← Back to Reviews
 

Brokeback Mountain


Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Directed by Ang Lee

"I wish I knew how to quit you."



Chinese director Ang Lee has a way of changing people lives with his movies. I remember when I was a kid seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time. It was the first subtitled movie I had ever seen, and I enjoyed every minute of it. My father was very much into Asian cinema, and he also showed me House of Flying Daggers. Since then, I wanted more. Later on in life I would see Life of Pi, and that changed the whole way I looked at special effects and storytelling. I wanted MORE MORE MORE.

Ang Lee had already changed my life twice, so later on (a couple days prior to writing this) I decided to go on an Ang Lee binge. Now I actually have a reason to watch Gemini Man. I watched two specific movies of his in a period of two days, and twice over because I had already seen Crouching Tiger and Hulk twice, and I was already planning on checking out Life of Pi again. These two movies are Sense and Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain, one of the most controversial movies of all time.

Brokeback Mountain is the forbidden love story about two ranchers who end up drunk one night and have sex. Although they both seem to be straight, they end up forming a relationship throughout their entire stay at Brokeback Mountain. Despite this, one of them, Ennis, was already engaged. So as they go their separate ways and raise their families, they occasionally get back to Brokeback Mountain for a while. But soon they find that they can't maintain their relationships with each other and with their wives.

First off, lemma say that I am NOT a homophobe, I don't think adult sex with another adult should be something to complain about unless it gets "out of hand" in some way, and I didn't have a problem watching this. I'm aware of much of the controversy surrounding this movie, notably its loss of the best picture award at the Academy Awards to Paul Haggis' Crash. Even Haggis admits that he didn't think Crash was the best of the year, but he's glad that people still come to him telling him how the movie changed their lives. Despite this, the decision at the Oscars, as expected, was criticized as potential homophobia.

But the most interesting thing about Ang Lee movies is which is the best and which is not. With most directors, they'll have a certain "magnum opus." For Coppola, most agree that it's The Godfather. Most places will tell you that 2001 is Kubrick's baby, and let's not get into Goodfellas. But deciding the best Ang Lee movie on a consistent basis is like trying to pick out the best Beatles album. I'm gonna throw in my two cents.

First, let me say that Ang Lee always had either a keen sense of realism or a keen sense of magical realism, such as the difference between Brokeback and Pi. After having watched Pather Panchali more than a week ago, I'm more in-tune with realism in cinema. Brokeback Mountain is one of the most realistic movies I've ever seen, so much so that it blows most romance movies out of the water just on this merit. The struggles that the two leads go through in maintaining their relationships are perfectly exposed by the expressions and performances of Gyllenhall and Ledger to the point where you almost feel like one of them, gay or not. I just invision a woman in my significant other's position, even though I won't be able to meet the same type of struggle because I'm straight. It's a very feely movie, if I may avoid any sex puns. For it's realism, I'll call it a definite classic of the genre.

But the movie isn't without its flaws. When watching Sense and Sensibility, I noticed pretty early on how all the minor characters flaunt their personalities, giving them a decent sense of development. This brought a lot of life to the movie. Even Life of Pi gives development to Pi's father, which makes him a great character overall. But...

The first act was too damn slow! It felt almost like watching a ranching documentary with no narrator. The story didn't pick up until the second half and the we had an almost perfect third act which tied it all together. But the fact is that the lacking character development for the wives and families is disappointing. I wanted to feel with everyone going through a struggle, but I couldn't because the point of every paper-cutout character was simply to say something about wither Jake or Ennis, which is a shame because so many of the characters were very well-cast to the point that I wanted to see more of how they affect Jake and Ennis' lives. They don't "come back" like the characters of Sense and Sensibility did. I understand that they are there forJake and Ennis' sakes, but the connections between them and the two leads were not thoroughly explored. As a result, I was less interested in the family scenes (although my favorite scene is when Jake tells his father-in-law off). If the first act were sped up, that extra time could be used to strenghten the relationships between the two families. If not for the great realism unlike most things I've seen in cinema or television, I'd have given this movie a 7.

Brokeback Mountain is slow to start, but it leads up to a satisfying and touching conclusion which leaves you hurt for a while. So would I say this is Ang Lee's best? Not with that slow first act. But if you're a film buff who doesn't mind homosexuality, this is a story worth watching. Because it's not just about homosexuality, it's about struggles in general. It's just so real of a movie. I've heard plenty of stories about real-life broken relationships throughout my life, and this movie is one of the closest to the sense of pain I get when hearing those kinds of stories. I'd say this is in my top 5 Ang Lee movies, but Sense and Sensibility was slightly better because the three acts did a better job of balancing out story, character development and overall consistency.