BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005)

Twenty years ago, this tragic romantic drama took the world by storm by becoming a suprise international box office hit along with garnering massive acclaim.  It even eventually won a few Academy awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Socre, and most importantly Best Director for Ang Lee who was coming off of directing two more action-oriented blockbusters before this, Hulk and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  This film's story focuses on two ranchhands just trying to make a living as they embark on herding a massive flock of sheep around the titular Brokeback Mountain.  They are Ennis DelMar (Heath Ledger nominated for his performance) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal, also nominated for his) and over severals alone together on this journey, they develop a friendship which eventually becomes something more....

And then we watch over the next twenty years as they keep periodically meeting up even as their lives get increinaly complicated with jobs, marriages, kids, and feelings. :o What results is a beautifully crafted tragic love story which not only broke some barriers given its subject matter but also built up a strong legacy over time as one of a select few modern classics which infamously lost the Best Picture Oscar to a far inferior film. (Crash)  What better way to kick off Pride Month 2025 than to revisit this iconic love story! 

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Transcript

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - 2005

Directed by Ang Lee

Starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris, David Harbour, Roberta Maxwell, Kate Mara, Peter McRobbie, Graham Beckel, and Randy Quaid

Genre: Romantic Drama (Audio clip)

On the surface of things, this SHOULD be a difficult film to have an objective opinion about....through no fault of its own. Twenty years ago, it garnered a lot of acclaim but also a good amount of snarky derision even from folks who liked it, referring to it as the "Gay Cowboy Movie." 🙄And lord knows that over this same time period, just the word "Brokeback" has become a common prefix to signify something....specific....within movie lore along the lines of "Electric Boogaloo." It's silly and lazy but all too predictable because after all, it can often suck to be FIRST. 

When some one or something breaks through barriers, there's always been backlash and/or mockery to come. Even though technically.....this was far from being THE first gay-themed mainstream hit or Oscar-winner for that manner. I mean you could go back decades...Midnight Cowboy, Making Love, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Philadelphia, The Birdcage, My Beautiful Laundrette.....it's a pretty long list though several were often masked under different genres such as farce or courtroom drama, etc. But I guess rewatching it now probably for the first time since first seeing it in '05, I can now see even more clearly what director Ang Lee and co-writers Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana were going for....and it was infact pretty unique.

The late, great Roger Ebert kind of nailed it with his take (which he was good at) that what makes this tragic love story of Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) so special is how specific its story is and how it's told. 

"The more specific a film is, the more universal, because the more it understands individual characters, the more it applies to everyone." 

Yup couldn't have said it better myself so I won't even bother. 🙂 Neither Ennis nor Jack are presented as stand-ins for any particular type of category of individual, there is no overriding "message" of the movie, and there is never a plea for tolerance from any one on-screen....nor should there need to be. Yes there are societal circumstances which likely played a big part (their story kicks off in 1963) in preventing these two from finding happiness together but the focus remains on each of them for the entire 135 minute runtime....the efforts they make to connect along with the mistakes they make along the way. :/ 

Ledger got the lion's share of praise at the time and as his performance is just SO unique....he's just a walking contradiction: walks, stands, and initially presents himself as an upright, confident cowboy and yet he has the awkward smile of a nervous toddler and BARELY opens his mouth whenever he speaks! 😆 He's a wounded soul from the get-go and even though we DO witness him reach out to Jack, we also know this is simply NOT some one wired to maintain a relationship with anybody....let alone his actual wife. And that makes this story's (and his) gut-punch ending all the more powerful....

Of course, Gyllenhaal's Jack (who is arguably the co-lead even though he received a Supporting Oscar nod) is essential to carrying this story as much as Ledger. His character is more of a stand-up guy, more honest about his feelings....we of course feel HIS heartbreak building over the course of the midsection of the movie. He truly cares for Ennis but he also does care for his wife (Anne Hathaway whose performance REALLY comes together in the end) and child. Jack MIGHT not be built to pull this off with Ennis....he's simply not as mature nor as patient as he thinks himself to be. But dammit, he at least wants to TRY! Like all of his best performances in movies as diverse as Nightcrawler, Love and Other Drugs, and Zodiac, Gyllenhaal brings an unmistakably relentlessness energy to this character which draws you in....the contrast between him and Ledger could not be more stark and yet you completely buy how they're drawn to each other.  The film is also beautifully shot thanks to four-time Oscar nominee DP Rodrigo Prieto (Killers of the Flower Moon, Wolf of Wall Street, Barbie) who is ALSO due. ;) 

And as compelling as the on-again-off-again romance is between Jack and Ennis throughout….I believe that it’s the final twenty or so minutes which is TRULY when this film cements its status as a modern classic. Ledger just becomes all the more wrenching to watch, he definitely sticks the landing with a conclusion to his character which could have come off as mawkish in lesser hands. And leading up to that, he has plenty of help as everyone he encounters on-screen brings their A-game from Hathaway over the phone to young Kate Mara as his daughter to Peter McRobbie and Roberta Maxwell as Jake's parents. 🤫 Undoubtedly the ending of this movie is pitch-perfect - you can't pull off an epic romantic weepie without one and this one remains one of the best. It's both specific to its characters AND universal....that's what keeps this one special. 🤗

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

One of this film’s secret weapons has to be the guitar-laden countryish score from Oscar-winner Gustavo Santolalla who came to us STRAIGHT out of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Imagine my delight to learn from his IMDB that he’s also responsible for another low-key, melancholy guitar theme which I can NEVER seem to get out of my head…..yes that would be the theme for the The Last Of Us games and TV show, of COURSE! (Audio clip)  

And his music here genuinely sneaks up on you as the film progresses. It's just over an hour into the movie – I believe at the end of their second reunion - when we start hearing that now iconic, moving 15 note main theme.  And for the remainder of the film,  it never lets go through until we hear it over the final image….and THREE heartbreaking words which SHOULD have won Heath Ledger the Oscar that year….the way his face breaks and the camera pans past the closet door to his window….this track is called, “The Wings.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

This isn’t so much about wasted talent as the DISCOVERY of talent but yes, Michelle Williams playing Alma was a true revelation at the time....this was only a few years removed from her long-running stint on "Dawson's Creek" and truly a breakout dramatic role for her as it would be the first of five (!) performances she has received Oscar nominations for. (Yes she's due at this point) Her performance is painfully effective with just how little is said by her as she realizes that her husband is a broken man whose heart is elsewhere....and we just can't help but feel for her. Though GOOD for her at least for finding the nice supermarket owner (Marty Antonini) to rebound with after their divorce. :) 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Of all of the actors who truly come through in the clutch towards the end of the film, I have to single out  Roberta Maxwell playing Jack’s mom.  In what I believe could be this film’s most emotionally charged sequence, she simply destroys over about five minutes of runtime at Jack's childhood home where Ennis visits....he just put Jacks’s shirt closely up to his face and then the way she looks at Ennis as she packs her son's shirt in a shopping bag, you can see different degrees of both longing and regret on both of their faces…..it MIGHT be the most powerful moment among several towards the end.  (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

The whole Oscar brouhaha regarding this movie has already been discussed and dissected ad nauseum so I doubt that there is much I can add to it…..YES this deserved to win over Crash.  And YES the Academy was foolish to snub it and I’m sure there was a lot of homophobia behind it….yes even within the film industry, it’s always been there too even as it’s slowly getting better.  But honestly, I can now look upon this film’s Best Picture loss as an eventual blessing-in-disguise – I LOVE the Oscars but over my lifetime, I have seen the legacy of many a modern masterpiece actually GROW MORE after losing Best Picture, especially when they lose to a clearly more inferior film that year.  I’ve witnessed it happen with Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, The Social Network….and this film as well.   

Though gratefully, one individual whom the Academy did NOT snub that same year was Ang Lee – he deservedly won the Oscar for Best Director, the first of two he would win for that category….the next one being seven years later for The Life of Pi, which I STILL haven’t seen.  But having seen most of his more mainstream films in the lead-up to this – The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and the controversial kick-0ff film for today’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, 2003’s BIZARRE but interesting nonetheless HULK – this very much feels like a culmination….the BEST examination of what’s clearly a common theme among such a disparate grouping of films: REPRESSED EMOTIONS and the toll it takes on those who can’t handle expressing their emotions.  I mean whether you get there via Jane Austen or Stan Lee, that’s the common thread and it’s explored just beautifully this time through the stories of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist.  For helming what I believe is his true MASTERPIECE, Ang Lee is the MVP. (Audio clip) 

Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

Happy Twentieth Anniversary to a true modern masterpiece and to all who celebrate, may you have a joyous Pride Month 2025! 

Streaming on Prime Video & WatchTCM

Also Theatrical Re-Release Coming in Late June

And that ends another NEVER ENOUGH TIME NEVER review!