I always wonder what we human are and what makes us human different than animals. In the history of mankind, humans evolved, built societies, formed rules, regulations, religions, and differentiate what’s right and what’s wrong. Yet after many years, mankind made their life more and more complex based on what they built. Humans fight for territories, religions, races, social statuses, and earth resources. Humans made their lifestyle more complex with rigid social taboos with endless walls between relationships or walls between houses or walls between religions or walls between societies or walls between nations.
Earlier human can interact with another human with ease and freely roam on the face of the earth and as regulations becomes more rigid, it becomes harder and harder to interact with another humans. It becomes harder and harder for man to disclose relationship with woman of his choice. It even becomes tougher and tougher for man (woman) to disclose relationship with man (woman) of his (her) choice. Isn’t freedom of choice should be human’s fundamental rights? Funnily when people think of heterosexual couples, they mostly think of the their relationships but when people think of homosexual couples, they always think of sex.
Ang Lee’s latest offering Brokeback Mountain (2005) is a sensitive story of two young cowboys who meet and fall in love and forge a lifelong forbidden relationships ultimately offers base for demonstrating power of endurance and love.
Story
Time - summer 1963, Place - Signal, Wyoming. Two young men - a ranch-hand Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) hired by rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) as sheepherders up on the Brokeback Mountain. Their main job is keeping the sheep moving and make sure as many as possible returns home. Ennis’s work is cooking and maintaining the base camp and Jack’s work is to watch after sheep higher on the mountain during nights. Both of them initially meet only for a meal at the base camp during evening times and gradually become friends.
One night, after couple of drinks of whiskey, both men share a brief, intense, and almost violent sexual encounter in the middle of the chilly night. Next day morning, "You know I ain’t queer, " Ennis tells Jack. "Me, neither, " says Jack. They agrees on what happens on Brokeback Mountain will stay on Brokeback Mountain. Initially they both hesitate over their feelings but over the remainder of the summer their sexual, intimate, and emotional relationships gets deeper and deeper. At the end of the summer, Jack and Ennis come down from Brokeback Mountain and parts their ways. For Ennis, this shepherding job might be one time job. He will be marrying to his sweetheart Alma in winter and settle down at the ranch. For Jack, he might be going for rodeo and will come back for shepherding next summer.
During same winter, Ennis weds Alma (Michelle Williams) and settles down at one of the ranch in Wyoming. Jack marries to rodeo queen Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway) and settles down at her father’s business in Texas. Four Years passed by - Ennis has two daughters and Jack has one son. One day Jack passing through the Wyoming, makes first contact, and asks Ennis if he wants to meet. When Jack and Ennis meet again, their love and passion for each other rekindles. Jack throws ideas of buy themselves a ranch and settle down together but Ennis, haunted by a childhood memory of the torture and murder of a gay man in his hometown, fears of such arrangement. He is unwilling to leave his family and afraid of his forbidden relationship with Jack would turn into tragedy for his family.
In the 20 years that follow, both try to lead normal lives yet find themselves constantly drawn back to each other. Jack makes regular fishing and camping trips to Wyoming from Texas and both men continue sharing their passion at the backdrop of Brokeback Mountain. Even though both men try to settle down, finding work, marrying woman, raising a family, they struggle to live without their secret bond. Even when they are apart, they face the eternal questions of fidelity, commitment, and trust. In the society where gay relationships are taboo, they forge a lifelong connection, and live with their forbidden love and secret feelings until they die.
Analysis
Ang Lee is known for handling human emotions, torments, and inner conflicts with utmost perfection in prestigious projects like Eat Drink Man Woman (generations conflicts in family), Sense and Sensibility (based on the Jane Austen novel), Ice Storm (conflicts in suburban American family), and Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon (marshal arts epic dealing with love, loyalty and loss). Ang Lee proved yet again that he belongs to elite group of contemporary directors with modern masterpiece called Brokeback Mountain.
Brokeback Mountain is a brilliant study of yearning, longing, and emotional endurance. It’s a powerful human drama depicting power of love and loss. It takes place in the world where homosexuality is taboo and there isn’t any definition of word called “Gay”. Brokeback Mountain depicts situation regarding how extreme loneliness and lack of the human contact can bring two people closer. It also shows how difficult declaring yourself as gay or how people were unwilling to cross social boundaries in the American societies of early 70s.
Lot said about Brokeback Mountain’s homosexuality scenes involving two men but I didn’t find any graphic scenes at all. The only brief violent sex scene in the tent wasn’t R-rated at all. There isn’t any unnecessary intimate or kissing scenes in the movie. Being straight myself and having never seen two male bodies making love each other in my life, I would like to confess that I was uncomfortable when I saw Jack and Ennis together passionately kissing and hugging at the entrance of Ennis’s apartment complex at the midway of the movie.
Brokeback Mountain is beautifully shot film at the backdrop of sweeping vistas of Wyoming, Texas, Grand Teton National Park and Canadian Rockies. They say Wyoming has one of the best clouds in northern American continent and it’s visible in every frame of Brokeback Mountain. I have visited Wyoming (Yellowstone and Grand Teton) and Montana in 2003 and this film reminded my breathtaking tour of both states. I am all set to visit Canadian Rockies in two weeks and I am sure it will remind me breathtaking scenery of this film.
Conclusion
Gays, Lesbians, Couples, Spouse, Wife, Husband - these are just labels formed by humans to describe human relationships in societies. I am not against forming rules and regulations for organizing society but I am against where two people’s (doesn’t matter man-woman, man-man, or woman-woman) unspoken emotions get crushed by the social taboos. Ang Lee’s film is universal – it’s not only about two men forced to crush their feelings under social taboos but also could be about two women or man-woman from different social class or religious or ethnic groups. Hopefully films like Brokeback Mountain will expand our conservative thoughts and homosexuality gets accepted universally same as heterosexuality. Brokeback Mountain is much more than gay cowboy movie. A must see film.