Brokeback Mountain Review
by Rick Ferguson (filmgeek65 AT hotmail DOT com)January 13th, 2006
Mrs. Fabulous and I went to see Coldplay last summer. Now I wouldn't call myself a Coldplay fan, actually. I find them too precious by half. They're the musical equivalent of one of those massage chairs you pay to sit in at your local shopping mall- vaguely soothing, but mechanical and lacking soul. Still, given the woeful state of pop music today, they're fucking Pink Floyd compared to what else is out there. So what are you gonna do? Besides, they're one of the few bands my wife and I can agree to spend money on.
So off we went. Of course, the big question every straight male wants to know is, does seeing Coldplay make you gay? Now my sneaking suspicion is that you'll find more homosexuals at a Limp Bizkit concert than you will at Coldplay. I'd say ninety percent of the guys at a Coldplay concert have been dragged their by their wives or girlfriends, which leads us to one immutable fact: if you're at a Coldplay concert with another guy, you're either desperate and dateless, or you're gay. We straight guys can hit a Widespread Panic or a 50 Cent or a Green Day show together, but we can't go see Coldplay or the Dave Matthews Band together and still keep our Guy Cards. Sorry dawgs, but that's the way it is.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is the cinematic equivalent of a Coldplay concert. If you're a straight male, you're seeing it for one of two reasons: either your woman has dragged you there, or you're seeing it as part of a group to give yourself hipster credibility. You're secure enough in your masculinity to wear a pink shirt, drink Zima without irony, use moisturizing cream and watch the Food Network. So why not go check out some hot cowboy-on-cowboy action- especially if it'll score you points with the chicks?
So there we were, in a theater full of straight males and their women, watching Jake Gyllenhaal play catcher to Heath Ledger's pitcher. The advance word on BROKEBACK was that it was the gay TITANIC- the film that straight women and gay couples would see over and over again to experience the wrenching catharsis wrung from the tale of these doomed cowboy lovers. And while the actual film is a typically masterful and understated Ang Lee opus, it's also a little distant. It's a tad undercooked. And a smidge self-important. Mrs. Fabulous, who cries at car commercials, squirted out nary a tear. So while discriminating moviegoers will find it well worth a viewing, it falls short of a classic.
First of all, these guys aren't cowboys- they're sheepherders, and the sight of all that prime sheep tail sashaying through the mountains made me wonder why these two roughriders had to turn to each other when every shepherd knows that the sheep are the first to go. But turn to each other they do- violently, compulsively, in a love affair that spans twenty years, two marriages and dozens of fishing trips during which no fish are caught. Heath Ledger is Ennis Del Mar, the taciturn Marlboro man who keeps himself wound tighter than Nicole Ritchie's belt. Jake Gyllenhaal is Jack Twist, the would-be rodeo rider who wears his heart on his plaid sleeve. Lee and his screenwriters expertly guide us through the set-up, as the two men find themselves in a perfect storm of mountain solitude, tight denim, softly bleating sheep and cozy pup tents. The film guides these characters like sheep through the queue and into the sheering pen- and by the time the sheep realize where they are, they've already been shorn. Hell, given the same circumstances, I'd probably be pulling down Jake's blue jeans myself. I mean, the guy does have a purty mouth.
Once entangled, the two men attempt to disentangle themselves and live lives of quiet desperation like the rest of us. Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams), who dutifully pumps out a couple of kids. But Alma soon realizes that Ennis is less interested in winning bread than spending alone time with his good buddy Jack, and her choice becomes to suffer in poverty and silence or confront her man about his secret life. Jack, meanwhile, marries Lureen (Anne Hathaway), the comely daughter of a wealthy tractor salesman, and looks to have it made- but he's never so happy as when he's off to Brokeback Mountain to play grab-ass with his one true love.
Gene Shalit, a moron of the highest order, recently referred to Jack Twist as a "sexual predator" in his own review of the film. But Jack is clearly the needier of the two men, and it's the conflict between Jack's aching, open desire for love, and Ennis's rejection of the same, that beats at the heart of this picture. Those of us who follow Ang Lee's work know that he works in metaphors; nothing that he has to say is ever on the surface. Look past the gay cowboy sheen and you see a metaphor for any doomed romance in which one of the lovers is unable or unwilling to believe that he or she truly deserves happiness. Ennis Del Mar is embodied by Ledger as a quivering, lifelong spasm of denial- he spends his life on the edge of orgasm, but denies himself the release. Gyllenhaal is good, but Ledger may well cheat Philip Seymour Hoffman out of his Oscar this year.
So is the moral of the story that Ennis and Jack should have just opened up a bed-and-breakfast up on Brokeback and lived a full, happy life serving scones and leading tourists around on horseback? The film touches obliquely on the subject of Matthew Shepherd-style murderous gay bashing; given the time and place in which the picture is set, that danger would no doubt be a serious concern. But this angle is out of place in a film that really requires you to look beyond the basic metaphor for universal application. Far more than simply a tale of unrequited love, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is ultimately the story of a man who gets the life that he settles for. You don't have to be gay to understand Ennis Del Mar. If you're a former concert pianist who now sells life insurance; if you're a married man who never did give that waitress in El Paso a chance to make you happy; if you're a cop who always wanted to dance but never had the nerve; then Ennis Del Mar stands for you.
As for me, I'm probably a little gayer than I was before I saw Coldplay and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. But until the right cowboy comes along to steal my heart, I'll continue to live in sweet denial with the beautiful Mrs. Fabulous.
***
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