Brokeback Mountain – A Review
Brokeback Mountain is a film about love that two cowboys stumble onto unknowingly, love suppressed, love withheld sorrowfully in the heart.
Director Ang Lee has dared to explore a dormant subject like homosexuality in a very sensitive overtone. This is not a film about unbridled stud sex. Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, it captures the emotional upheavals between two individuals in love in a rather sublime manner. The romance between the main characters expanse 20 yrs.
The two young cowboys, Ennis Del Marby (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), meet by accident in the summer of 1963 at Brokeback Mountain in the Wyoming High country to work for a rancher Joe Aguirre as sheepherders.
The lone chill that envelopes the camp drives the two to huddle up together in the tiny tent one night. This close proximity ignites into a sudden spark that later flares into an undying flame.
The first sexual grappling in the cramped tent has been treated rather discreetly. The next morning, both struggle to come to terms with the earlier nights happenings. Ennis who’s all bottled up and swallows his syllables as he speaks to Jack says “He’s no queer”. Jack who’s the talkative one between them is dealing with his own demons.
Still they do it again & again in the daylight as well as at night. Their pent-up passion explodes in a roughhouse savage intensity that’s indistinguishable from fighting.
Lee’s Freudianism captures the unconscious romantic bond between the two lovers with panache. This film showcases the pure male bonding that breathes in the shadows away from prying eyes.
Ennis was brought up by his siblings when his parents died & Jack who’s more evolved & self-aware was brought up in the rodeo circuit since his dad was a bullfighter.
The young lovers romance is clipped when an errant blizzard cuts short their summer employment. Ennis & Jack go their separate ways. Ennis’s farewell is a simple unemotional “see you around”..but both are torn up. Ennis who’s not easily stirred breaks down in frustration as Jack drives away.
Ennis marries his girlfriend Alma (Michelle Williams) & has two daughters with her. Jack meets & marries Laureen (Anne Hathway) a Texan rodeo queen with whom he has a son. He joins Laureen’s father’s farm equipment business.
Four years pass before Jack who lives in Texas sends a postcard to Ennis who’s settled in Wyoming saying he will be in the area & would like to visit.
The moment they set eyes on each other, the latent passion erupts in an unconstrained clinch. Alma stumbles upon their rather private moment unnoticed & is shocked at the revelation. As the re-united lovers head to a motel, Alma’s frozen with misery & doesn’t know how to handle the bearings.
So begins a sporadic & tormented affair in which the two meet once or twice a year feigning fishing trips where no fish are caught. Jack urges that they forsake their marriages & set up ranch together. But Ennis is haunted by a childhood memory of his father taking him to see the mutilated body of a rancher who was tortured to death by the locals for soliciting relations with another man.
Ennis is immobilized with fear & shame & cannot fathom living together openly. This disappoints Jack immensely who feels emotionally drained & claustrophobic being in a marriage that’s a facade.
Meanwhile Enni’s marriage crumbles as Alma’s choked pain finds an outlet with a colleague. Jack’s happy with Enni’s divorce but thwarted when Ennis still fights the idea of camping in together.
To overcome the emptiness he feels within, he has clandestine encounters with other men. In one of rendezvous in the hills with Ennis, Jack manifests the suffocation he feels to Ennis & confesses being with others to calm his tormented soul. Ennis is lewd with jealous rage as he threatens to kill Jack if he ever hears of another encounter…EVER. The sheer raw emotions running wild is very touching & real.
The relationship matures into a sexless satisfaction of love that both experience as they embrace in the quite, pristine mountains (shot in Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies) & fluctuates between love, caring, bonding & respect for one another. Both live for that one tender moment snatched from the loneliness in their hearts that illuminates their very existence.
This film is recommended to those who are open to understanding the complexities of emotions & respect them for what they are.
Copyright © BuntysBanter 2006
Director Ang Lee has dared to explore a dormant subject like homosexuality in a very sensitive overtone. This is not a film about unbridled stud sex. Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, it captures the emotional upheavals between two individuals in love in a rather sublime manner. The romance between the main characters expanse 20 yrs.
The two young cowboys, Ennis Del Marby (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), meet by accident in the summer of 1963 at Brokeback Mountain in the Wyoming High country to work for a rancher Joe Aguirre as sheepherders.
The lone chill that envelopes the camp drives the two to huddle up together in the tiny tent one night. This close proximity ignites into a sudden spark that later flares into an undying flame.
The first sexual grappling in the cramped tent has been treated rather discreetly. The next morning, both struggle to come to terms with the earlier nights happenings. Ennis who’s all bottled up and swallows his syllables as he speaks to Jack says “He’s no queer”. Jack who’s the talkative one between them is dealing with his own demons.
Still they do it again & again in the daylight as well as at night. Their pent-up passion explodes in a roughhouse savage intensity that’s indistinguishable from fighting.
Lee’s Freudianism captures the unconscious romantic bond between the two lovers with panache. This film showcases the pure male bonding that breathes in the shadows away from prying eyes.
Ennis was brought up by his siblings when his parents died & Jack who’s more evolved & self-aware was brought up in the rodeo circuit since his dad was a bullfighter.
The young lovers romance is clipped when an errant blizzard cuts short their summer employment. Ennis & Jack go their separate ways. Ennis’s farewell is a simple unemotional “see you around”..but both are torn up. Ennis who’s not easily stirred breaks down in frustration as Jack drives away.
Ennis marries his girlfriend Alma (Michelle Williams) & has two daughters with her. Jack meets & marries Laureen (Anne Hathway) a Texan rodeo queen with whom he has a son. He joins Laureen’s father’s farm equipment business.
Four years pass before Jack who lives in Texas sends a postcard to Ennis who’s settled in Wyoming saying he will be in the area & would like to visit.
The moment they set eyes on each other, the latent passion erupts in an unconstrained clinch. Alma stumbles upon their rather private moment unnoticed & is shocked at the revelation. As the re-united lovers head to a motel, Alma’s frozen with misery & doesn’t know how to handle the bearings.
So begins a sporadic & tormented affair in which the two meet once or twice a year feigning fishing trips where no fish are caught. Jack urges that they forsake their marriages & set up ranch together. But Ennis is haunted by a childhood memory of his father taking him to see the mutilated body of a rancher who was tortured to death by the locals for soliciting relations with another man.
Ennis is immobilized with fear & shame & cannot fathom living together openly. This disappoints Jack immensely who feels emotionally drained & claustrophobic being in a marriage that’s a facade.
Meanwhile Enni’s marriage crumbles as Alma’s choked pain finds an outlet with a colleague. Jack’s happy with Enni’s divorce but thwarted when Ennis still fights the idea of camping in together.
To overcome the emptiness he feels within, he has clandestine encounters with other men. In one of rendezvous in the hills with Ennis, Jack manifests the suffocation he feels to Ennis & confesses being with others to calm his tormented soul. Ennis is lewd with jealous rage as he threatens to kill Jack if he ever hears of another encounter…EVER. The sheer raw emotions running wild is very touching & real.
The relationship matures into a sexless satisfaction of love that both experience as they embrace in the quite, pristine mountains (shot in Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies) & fluctuates between love, caring, bonding & respect for one another. Both live for that one tender moment snatched from the loneliness in their hearts that illuminates their very existence.
This film is recommended to those who are open to understanding the complexities of emotions & respect them for what they are.
Copyright © BuntysBanter 2006
posted by Bunty's Banter at 11:27 PM
5 Comments:
more was desired on Review of movie then the story narration!!!
Good job at describing the tortured passions and the tender love.
Good job with the description of totured passion and tender love.
Decent job considering you are a first timer and all. My expectations of you are higher. Never summarize the plot, assume that the ones that have seen it know it and the have nots should be intrigued by your review to go see it. Scenes that affected you intensely were emphasized on this I give you 100 pts this was done remarkably well. Overall a very brave attempt --M
Decent job considering you are a first timer and all. My expectations of you are higher. Never summarize the plot assume that the ones that have seen it know it and the have nots should be intrigued by your review to go see it. Scenes that affected you intensely were emphasized on this I give you 100 pts this was done remarkably well. Overall a very brave attempt --M
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