Brokeback Mountain



It will break your heart.

Depending on your point of view, it will either change Western cowboy movies for you forever; or
enrich your understanding of adult love. Maybe it does a bit of both.

Directed by Ang Lee, from a screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana based on a short story by Annie Proulx, this is a rich love story about a 20-year relationship.
Like all Great Love Stories, it comes with obstacles, in this case the most obvious one
being that the two lovers are men in a time (1963) and a milieu that
just will not condone their attachment to one another.

If a screenplay is a story told in pictures, this is some beautiful screenplay.
Visually, it just dazzles with its outdoor shots thanks to Roberto Preito, director of photography.
Some of the most amazing scenes are of the sheep moving like a great woolly grey river through hills
and gullies accompanied by a shimmering acoustic elegiac score by Gustavo Santaololla.
(Let it be known to all who may seek to find this idyllic landscape in real life, the province of Alberta has the gorgeous starring role As Wyoming.)

The casting was impeccable. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as kinetic Jack Twist to Heath Ledger’s tactiturn Ennis Delmar.
Michelle Williams plays Alma, the wife of Ennis; Anne Hathaway is featured as Jack’s less sympathetic wife Laureen.

As Ennis, Heath Ledger, whose work up to this was always charismatically appealing, establishes himself here as a major actor.
His inchoate Ennis is a dead-on performance of the strong silent type finding himself caught up in a terrifyingly exhilarating affair.
When they say goodbye at the end of their first summer, both believe they can carry on as usual and both do.
Ennis proceeds with a fall marriage to his girlfriend Alma; Jack Twist proceeds to the rodeo circuit and carefree ways, eventually finding Laureen.

The two men meet 4 years later, ostensibly for a fishing trip to Brokeback Mountain, but Alma discovers the true nature of their friendship.

Michelle Williams is perfect as the harried wife and mother trying to make ends meet who discovers her husband is gay,
a word she may not have had in her vocabulary in 1967. The economy of the dialogue is never more potent than when she sees them together
and just backs up, moving slowly but with her whole world coming under suspicion.
Williams manages to convey a tumult of emotion in her changing glance. You can almost hear her heart shattering. Her verbal confrontation with Ennis comes much later and when it does it is stunning and raw.

Jack Twist, married to a seemingly shallow girl (Anne Hathaway) with a domineering father, gets to finally vent his rage too, at his father-in-law and at Ennis.
Ennis vents his on some vulgar bikers at a fireworks show and again we are awed by
the cinematography, this time a dazzling juxtoposition of his primal rage set against the most gorgeous exploding sky behind him
while a shocked Alma huddles to the far right shielding her daughters.

I can find no flaw with this film, really, other than with the bad wigs Hathaway gets saddled with.
Having spent many years in a cowboy/country music milieu myself, meeting exactly the kind of men portrayed here, I found Ledger and Gyllenhaal both completely realistic.

Having seen many, many love stories on screen which, let’s face it, always portray messes -
thwarted love, forbidden love, love gone wrong, love interrupted, love denied, love betrayed, love abandoned, love gone stale, love gone wild, love against all odds, family love, everlasting love, love beyond death - this is a love story for the ages.
It shows us all of those kinds of love in one story. It is an awesome film told, directed, shot, musically supported and acted with economy and precision.

Truly great screenwriting, truly great score. Truly great filmmaking.

Top Recommendation.