Film Review of Brokeback Mountain
After 4 years apart, Ennis is
contacted by Jack to say that he is coming through and would like to meet. Ennis agrees, explaining to his wife that an old fishing buddy is coming into town. When Ennis and Jack meet again they passionately embrace in a hidden spot, however Elma sees them and is shocked. The two men leave quickly for their 'fishing trip.' These fishing trips become a regular occurrence twice a year. Ennis and Alma's marriage slowly deteriorates and they get divorced with Alma having custody over the two girls. On hearing this news, Jack rushes up to Wyoming in the hope that he and Ennis can have the life the life that they hoped for, living in a ranch in the mountains together. Jack's marriage has also started to deteriorate, although he is not divorced. Ennis however is faced with the reality of rising debt and having to pay child support and take care of his children. He also refuses as he is concerned with the consequences of being found to be queer in the community. Jack leaves upset and goes to Mexico in order to satisfy his desire, Ennis in the mean time have a fling with a waitress and thus sees Jack less. In the hope of meeting up with Jack again, Ennis sends a postcard, that gets returned because Jack has died. Ennis calls Lureen in order to find out some news, she tells Ennis that Jack died changing a tyre on his car, when in reality he was attacked because of his sexual orientation (just the thing that Ennis was concerned about.) Ennis goes to see Jack's parents in the hope of taking his ashes up to Brokeback Mountain. Once there he finds, his and Jack's shirts from the summer that they worked together. Ennis takes the shirts with him home to is simplistic mobile home. He is visited by his daughter, who is soon to be married. She leaves and Ennis is left looking at the two shirts and a picture of Brokeback Mountain thinking of Jack.
This movie was interesting, I agreed with some of the ways in which homosexuality was portrayed, but I also did not agree with a lot of what was implied. I felt that this movie did a good job of displaying two non-stereotypical homosexual characters, as they were both quite 'manly' men who did not act in the stereotypically homosexual way, the only way of telling that they were homosexual was the interactions that they had with each other and some of the comments spoken. I thought this was a good portrayal as it showed the audience, that all homosexual men do not act in the same way and that you cannot, always 'tell' who is homosexual. This also gave the portrayal that anyone could be homosexual no matter what their background, occupation, etc. However I did not agree with the way that homosexuality was seen as being all situation, Ennis and Jack both denied that they were 'queer' in the movie, yet the summer together alone in the mountains, made them attracted to each other. This movie shows their homosexuality to almost just be a fluke, at least for Ennis he goes back to 'normality' of heterosexuality, after the summer and only has homosexual thoughts and emotions for Jack. Jack is the more homosexual of the two as he has other interactions through out the movie and he is the one who wants to live with Ennis. The movie did not make homosexuality seem normal, it was seen as something that caused a lot of problems in the mens lives and they had to keep it secret in order to survive. The two men had to keep up appearances by having a normal heterosexual family. The movie did not have a build up of their relationship, both men were just kind of thrust into it. Their first sexual interaction seemed rather violent and unpleasant as though emphasizing how difficult homosexuality is and how it is undesirable.
The movie also portrays homosexual relationships as though they are unwanted and doomed to fail. Ennis did not want to make a longterm commitment to Jack, even though he had feelings for him, because of the ridicule and prejudice that he was concerned they would receive. In the end his worst fears came true as Jack was beaten to death for being homosexual. Although I think the intent of the people making the film for showing this may have been to show historically the animosity that was directed to homosexuals and how they were not accepted by society. I also think that this reinforces the negative stereotype. The people making the film, may have been trying to be sympathetic to homosexual individuals and may have been trying to give an accurate representation, however I feel that some of the animosity still exists in society, so maybe it was too soon, as it may have just reinforced the negative stereotypes in some peoples minds.
Also the two homosexual men in this movie are also seen as selfish, as they may be seen as wanting what is best for themselves and not caring about their families. This is shown by the way that Ennis is willing to take a week off work and not worry about the consequences in order to see Jack, yet he will not take an afternoon off so that his wife can work and he can take care of the kids. Also Jack is seen driving to see Ennis more than he is seen taking care of his family. Now this may have been to emphasize the love that they have for each other, however I feel that some audiences might interpret this negatively and they might not trust homosexual individuals because of this representation. Also it might be important to note that both Ennis and Jack are from almost marginalized societies in the US, Ennis perhaps is seen as more uneducated and young as he was engaged at just 19. Jack is also has not a lot of family support and fends for himself through rodeo, etc. This also emphasizes the fact that homosexual individuals are not seen as 'mainstream.'
I think the message that the people producing the film were trying to portray was the fact that anyone can be homosexual, but that homosexuality is not fully accepted by society, so they often try to hide it or make themselves to be something that they are not just to try and fit in. This fear of homosexuality is so ingrained in society that even the men themselves do not want to identify as being 'queer' with one of them (Ennis) trying repeatedly try to have heterosexual relationships. In the end the impact and oppression from society is so great that their relationship fails and one even ends up dying.
Although I think this is the intended message of the film, I feel like it could be extremely misinterpreted by the audience depending on their beliefs and ideas about individuals who are homosexual. They could either see it as an endearing failed love story full of struggle and injustice or at the other end of the spectrum they could see it as a justification for what they see as everything that is bad about being homosexual (e.g. doomed to fail, situational (not real), bad for others, selfish, etc.) I also think that these two characters could have been bisexual, instead of homosexual so there is a misrepresentation by the media of sexual orientation, although as these characters are not really we have no way of asking them how they identify.
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