Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain (Director: Ang Lee)











BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN won 3 Oscars:

Best Director: Ang Lee
Adapted Screenplay: Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry
Original Score: Gustavo Santaolalla

Lee was quietly introduced to American audiences with two films, Hsi yen (The Wedding Banquet) and Yin shi nan nu (Eat Drink Man Woman), both nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. His American debut was Sense and Sensibility, a movie nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture, but he was not. Then came The Ice Storm, another great movie. He then did the little-seen Ride with the Devil before he moved on to Wo hu cang long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), a film nominated for 10 Oscars, getting duel nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture, winning the former. Then came Hulk. Say what you want about the comic book adaptation from the arty director, the "failure" of this film was one of the most overhyped stories in film in 2003. Counting up, now, Lee's films have been nominated for a total of 19 Oscars and have won 5. This movie will make the nominations jump to 20 at least, maybe 30.

Brokeback is based on a short story by Annie Proulx that appeared in The New Yorker. Her novel The Shipping News was given film treatment in 2001 and that nearly made her decide not to allow this movie to be made. Adapted by Larry McMurtry, whose novels Hud, The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment have all been adapted into successful films, along with Lonesome Dove, which became a mega-hit mini-series, and Diana Ossana.

Here's what I hate about movies like Brokeback Mountain...(a collective gasp of air comes from the critical community)...I hate that every media outlet in the world has seen this movie and have heaped praise all over it before I can even see one frame. There's something to be said about the level of expectation going into a film. You cannot possibly ignore all the accolades; everyone walking into a theatre seems to slump under the weight of them. And many times, a movie can be really good but fail to meet those lofty expectations, and it takes another viewing, many times years down the road, before you can really appreciate it.

This is the forum by which I complain that the release patterns for movies such as this are shameful. I know L.A. and New York filmgoers are ready to accept a smaller movie more willingly than people from that "useless piece of land between," but the reason why those smaller movies wouldn't make it with a wide release is that they don't really have the funds to blitz TV and magazines with ads, and therefore, few people in the heartland get any word about them and the awareness of the film would kill it in a traditional release pattern.

But movies like Brokeback Mountain have been hyped for months. And I know Focus Features fancies themselves an independent company, but they're right there on Universal Studios' property. The awareness of this film was in full tilt here in Nashville (and, likely, many other places) months before it actually got here. Thanks to the community of people who frequent Regal's Green Hills, Nashville is getting to see movies a little bit earlier than some of the country, but that same group of people was ready to see this a long time ago. It was going to make the money it's making right now.

So, what of the movie?

Two men look for work herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain during the summer. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) is a simple man of few words, and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) is simple, but a lot more lively. In the middle of the summer, an unexplainable attraction takes hold that will affect all of the paths they will attempt in the future. For when the work comes to an abrupt end from their knowing boss Joe (Randy Quaid), the two separate and try to make a normal living. Ennis marries his long-time sweetheart Alma (Michelle Williams), and Jack runs into the fast-moving Lureen (Anne Hathaway). Both marry and have kids. Jack's longing to return to the days of Brokeback prompts him to send a postcard to Ennis, and before long, the two are planning secret "fishing" expeditions every three months or so away from their wives. How this affects their new lives, and how that in turn affects their relationship, becomes the direction of the movie.

So, if you have an aversion to seeing men being affectionate, will you be able to enjoy this? That I cannot answer. Ennis and Jack's affection makes a hazy line between fighting and lovemaking--because that's what the relationship is, and it's brilliant. Let me just say, as a guy who cringed when he saw Jay Mohr plant a huge kiss on another guy in the movie Go, I never once cringed during scenes of this movie. But I can't tell you that you'll still be comfortable watching it, but it's also not like the movie is a series of sex scenes, either. They are tame by most standards--there's probably only one that couldn't be shown on TV in its full glory, and it's fully clothed.

But that's way besides the point, isn't it? I mean, if the movie was a series of randy depictions there wouldn't be much room for the story, then we might have a problem. But that is not the focus. The focus is the story, and it's a classic tale. Heath Ledger, in his third film of the year (after Lords of Dogtown and Brothers Grimm), turns in a performance that's he's never turned in before, but I'm not surprised like some people seem to be. The Aussie was great in Monster's Ball and 10 Things I Hate About You, but then succumbed in some way to the trappings of being an "it" guy and then came well-publicized box office failures like A Knight's Tale. He's an Oscar lock. Jake Gyllenhaal, also in his third movie of the year (after Proof and Jarhead) deserves as much consideration. Michelle Williams has been getting Oscar buzz, and Anne Hathaway has an outside shot even though she's not in it as much as the others. All of the actors, but especially all four leads, do their best work here.

But quite certainly there's a lot of praise to be heaped on Ang Lee as well. After going through the media trappings of Hulk, he comes back to the simplicity of a story about relationships, his bread and butter. He doesn't go flashy on the picture--and sometimes you want to go into a film and see a lot of camerawork and pizzazz, but the restraint he shows here is a good decision.

All the technical stuff is good here, too. Slam-bang surefire nominations go to cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto) and score (Gustavo Santaolalla, who did an amazing job with North Country as well), along with all the others that you'd expect.

The best thing that can be said about a movie like this is that the hype didn't kill it. I want to see it again.