My Life at the Movies 5.12.09: 2005 - Brokeback Mountain

Posted by DC Perry on 05.12.2009

He always said he wanted his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain, but I wasn't sure where that was. I thought Brokeback Mountain might be around where he grew up. Knowing Jack, it was probably some pretend place, where bluebirds sing and there's a whiskey spring...

What to make of 2005? Crash was overrated and self-congratulatory. Capote was a wonderful piece of work that finally got Philip Seymour Hoffman the attention he deserved. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was a delightfully self-referential visual overload of a caper flick. Walk the Line was our last chance to see Joaquin Phoenix semi-sane, at least until whatever super secret movie project he's working on is finished and we can all stop pretending we don't know he's faking. But the best movie of the year was a beautiful love story that, if we put in just a little bit of effort to get past our 12-year-old snickering and irrational bigotry, lets us see how painful love is.



2005 at a Glance

US President: George W. Bush
Median annual salary: $46,300
Gallon of gas: $2.23
Dozen eggs: $1.46
New house: $237,300
New car: $26,300
Movie ticket: $7.75
Boston Red Sox: 95-67, second place, American League East
Me: See below.

2005 was the year I lost my mother to cancer, and it's pure coincidence that this year's column hits during the week of Mother's Day. I won't presume to give you advice about your relationship with your mother. I barely know you. And I don't want to get too sentimental. I'll simply say that love, in whatever form you find it, is complicated and fleeting, and if you have people in your life that you love, tell them. And show them. Time flies.

Which brings us to our feature presentation.



Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) meet one summer herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain. They spend months on the mountain, one tending camp, the other sleeping among the sheep in a small pup tent. One night, they sit too late around the campfire drinking, and Ennis decides to sleep by the fire rather than riding down to the sheep. During the night, the fire goes out and Jack invites Ennis in out of the cold. Jack makes a sexual advance on Ennis, and after his initially violent refusal, the two have sex. The next morning, Ennis is distant, telling Jack that this was a one-time thing, but as the summer wears on, the two continue their sexual relationship and their emotional bond deepens. When an early snow storm forces them to bring the sheep off the mountain earlier than expected, Ennis is angry at the loss of a month's pay. When Jack offers to lend him money, Ennis becomes violent, resulting in a shirt-bloodying fistfight.


You boys sure found a way to make the time pass up there.

Ennis returns home to marry his fiancée Alma (Michelle Williams). They settle into married life and quickly have two children. Jack returns to Brokeback Mountain the next summer, looking for work, but looking for Ennis more. He is turned away, and goes to Texas where he meets Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway) during a rodeo competition. They marry, and Jack goes to work selling farm equipment for Lureen's father J.D. (Graham Beckel). After four years apart, Jack sends Ennis a postcard suggesting they get together while he is in Wyoming.


You bet.

When Jack arrives, Ennis races down to meet him. The two embrace, then move out of sight and share a passionate kiss. Not out of sight enough to avoid Alma's view, however. On their fishing trip, Jack tells Ennis of his plan for the two of them to take over his parents' ranch and live there together. Ennis has a commitment to his wife and children, and is haunted by an image from his childhood of a man who was murdered, possibly by Ennis's father, for living with another man in exactly the arrangement Jack proposes. They keep up their fishing trips as a way of continuing their relationship in secret. Ennis can't give Jack more than that, and Jack will take all Ennis can give.


I wish I knew how to quit you.

Alma grows distant from Ennis, eventually fling for divorce. Jack, eager to get away from Lureen, who barely looks up from her accounting books long enough to notice he's gone, rushes to be with Ennis, hopeful that he will finally be receptive to starting a life together. Ennis still has his children to take care of, and is still afraid of what might happen if people knew about his relationship with Jack. Ennis tries to start a new relationship with a local waitress, while Jack turns to gay prostitutes, then to a new romance with Randall Malone (David Harbour), a ranch hand in Texas. On their next (and final) camping trip, Ennis tells Jack he won't be able to go next time because of a job. Jack lashes out because Ennis takes him for granted and refuses to give him the life he wants with him. Ennis shouts back that Jack has ruined his life by making him the way he is. The two fight, but just as during their first summer together, they end up embracing.



Ennis tries to reach out to Jack some time later, but his postcard is returned stamped DECEASED. He calls and speaks to Lureen, learning that Jack was killed while changing a tire that exploded, injuring him and knocking him unconscious, leaving him to die before anyone found him. Her clipped tone and the accompanying montage tell a different story – Jack was found out, probably for his relationship with Randall Malone, and was beaten to death. Jack was cremated, with half his ashes buried in Texas and the other half returned to his parents, his wishes that they be spread on Brokeback Mountain. Ennis goes to Jack's parents to offer to fulfill his wishes, but Jack's father (Peter McRobbie) insists that Jack will be buried in the family plot. Jack's mother (Roberta Maxwell) invites Ennis to visit Jack's room, where he finds their bloody shirts from their first summer together. He holds the shirts and smells them, then brings them downstairs, where Jack's mother offers him a bag to carry them in and a sympathetic smile.

Some time later, Ennis is setting up his mailbox in front of his new trailer when his daughter, Alma Jr. (Kate Mara) arrives to invite him to her wedding. He begins to make an excuse, but then he asks her if her fiance loves her. She says yes, and Ennis smiles and tells her he will be at the wedding. After she leaves, he goes to his closet and straightens the postcard of Brokeback Mountain next to his and Jack's shirts.


Jack, I swear . . .

Those in the habit of judging movies on superficial merits like to dismiss Brokeback Mountain as "gay cowboys eating pudding," but the power of this love story goes far beyond the sexuality of those involved. Brokeback Mountain is about community and acceptance, and how a failure to belong can isolate us from everything and everyone around us. The taboo nature of the relationship is what's relevant, not whether it's gay or straight. Jack and Ennis were desperately in love in a time when it was not acceptable for them to show it, and their desire – especially Ennis's - to conform to society destroyed both of their lives.


I can't stand being like this no more, Jack.

At its heart, this is Ennis's story, and it's a tragic one. Gene Shalit took a lot of heat for characterizing Jack as a sexual predator who takes advantage of Ennis, and rightly so. Jack has a much clearer sense of self than Ennis. He loves Ennis and wants to spend his life with him. But Jack is not a predator. However, Ennis is a victim. He lacks a strong identity, sexual and otherwise, and so he allows himself to be manipulated by everyone he cares for. He looks outside himself for his motivation, and so he blames others for his shortcomings. He blames Jack for the anguish in his life instead of blaming the cultural forces that fill him with guilt for the love he feels. The image seared into his brain of the beaten, bloodied, castrated man who was suspected of flouting society's conventions haunted him, and it destroyed or threatened to destroy every relationship he had – with Jack, with Alma, and with his children. In the end, he seems to have found redemption and acceptance by acknowledging the value of love to his daughter. He may have missed out on the unwavering love Jack offered him, but through it, he may find the one his daughter offers.

Better late than never.