Brokeback Mountain</b

I’ve been hearing about the "gay cowboy" movie now for what seems like a few months.  With all the positive reviews, I knew it was a movie that I wanted to see.  But for the longest time, it wasn’t playing at any theaters around me and the only place it was playing was in the actual city of Atlanta and even then at only two theaters.  But then last week, Brokeback won a bunch of awards including Best Director and Best Movie at the Golden Globes and all of a sudden, it is playing at all the theaters.  I guess the prospect of making money is more important to these people than then their so-called "morals".

The movie was amazing as I knew it would be.  Love is love and it doesn’t see gender or color or anything else and that’s what this story is truly about…love.  Heath Ledger plays Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jack Twist.  In the summer of 1963, the two boys meet when they are hired to ride up Brokeback Mountain with a herd of sheep.  They are to stay up there the whole summer and tend to the sheep.  Ennis isn’t much of a talker and the friendship starts off slow as they bond over having to eat beans all the time.  But slowly, the friendship turns into more as they give into their attraction to each other.  Their summer on the mountain is cut short when they receive orders to take the sheep back down the mountain because of an upcoming storm.  Once back to the real world, the boys parts ways as Jack drives away and Ennis breaks down at the thought of what he did and because of his feelings for Jack. 

The years move on as both Ennis and Jack get married and have children.  Then after a few years, out of the blue, Ennis receives a postcard from Jack saying he will be in town.  The meeting after all these years is one of the most moving parts of the whole movie.  Brokeback mountain becomes their hideaway as the two use fishing as an excuse to go up there and be together.  Ennis isn’t willing to come out of the closet nor is he willing to make a commitment to Jack.  Jack wants to buy a little ranch with Ennis and have them live happily there together, but Ennis won’t give into it.  He tells the story of how when he was young, he knew of two men who lived together and how one was brutaly murdered and how his daddy took him to see that dead body so he would know what happened to men like him.  They know it wont’ be easy, but they agree to meeting up at Brokeback Mountain a few times a year.  This relationship lasts this way for 20 years.  Though Ennis is now divorced and his wife has moved on and married again, he is still scared to have a relationship with Jack outside of the few times a year at Brokeback mountain.  At their last meeting, Ennis tells Jack that they can’t meet in August like they had planned and they will have to wait until Novemeber.  They get in a fight about their relationship and Jack tells him that it’s not enough, the few times a year that he sees him and that he wants more.  But Ennis still cannot make a commitment to Jack.  Months later, Ennis sends a postcard to Jack, asking to meet in November, but the card is returned to him saing "Deceased".  Ennis calls Jack’s wife and though she tells him he died in a freak accident while changing the tire of his car, Ennis pictures Jack being beaten to death like that man his daddy had taken him to see as a child.  Jack wife also tells Ennis that Jack wanted his ashes to be scattered on Brokeback Mountain, but no one knew where that was.  She tells him that Jack’s parents have his ashes so Ennis heads to give them a visit.

From his conversation with Jack’s parents, its obvious that Jack had other men in his life (which was alluded to in a previous scene when Jack meets the husband of a very talkative lady while out with his wife).  But it is also obvious that Ennis meant a lot of Jack.  What’s not quite obvious though is wheather Jack’s parents knew about Jack’s lifestyle or not.  They won’t give up his ashes and instead insist that his "remains" be burried in the family plot, leading the audience to believe they are very conservative people set in their ways and probably would not be the type of family that would accept a homosexual son.  But at the same time, the mother realizes how much they meant to each other and she invites Ennis to visit Jack’s room upstairs.  While in the closet (ha, no pun intended there), Ennis finds an old denim shirt that Jack wore that first summer they spent on the mountain.  When he takes a closer look at the shirt, he sees that inside the shirt is his old shirt that he thought he had lost that same summer.  But it looks like Jack actually kept the shirt, maybe as a reminder of him.  Ennis hugs the two shirts close to him as if he’s hugging Jack for the last time.  When Ennnis returns home, he finds his daughter who is now 19 is ready to get married.  For the first time, he gives up whatever job he had planned for the date of her wedding and promises her he’ll be there.  For the first time in his life, he puts someone he loves over what he feels is the dutiful thing to do.  When she leaves, he opens his closet door and inside in hanging his shirt draped over Jack’s shirt as if he’s embracing Jack himself.  He say’s "Jack, I sware," and the movie fades to black.

If the movie teaches one thing, it’s that life is too short and we don’t know what tomorrow brings so you should keep the ones you love close because you never know when you may lose them.  It truly is a love story…one that takes place over 20 years and though neither of the boys ever say the words "I love you", it is obvious from their actions.  The two actors were amazing.  I realize Heath is the one getting all the accolade and I do think he deserves it, but it was Jake’s performance that really made me FEEL through out this whole movie.  It was Jack that I sympathized with and Jack that I understood and it was Jake’s performance that did all that.  I have no idea why everybody keeps saying maybe he will get a Best Supporting Actor nod, because he definitely wasn’t a supoorting actor, he was a lead.  But I guess he’s still too young and good looking for the Academy to take his seriosly.  The one thing the movie made me wonder was how two straight guys could do such intense scenes.  I guess that’s real acting.  They both do a phenomanal job.  The cinematography in the movie is amazing and the ladscape is so beautiful.  Ang Lee also is an amazing director and he deserves any and every

award he has going his way.

My favorite scene:  

At their last meeting after the fight, Jack watches as Ennis drives away.  He flashes back to a memory from their first summer together.  Jack is standing by the fire, more than half asleep…standing and sleeping, like horses do.  Ennis comes around behind him and hugs him and just holds him for a second before getting on his horse and going to where the sheep are.  The moment is so tender and it’s what real love is all about.  It’s one of those scenes that brought a tear to my eye.

Anyway, I would totally reccommend this movie to most people.  If you have a problem with homosexuality and have already closed your mind of to this movie, then well, it’s not for you.  But this is definily one of the best movies of this year in so many ways and I think everyone needs to see it!</