Review: 'Brokeback Mountain' doesn't glorify gay life

If that statement were not so well known and so attached to Allen, it would have made a perfect tag line for Ang Lee's brilliant and devastating film, “Brokeback Mountain.”

By now you've no doubt heard of the film, often referred to as “that gay cowboy movie” by people who neither have seen it nor have any intention to do so.

Bill O'Reilly claims it's the liberal Hollywood elite trying to “push the gay agenda as normal behavior,” on an unsuspecting “normal” populace. Too bad he hasn't bothered to watch the movie. His pithy comment is, “I will not be lining up to see 'Brokeback Mountain.' I'm afraid of gay cowboys, but then I'm afraid of all cowboys. I'm from Long Island.”

This kind of reactionary rhetoric isn't exactly new. Many people accused “Trainspotting” of “glorifying” drug use. Anyone who watched the strung-out addict diving into the filthiest toilet in Scotland to chase a morphine suppository may disagree about the use of the word “glorifying.” It's much the same with “Brokeback Mountain.”

The consequences suffered by the two principal characters in the story will hardly entice anyone to “turn gay.”

The central conflict in the film is a tale of forbidden love. It could just as well have been about two people from different economic or social strata, or lovers with an “unacceptable” age difference. In times past - and to some extent even today - it may have concerned two people of different races who happened to have fallen in love.

In my opinion, the film isn't pushing any subversive “gay agenda” but merely exploring the consequences of the fact that “the heart wants what it wants.”

It's 1963, and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) hires on at a sheep ranch in Wyoming. Also hiring on is Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger). The cowboys are stationed on the lonely heights of Brokeback Mountain in charge of a very large flock of sheep. The sleeping arrangements are quite cramped with the pair sharing a small tent. Jack maintains the “homestead” and Ennis roams the mountainside keeping track of the wandering flock.

One cold night, in a scene that comes quickly and nearly without warning, Jack entices Ennis with a warm embrace. They have a sexual encounter, but both stand by the motto, “I ain't no queer.”

Later on, the ranch boss - played by an unusually stern Randy Quaid - sees the two men frolicking and being a wee bit too familiar. He's disgusted but lets it go for the time being. At the end of the season, Jack and Ennis go their separate ways. Ennis is set to marry his fiancée and Jack heads to Texas to try his hand at the rodeo circuit. The next year Jack applies for work at the same ranch. The owner turns him down. This is the first of many troubles that will beset Jack and Ennis.

In short order, Ennis and his wife Alma have two daughters. Jack meets a rodeo queen on the circuit and marries her. Both men are haunted by the past.

Four years go by. Then Ennis receives a general delivery postcard from Jack saying he will be in the area and wants to get together. At this reunion, Jack and Ennis embrace lovingly and kiss. What they are unaware of is the fact that Alma witnesses the exchange. She can't contain her shock; it changes her life, but she remains married to Ennis for many years to come.

As Jack's visits get more frequent - Ennis always says they are going on fishing trips in the mountains - Alma's knowledge of what's really going on finally leads her to a divorce.

Jack's wife knows less of the situation but suspects something is out of the ordinary. She wonders why Ennis can't come down to Texas sometime rather than Jack always driving to Wyoming.

The forbidden affair continues for 20 years only to reach a heartbreaking end. The brief part of “Brokeback Mountain” which follows this climax is the saddest part of a film that is permeated with melancholy.

Throughout the film, Gyllenhaal's Jack is the more self-aware of the two characters. Ledger's Ennis is conflicted, confused and tormented. Both actors deserve the accolades critics are bestowing upon them, and the film won several awards at the Golden Globes, the main precursor to the Oscars.

Ang Lee and screenwriters Larry McMurtry (“Lonesome Dove”) and Diana Ossana stay faithful to Annie Proulx's short story. A number of critics have noted that “Brokeback” is simply the latest in a series of films with similar themes, citing such movies as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Red River” and the obvious “Midnight Cowboy.”

“Brokeback Mountain” is a powerful, haunting and thought-provoking film.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

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