Having left this
world much too soon Heath Ledger will forever be remembered for his
Oscar-winning role as The Joker in The
Dark Knight. Had he died earlier his defining role would have probably been
the much more restrained Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film that boldly went where few love
stories went by having the two lovers be male. The fact that they were cowboys
gave the film the unfortunate moniker “the gay cowboy movie,” but it is much
more than that. Take away the fact the two main characters are men and you have
one tragic love story regardless of gender.
The film begins
in the 1960s, a time when homosexuality was a something that had to be kept
secret for one’s own safety. Today gay marriage is legal in certain countries,
but unfortunately there was still a lot of backlash towards a movie about two
gay characters when it was released. I remember a fellow student in college
saying he was upset he paid money to go to the theatres and see THAT tent
scene. It clearly did not bother everyone since when I went to see it in Quebec
City there were so many people in the room I had to take a seat in the front
row and had a close look at the scene in question. I am comfortable enough to
say that did not bother me, but for anyone who would have been bothered by the
sight two men getting intimate, Ang Lee also included a pretty hot sex scene
involving Anne Hathaway so there is plenty for everyone here.
The really
interesting thing about the relationship between Ennis and fellow Wyoming cowboy
Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal, also great) is that when they meet they seem to be
as straight as arrows. They are just there to herd sheep on the mountain,
collect their pay, and then move on to the next job. No need whatsoever for
them to do more than shake hands, but eventually things get boring and Jack
suggests they spend more time together. Then night falls, it gets cold, they
get in their tent and Jack gets physical. The more solemn Ennis seems reluctant
at first, but he’s a strong guy, he could stop this at anytime and decides not
to.
Unfortunately
they are both aware the way the world works at that time and know they cannot
tell anyone what they have done as though it was some sort of crime. Sure
enough, when Jack returns the next summer asking for another job, his boss
(Randy Quaid) tells him there are no openings and makes it clear he has some
idea of what he and Ennis were up to last time. More out of a need for survival
than out of love the two hide their secret by entering “real” relationships,
with Ennis marrying his fiancée Alma (Michelle Williams) and having two
daughters with her, while Jack moves to Texas where he marries rodeo rider
Lureen (Hathaway).
Try as they might
to live the lie, Ennis and Jack can’t stay away from each other. They go away
on “fishing trips,” telling their respective spouses they are just old buddies,
but when Alma accidentally sees how they greet each other she realizes there is
more to it than that. There is of course a simple solution to this situation: Jack
and Ennis could just divorce their wives and live together happily ever after,
but a brutal flashback illustrates what happens to men who are so much as
suspected of being gay. Because the world they live in is unfair, they must
stick to their lies, hurting themselves and the women who love them.
Decades after the
era in which Brokeback Mountain is
set things have changed for the better for the LGBT community, but 10 years
after the movie’s release there is still a lot of room for improvement. Only
last week Ellen DeGeneres was accused by a pastor of promoting a homosexual
agenda to America’s youth, while labelling homosexuality as immoral and
indecent. Luckily DeGeneres is allowed to do what Jack and Ennis could not,
which is marry the person she loves even if that person is of the same gender,
and can respond to that homophobic pastor on her own TV show while the audience
happily applauds. However there are still countries around the world where
homosexuality is not only frowned upon, but also downright illegal and in some
cases punishable by death.
There is still a
long way to go, but hopefully one day people will be able to look at the “gay
cowboy movie” and see it as a sad reminder of a time when ignorance and hatred
stopped many people from being happy together.
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