Those of us who have labeled Brokeback Mountain as “the gay cowboy love story” have it wrong – Dead Wrong. It’s not a movie about cowboys. It’s not a love story. It’s not even a movie about gay men. Instead, it’s a movie about a subject that haunts all of us regardless of gender, culture, spiritual beliefs or sexual orientation. It’s a film about isolation.
Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) has sold his mind, body and soul to the evil spirit of isolation. His life is plagued by what his wife Alma (Michelle Williams) refers to as “all that loneliness”. His isolation is captured in his posture, his body language, and especially in his heavily mumbled voice. He is truly detached from not only the world, but to his very soul.
When Ennis meets Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) on that fateful mountain, and Jack continuously presses him to engage in some sort of conversation, his isolated world is threatened. Jack possesses a force that is pushing Ennis, luring him and calling after him. Contrary to popular belief, that force is not lust, as many folks in both the Christian and secular media have perceived after witnessing the cold and blustery night in which their bodies – and souls – are joined together. The force that is drawing Ennis to Jack is the one thing that Ennis has lacked for all of his life: the desire for connection.
That’s our #1 need: Connection. Our souls desperately long for Connection – with one another as well as with the Creator. To ignore the pursuit of either connection leads to life that is characterized by isolation and withdrawal – which ultimately opens our souls to a myriad of temptations. All of our internal struggles are rooted and grounded in our willful decision to forsake connection and to dwell in isolation. One could use this argument to label homosexuality – which, due to this film, has reignited this oft-debated subject and its (unofficial) standing as The Most Sinful of All Sins - as a result of a lack of connection. But we can also conclude that our own self hatred and inferiority towards our neighbors and competitors (slander), our lust for money, power and prestige (greed), our narcissism and worship of material things (idolatry), the destruction of families at the hands of divorce (adultery), and living in a society where at the click of a button, we can download the latest Jenna Jameson porno flick (sexual immorality) are by products of the same lack of connection in our lives. If we tell the truth, all of us know full well that we need connection like fish need water to survive. If we tell a bigger truth, we’ll admit that we’re too damn scared to go after connection. So we settle for other things…like slander, greed, idolatry and sexual immorality.
Ennis Del Mar settled for a disconnected, empty marriage that is merely a substitute for what he feels is the real thing. He freely gave his body to his wife, but nothing more. During one of their love scenes, Ennis even tries to replicate the same manner of physical connection that he had up on the Mountain with Jack but to very different results. Shortly thereafter, via a postcard, the “real thing” is reintroduced back into Ennis’s life – and explained to his wife as Jack being an old “fishing buddy” We see Ennis incredibly anxious and fidgety as he waits for Jack to arrive at his apartment. When Jack’s beat up Ford truck pulls up, Ennis barrels downstairs with the anticipation of a 6 year old on Christmas morning where the two old friends hug - then embrace – then proceed to a hidden corner where they reignite their Horizontal Connection with the fury of two speeding freight trains colliding head on. It is then that we discover the first victim of their “collision”: Ennis’s wife Alma. The shock and awe that is displayed on Michelle Williams’s face alone is worthy of her freshly minted Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Her subsequent journey into a chasm of deception, betrayal and pain becomes supporting evidence of why the Academy voters should indeed cast their vote for her.
Back on that fateful mountain, Jack gives Ennis a golden opportunity to make their Horizontal Connection permanently secure. He proposes that they buy a ranch, get some horses and sheep, and live forever connected. Ennis refuses, citing his marriage, and the fear of being “outed”, as excuses to continue to live in the abyss of his own isolation and disconnection. The years pass on, Jack gets married, Ennis gets divorced and eventually hooks up with another woman - with his spirit of isolation guiding him every step of the way. That isolation ultimately destroys his new relationship as well as putting a strain on the relationship between him and his oldest daughter. But the two men still make their annual Reconnecting Summit at Brokeback Mountain. After years of these pilgrimages, Jack gives Ennis an ultimatum, one last chance to break the cycle of isolation by fulfilling their dream of being together. Ennis, once again, gives forsakes his need for Connection and the two men never see each other again. Ultimately, a tragic event forces Ennis to come to grips with his own isolation and, through the marriage of his daughter, he makes a small, yet bold step to come out of the abyss of isolation and into the realm of Connection.
While the theme of isolation struck a major chord within my soul – as I continue to struggle with the spirit of isolation in my own life and the sin by products of my decision – I strongly disagree with the mainstream critics’ view of this film being a “landmark love story”. I never got a real sense of Ennis and Jack being a “force of nature” as the tagline states. I clearly saw Ennis being trapped in his own isolation and how that led to his actions. Jack, on the other hand, was more driven toward the aforementioned “substitutes” for connection – mainly sexual immorality. The audience is not brought in deeper into his personal story in the same manner as Ennis’s. In retrospect, all I saw was a guy who likes to fool around with other guys. We are not told why his attraction exists. To be even more honest, Jack's "love" for Ennis looks more like sexual addiction.
As audiences praise this film for its unrequited love, I, on the other hand, think along the mindset that Toni Braxton and Halle Berry proclaimed so long ago in the film & soundtrack of “Boomerang”: Love Should've Brought You Home Last Night! In the case of this story, "Love" should have kept Jack away from that back alley in Mexico (those who've seen the film know what I'm talking about). "Love" would not have invited the other guy to Jack's ranch for "the weekend".
I just did not buy into the “love story” that is suggested by the film’s marketing. The classic love stories of cinema all feature deep connections by their given protagonists. In those stories, it’s the love that drives and motivates the characters, not the other stuff. In this film, our protagonists are clearly driven by other things…but love is not one of them.
I wasn’t planning on seeing this film. Honestly, all the talk about its homosexual love scenes scared me at first. In retrospect, I realize that my fears were driven by the same sort of hysteria that has folks believing that the Harry Potter movies are going to drive children headlong into witchcraft. We are so quick to pass judgment on a work of art based solely on what we’ve heard someone else say instead of having the guts to investigate for ourselves. The fact is that, while some scenes between Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal feature intense sexual situations, there are also HETEROSEXUAL sex scenes that are just as intense. In addition, the film DOES NOT show Ledger and Gyllenhaal hopping in bed with each other every 15 minutes either. Other films such as Wedding Crashers, the American Pie films, The 40 Year Old Virgin and even the Austin Powers films contain much more intense sexual content than this film does. Listening to the media had me believing otherwise. But I never would have known this had I not seen for myself. Luckily, I have good friends and film critic partners who saw the film with me and helped me to get over my unfounded (and ultimately silly) fears and trepidations.
In the end, Brokeback Mountain just may walk away with the Best Picture Oscar. I don’t think it deserves it…in fact, I think the film is one of the most overrated films I’ve ever seen. But it’s definitely not to be ignored. A landmark love story? I think not. An intriguing case study of the damage caused by a lifetime spent forsaking connection? A definite yes.
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