Brokeback Mountain
The butt of many jokes (ha-ha) in the 2005-2006 production year, Brokeback Mountain got a lot of flack for its controversy and premise. There's no such thing as a gay cowboy after all, and what does Willie Nelson know anyway? And who cares that it was based on a book.. this was clearly just meant to rile conservatives. And hell, maybe it was but I sure don't care. As a farmer from Appalachia, I had to appreciate the accuracy of this film. I was determined to hate it and yet.. I couldn't, I can't, and I won't.
Ennis del Mar, depicted by the late Ledger, is a typical rancher. Falls in love with the girl, and needs money for his wedding. So off he goes to Brokeback in search of employment. What he finds there, however, is not just a paycheck. He finds Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), the crazy rodeo star who teaches him more than just sheep-hearding. And that's not a euphemism like the line from the film, "You boys sure found a way to make the time pass up there. Twist, you guys wasn't gettin' paid to leave the dogs babysittin' the sheep while you stem the rose." I mean he taught him that love is forever. That the only way to be happy, even if it gets you killed, is to be yourself.
He doesn't learn this lesson easily as he stays with Alma for what seems too long. They have two girls of their own before their relationship gets too rocky to repair. Every once in a while he goes off to go "fishin'" with Jack Twist. Alma catches on all too soon when they don't bother to, I don't know, step around the house before they start mauling one another. Girls come and go, but Jack is Ennis' one constant. And every time they meet, Jack says he'll leave Lureen and they can get a sheep farm together.
Ennis always refuses.
He tells Jack a story of early childhood in which a homosexual man is dragged around by his balls until his genitals are destroyed beyond recognition and the town residents leave him to bleed out. Ennis' father makes sure he seen it, and for all Ennis knows, he done the deed himself.
Jack and Ennis prove not to be forever after all when Twist dies a young and tragic death at age 39 (an intriguing foreshadow to Heath's death at 29) and the one question left unanswered has to be: is Lureen telling the truth or are Ennis' fears truly realized? Because either Jack Twist dies from a blown-out tire as his wife relays in impersonal terms, or he died just as Ennis always feared: by gruesome gay-bash.
Sad and poignant, this film will immortalize Heath Ledger for all time and move this and generations to come.
Ennis del Mar, depicted by the late Ledger, is a typical rancher. Falls in love with the girl, and needs money for his wedding. So off he goes to Brokeback in search of employment. What he finds there, however, is not just a paycheck. He finds Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), the crazy rodeo star who teaches him more than just sheep-hearding. And that's not a euphemism like the line from the film, "You boys sure found a way to make the time pass up there. Twist, you guys wasn't gettin' paid to leave the dogs babysittin' the sheep while you stem the rose." I mean he taught him that love is forever. That the only way to be happy, even if it gets you killed, is to be yourself.
He doesn't learn this lesson easily as he stays with Alma for what seems too long. They have two girls of their own before their relationship gets too rocky to repair. Every once in a while he goes off to go "fishin'" with Jack Twist. Alma catches on all too soon when they don't bother to, I don't know, step around the house before they start mauling one another. Girls come and go, but Jack is Ennis' one constant. And every time they meet, Jack says he'll leave Lureen and they can get a sheep farm together.
Ennis always refuses.
He tells Jack a story of early childhood in which a homosexual man is dragged around by his balls until his genitals are destroyed beyond recognition and the town residents leave him to bleed out. Ennis' father makes sure he seen it, and for all Ennis knows, he done the deed himself.
Jack and Ennis prove not to be forever after all when Twist dies a young and tragic death at age 39 (an intriguing foreshadow to Heath's death at 29) and the one question left unanswered has to be: is Lureen telling the truth or are Ennis' fears truly realized? Because either Jack Twist dies from a blown-out tire as his wife relays in impersonal terms, or he died just as Ennis always feared: by gruesome gay-bash.
Sad and poignant, this film will immortalize Heath Ledger for all time and move this and generations to come.