brokeback Mountain

ADAPTED FROM Annie Proulx's novel and directed by Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain is a thought-provoking, poignant film about the tragic love affair of two ranch hands, with only each other, a dog, their horses, 1,000 sheep and a bottle of whisky for company. But what future faces them when they come down off the mountain?

Ruth Williams

In summer 1963, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist find themselves thrown together herding 1,000 sheep in mountainous Wyoming. Hardly speaking two words to each other, boredom and weeks of eating beans finally get to them. Their camaraderie starts to grow over a bottle of whisky.

Too drunk to ride back to watch the sheep, Ennis crashes by the campfire. As he lies shivering in the freezing night, Jack takes pity and invites him to share his tent. From this point on their lives are forever changed. What starts as a "one shot thing" turns into a 20-year clandestine love affair, seeing each other only a few times a year on "fishing trips".

Brokeback Mountain is the only place for Jack and Ennis to be free and to be themselves. Always knowing that they must fit in with society's expectations by working hard, marrying and having kids. Why? Because that's what god-fearing cowboys do!

Powerful film

This film not only challenges macho stereotypes of cowboys but also challenges gay stereotypes, as these men are far from stereotypical.

Jack and Ennis are people whose sexuality doesn't conform to their community's views! Homophobia is preached from the pulpits. Ennis recalls how his father forced him to see the tortured body of a gay rancher to show the nine-year-old what happens when two men live together. The message of fear and intolerance is deeply imbedded. They know the only way to survive is to deny their sexuality.

Brokeback Mountain is flawlessly acted, directed and shot. The emotions Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack) and Heath Ledger (Ennis) bring to their characters are overwhelmingly powerful. The acting portrays the emotions of people in circumstances where they can't come out due to society's attitudes, and how this isolation at having to not be yourself affects you to the very core of your being.

The majestic, harsh wilderness and the isolation of the characters, evoke the isolation many gay people still face. The constant threat of violence still prevails, and not just in rural America.

In 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in Wyoming because of his sexual orientation. Last year Octavia Acuna, a Mexican gay rights activist, died from multiple stab wounds. In Iran, teenagers Mahmoud Asgari and Ayas Marhoni were executed for being gay. Only this month a homophobic mob chased a man to his death in Jamaica. And David Morley was brutally murdered by a gang of teenagers in London in 2004.

These are just a few frightening reminders of the reality of violent crime against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Despite legal advances, such as the Civil Partnership Bill and greater tolerance, prejudice is still commonplace. Stormbreak's 2004 study on homophobic attacks showed that 45% of lesbian and gay Londoners had experienced homophobic crime, with 20% being victims of a physical assault.

Ennis and Jack represent real people's lives and experiences - challenging the standards of what's considered normal and the fear of being ostracised if found out. Brokeback Mountain reminds us of the tasks ahead to ensure no-one faces this isolation and threat in the future.

Mick Phillipsz adds: The film is an honest and rare portrayal of the blue-collar rural communities that Ennis and Jack come from and the lives and hardships of that community, seen through the prism of their relationship.

The self- denial and isolation that Jack and Ennis live through is shown as part of a society in which LGBT people are compelled - almost in peril of their lives - to live a double life, often in heterosexual marriages.

However that lack of freedom and claustrophobia is also shown to stem from the unrelenting poverty - economic and otherwise - blighting these communities. It gives a sense of what it might have been like to have lived at the far periphery of the unfolding of the civil rights movements in the urban centres.

The film authentically conveys the reality of everyday emotions and emotional and sexual relationships. It also shows, in a subtle but powerful way, how the characters' choices are ultimately poisoned by want and the simple need to make a living.

• Brokeback Mountain is on general release.

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