BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

US, 2005, 134 minutes, Colour.
Heath Ledger, Jake Gylenhaal, Randy Quaid, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway.
Directed by Ang Lee.

Once a film wins awards and is nominated for Oscars and expected to win, it sets up a whole different dynamic for audiences who go to see it. Expectations are generally far too high – which is worse if the film is different from the kind of film that usually wins. What makes response to Brokeback Mountain even more hazardous is the religious response to the film (or to reports about the film rather than the film itself). Various Church groups in the US have been outspoken in their condemnation (and some of the websites – check ‘Brokeback Mountain’, Church, Protests on a search engine and many pages come up – some rather vitriolic) and these reactions have been highly publicised, both those supporting and those denouncing the protests.

Brokeback Mountain was originally a short story by E.Annie Proulx (The Shipping News), under 40 pages, that one could read in about a third of the running time of the film. It used a flashback structure where Ennis Del Mar remembered his time herding sheep with Jack Twist on Wyoming’s Brokeback Mountain in 1963 and their relationship and infrequent meetings over twenty years. It was a story of loneliness and regrets.

Novelist and Pulitzer prizewinning author, Larry McMurtry? (The Last Picture Show, Lonesome Dove) and Diana Ossana have continued their screenwriting collaboration in amplifying the short story and have treated it in direct linear fashion, keeping the regrets and grief until the end. It is interesting to note that the setting is 1963, the year that McMurtry’s? novel Horseman Pass By was filmed with Paul Newman as Hud, a different look at the 20th century American cowboy.

The cinematography for Brokeback Mountain by Rodrigo Prieto is, using the cliché, absolutely stunning. The mountainscapes of Wyoming, the changes of the seasons, the rounding up of the sheep are very beautiful, giving a grandeur and dignity to the action. Ennis and Jack are enveloped by the power of nature.

And what of the theme? And its treatment? And how should audiences who hope they have a developed moral sensitivity and conscience respond? Especially in comparison with other issue themes in films which exercise moral conversations?

A safe principle for any storytelling is that there is no limit on what can be presented. Any kind of sexual relationship is a valid subject simply because it is part of human experience. To argue that would be a form of denial by suppression or repression. The issue for moral discussion is always how the topic is presented.

This means that Brokeback Mountain’s presentation and exploration of the sexual relationship between Ennis and Jack is a legitimate subject for a film.

On the one hand, director Ang Lee says that his film is not a gay film. On the other hand, some American commentators have declared that the film ‘glorifies’ homosexual relationships. Lee says that his film is about two men, two lonely men, isolated from their families, who are drawn to each other. This develops into an intense love with sexual expression that continues for two decades despite each of the men marrying and having children. Lee presents it as something which does occur in all societies. He obviously presents it sympathetically rather than making a crusade for it.

This raises the issue of homophobia, especially in American society. Responders to the cries of outrage ask why this issue seems to evoke more outcry than many others, especially in the context of concern about representations of violence in the news and in the media, of the obscenities of exploitation, civil war, rape and famine in countries of Africa and of the experiences of war, soldier children and terrorism which does not evoke the same heartfelt reactions. Irrespective of the merits or not of Brokeback Mountain, this is an important question that the release of the film raises.

The major world religions have had to discuss the issues of homosexual orientation and behaviour and how these fit with their moral codes. Brokeback Mountain, because it is sympathetic but not crusading, contributes data to this continued discussion. And that is important. Catholic teaching is quite clear. Fr Richard Leonard SJ in his review for the Australian Catholic Film Office gives a key reference for this teaching: The Catechism is very clear about the official teaching of the Catholic Church as regards homosexual acts. They are ‘intrinsically disordered’ and the inclination itself is ‘objectively disordered’ (#2357). In the next paragraph, however, the Church instructs us that gay women and men “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity” (#2358).

It seems that the relationship between Ennis and Jack is being presented with sympathy, the image of the two shirts is a powerful symbol of the love between them. Heath Ledger’s and Jake Gylenhaal’s performances make their characters and their dilemmas very real. It needs to be stressed that there is a lot more going on in the films two and a quarter hours running time besides the relationship, many more characters, including wives and families. It also needs to be stressed that there are some brief and not quite so explicit scenes that could disturb some audiences. The film also shows the consequences of Ennis’ and Jack’s adulterous behaviour and choices not only for themselves and their secretive meetings but on their families. These are issues of fidelity and commitment. The treatment of Ennis’s relationship with his wife and his children shows Ennis’s inadequacies as husband and parent, with understanding and sympathy as well as criticism.

The plot of Brokeback Mountain is controversial, certainly, in today’s moral climate and needs to be discussed with both discernment and compassion.

1.The acclaim for the film? Awards? Direction, performance, photography, musical score, direction?

2.The controversies that the film raised? About sexual politics? About religion and stances on sexuality? The protests?

3.The adaptation by Larry McMurtry? of the short story? His imagination for expanding it?

4.The scope: the places, the times? A piece of Americana, 1960s to 1980s? In the perspective of the beginning of the 21st century?

5.The location photography, the mountains and the beauty, nature, rugged? The contrast with the dusty towns? Wyoming, Texas? The contrasts? The American west in the 20th century?

6.The role of cowboys in 1963, herding the sheep, odd jobs, seasonal? On the move, the background of farm work, rodeos? With their vehicles, camping gear? The tradition of the 19th century, hard work, isolation?

7.The story of this love between Ennis and Jack, in the middle of the beauty of nature? The film’s comment on the relationship?

8.The re-creation of period, the costumes, décor, haircuts…? The musical score?

9.The manager, his arrival at his caravan, the interiors, his interviewing for jobs, the discussions with Ennis and Jack? The demands he made on them? His watching them and their relationship? His holding it against them? His dismissing Jack and not employing him? The stances of the 1960s face to face with this kind of relationship?

10.Ennis, his arrival, sitting and waiting? Jack in his truck? The interviews for the jobs, meeting each other, the commission to look after the sheep, the summer, the rules set down? Organising themselves, the sheep, keeping away the foxes, the camp, meals, supplies? The bear spooking the donkey and their losing the food? Washing in the stream? Keeping watch over the sheep?

11.The beginnings of the relationship? Their talking, Ennis talking more than he normally would? Not realising how sympathetic a listener Jack was? Jack and his interest? The glimpses of Ennis washing? The cold? Coming down from the mountain, staying the night? Jack and his sexual approach? Ennis’s quick response? The aftermath?

12.Homosexuality, in Ennis, latent? His not knowing? His harsh childhood, parents killed in an accident, his brother and sister, by himself? His reaction to the episode, saying that it was a one-off, in denial? Yet the tenderness? The difference with Jack, Jack and his knowing, his background? Family, the ranch, helping out, the rodeo? Together on the mountain, the intimacy, the horseplay, the sharing? Their being lax about the sheep, the fox killing the sheep? The final round-up, coming down from the mountain, not knowing that the manager had seen them?

13.The parting, laconic, the cowboy way? The emotional effect on Ennis, his going into the side street, retching? Moved? His missing his shirt? His later discovering that Jack had taken it? Seeing the shirt inside the shirt later? The postcards and the minimal communication?

14.Ennis, meeting Alma, thinking that he should get married, courting her, the wedding? The early years, the poverty, the hard life, his being a workaholic, work and avoiding home life? The birth of the girls? The details of the family life together? Jack’s card, his visit? Alma and her tension, seeing them kiss? Alma in herself, loving wife, hard-working, a loving mother? Working in the supermarket? The attentions of the manager? The tensions, Ennis always having to go off, her wanting him to take responsibility? His inability to support the family? The passing of the years, the tensions, Jack’s visits? The official divorce? Alma and her remarrying, her relationship with her daughters, the family scenes, the meals with Ennis visiting? The daughters and their father? Their love for their father? Alma and her comment on the fishing gear, that she had checked it and that they had never caught any fish?

15.Jack’s life, the rodeo circuit, seeing the girl, her hard riding, the drinks, her flirting, the sexual encounter, his hesitation? The marriage? Prosperous, the hard work, the farming gear? The father and his pride, his wife? Jack’s son, driving him in the engines? The years passing? The tension at the Thanksgiving dinner, the son watching the television, Jack turning it off, the father-in-law turning it on again, Jack defying him, speaking to him straight? Taking for granted his wife? Her being busy about the business? Not suspecting? Whether he loved her or not? The self-assertion, the drifting apart? Her knowledge of his going off to visit Ennis?

16.The visits, Ennis and his longing for the visits, Jack and his dependence on them? The time between them? Affection, sexual encounters? At the river, in the middle of nature, diving naked from the cliff? The visits over twenty years? The gradual tension? Jack proposing that they form the ranch together? Ennis’s refusal? His excuses? His still being in denial about his orientation and relationship?

17.Ennis and the waitress, flirting, discussions, her hoping to marry? Her being upset when he rejected her? Ennis and the visit of his daughter Alma, the bonds between them, talking? His distance from his wife and family?

18.The news of Jack’s death, the previous story of the homophobic bashing? The story that Jack was killed while changing a tyre, Ennis presuming that he was murdered? The visual suggestions of this? The pathos of Jack’s life, his death? His relationship with his wife, son, his visit to Mexico and the prostitute? His discussions with Ennis about this, needs, fidelity?

19.Ennis and the impact of Jack’s death, his having settled, his caravan? Visiting Jack’s wife, the discussions, her attitude, the issue of the ashes? Going to visit Jack’s parents, laconic, the ashes and the issue of where they should be buried or scattered? The role of Brokeback Mountain? The mother’s inviting Ennis to see Jack’s room, his discovery of the shirts?

20.The twenty years, Ennis’s regrets, grief, the symbol of Brokeback Mountain and the 1963 experience?

21.How sympathetic was the film to the relationship, love and tenderness? Public opinion? Moral issues and stances? The depiction of the relationship – and responses for and against?