Brokeback Mountain: Awkward, passionate, and real

“Brokeback Mountain” has finally reached the hills of Tennessee. I wish it were earth-shattering news, but apparently word has already gotten out. Curtis and I went to Nashville with a friend of ours to screen the famous same-sex love story between two ranch hands. I expected a similar crowd to that of “Latter Days,” which played at the same theatre a couple of year ago.

It wasn’t. “Latter Days,” the Mormon-missionary-loves-the-player love story by director C. Jay Cox drew meager audiences across the country, and drew only a few dozen people the night we saw it. “Brokeback,” on the other hand, was a sold-out crowd in the theatre’s largest auditorium, one of three screens that showed that film.

And almost half of that audience was straight, unless those heterosexual couples were comprised of gay men with their fag hags. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience by the time the closing credits rolled.

For those few of you that live under a rock, “Brokeback Mountain,” from “Crouching Tiger” director Ang Lee, is the story of two ranch hands who work the slopes of the titular mountain while herding sheep in 1963. Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) are simple, relatively uneducated men who must cope with emerging feelings for each other. Their friendship leads to a cold night in a pup tent, which sparks a passionate romp during which the two men have sex.

And no one walked out of the theatre. No one yelled, “UGH!” It struck at the very core of those of us who have had similar awkward positions of first love, whether same-sex or not. As uncomfortable as it might have been for the straight men in the audience, they got it too. These two men didn’t know how to really express their love for each other. They couldn’t kiss (I’ll pay well to keep Curtis from telling the story of our first kiss in any detail).

But then the movie progresses to detail the fact that it wasn’t a “one-shot deal,” as Ennis wanted at first. The rest of the summer brought them closer and closer together. Their final parting was bitter, hard, and still awkward. Of the two actors, Ledger rises far above the brilliant Gyllenhal, especially during a scene immediately after their scuffle in which Ennis must cope with the fact that he’s truly in love, even if it’s a forbidden love.

The rest of the film is a montage of the lives of the two men over the next twenty years, and we’re introduced to both of the characters’ wives. The complexity of the script is illustrated when Alma, Ennis’ wife stumbles on her husband kissing this strange man from Texas who’s coming for a fishing visit.

Now we know what fishing buddies really are, it seems. Strange how they never fish.

“Brokeback” is clearly Ledger’s shining moment, and Gyllenal’s performance has its own passion. The chemistry between the two men is real, and the beauty of the cinematography is stunning.

“I wish I could quit you,” Jack tells Ennis later in the story. The power of love that’s displayed in “Brokeback” is beyond borders, greater than fear, and brilliant even until that final frame.

Is it the “gay cowboy movie,” as some say? Not really. But it is a powerful love story as only Ang Lee could tell. In the end, “Brokeback Mountain” will bury itself into your heart as the force of nature it is. Don’t miss it. We drove an hour to see it. I left the theatre in stunned silence as I realized that I was still spellbound by the time I got home.

In the end, it’s worth the time, the drive, and your ten bucks. Just bring a few Kleenexes.

- David W. Shelton

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