Brokeback Mountain is One of the Most Beautiful Movies ever made
Brokeback Mountain is one of the most beautiful pieces of art ever made, just thinking about it makes me tear up. Often known as the 'Gay Cowboy Movie', it's really more than just a pro-lgbt movie. It boldly presents a philosophy of how to lead life, and the excruciating consequences of not following your heart.
It follows 2 cowboys, Jack and Ennis, who work together for a few months, fall in love, and then go their separate ways. They both try to lead normal heterosexual lives, marrying a wife and raising kids. But of course, desire for each other still lingers. And so they meet up secretly a few times a year. Jack wants to live together, but Ennis isn't willing, afraid they'd be found out and killed, and so they continue leading their regular heterosexual lives.
Why is the movie so great? Because it displays in excruciating detail the consequences of repressing your emotions in the name of safety and stability. The first 40 minutes of the movie the 2 cowboys fall in love in the mountains. The next 2 hours of the film it shows both of the cowboys' lives, spanning across 20 years, as they both try to navigate regular heterosexual lives with a wife and kids. And this artifice eats at their soul, as they slowly become more agitated and destructive.
Jack snaps at his father-in-law because the father wants to keep the TV on during dinner. Ennis punches a guy who's talking too loudly in a New Year's eve celebration. Ennis gets a divorce, almost hits his ex-wife when she reveals she knew about his gay relationship. Ennis is quiet, head down and disinterested, even as an attractive, kind female tries to flirt with him.
Actors Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jack, and Heath Ledger plays Ennis. Jack Gyllenhaal is great. Heath Ledger is transcendent. Of course Heath Ledger is most well known for his performance as The Joker in 'The Dark Knight', but I think his performance in Brokeback is his best work. The nuance of expression as you see a man repressing his emotions and desire to be with Jack, as it slowly eats him up, and occasionally spills out in spurts of shouting, violence and tears. Both the technical virtuosity of an actor to convey the subtleties of that character, as well as the unprecedented courage to be willing to express that much pain and vulnerability in front of everyone. It is an unparalleled performance, one of the best in cinema's history.
Watching Brokeback Mountain is a transcendent experience, deceptively small in scale, yet boldly ambitious in its message. It shows how not following your heart in one area, leads to you never doing what you really want in all other aspects of your life (your career, your other relationships with family and friends ...) And by the end, we realise that if we lead an artificial life never doing what we truly desire, what's the point of even living?