Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by Ossana and Larry McMurtry. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams. Its plot depicts the complex romantic relationship between two American cowboys, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, in the American West from 1963 to 1983.
For other uses, see Brokeback Mountain (disambiguation).Brokeback Mountain
- Diana Ossana
- James Schamus
- September 2, 2005 (Venice)
- December 9, 2005 (United States)
134 minutes[1]
United States
English
$14 million[2]
$178 million[2]
Lee became attached to the project in 2001 after previous attempts to adapt Proulx's story into a film did not materialize. Focus Features and River Road Entertainment would jointly produce and distribute the film. After Ledger and Gyllenhaal's casting was announced in 2003, filming commenced in various locations in Alberta in 2004. Brokeback Mountain premiered at the 2005 Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, and was released to theaters on December 9 that year.
The film received widespread critical acclaim, with high praise for the performances of Ledger and Gyllenhaal, and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing over $178 million worldwide against its $14 million budget. At the 78th Academy Awards, Brokeback Mountain was nominated for Best Picture and won for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Original Score. It garnered seven nominations at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, and won four awards. At the 59th British Academy Film Awards, Brokeback Mountain was nominated for nine awards, winning Best Film, Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Gyllenhaal).
Brokeback Mountain was subject to controversies; its loss to Crash (2004) for the Academy Award for Best Picture, subsequent censorship, and criticism from conservative media outlets received significant attention. The sexuality of the main characters has been subject to discussion. Brokeback Mountain has also been regarded as a turning point for the advancement of queer cinema into the mainstream. It has since been considered to be one of the best films of the 2000s and of all time.[3][4][5] In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot[edit]
In Wyoming in 1963, cowboys Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are hired by foreman Joe Aguirre to herd his sheep through the summer on grazing pastures on Brokeback Mountain. After a night of heavy drinking, Jack makes a pass at Ennis. While initially reluctant, Ennis becomes receptive, and he and Jack have sex in their tent. Despite Ennis telling Jack that it was a one-time incident, they develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Before parting ways, Ennis and Jack have a brawl that leaves both of them bloodied. Ennis later marries his longtime fiancée Alma Beers and has two daughters with her: Alma Jr. and Jenny. Jack returns the next summer seeking work, but Aguirre, who had observed Jack and Ennis engaging in homosexual activity on the mountain, refuses to hire him again. Jack moves to Texas, where he meets wealthy rodeo rider Lureen Newsome; they marry and have a son.
After four years apart, Jack visits Ennis. Upon meeting, the two passionately kiss, which a stunned Alma inadvertently witnesses. In the privacy of a motel room, Jack broaches the subject of creating a life with Ennis on a ranch, but Ennis refuses, as he is unwilling to abandon his family and is haunted by a childhood memory of his father showing him the body of a man who was tortured and killed for suspected homosexuality. Ennis and Jack continue to infrequently meet for private fishing trips while their respective marriages deteriorate. Lureen abandons the rodeo and goes into business with her father, which causes Jack to work in sales. Alma and Ennis divorce in 1975. Upon hearing about the divorce, Jack drives to Wyoming and tells Ennis that they should live together, but Ennis refuses to move away from his children. Upset, Jack finds solace with male prostitutes in Mexico.
Alma takes custody of Alma Jr. and Jenny, and marries Monroe, manager of the grocery store where she works as a clerk. Ennis visits them during a Thanksgiving dinner. In the kitchen, when Alma and Ennis are alone, she confronts him about the true nature of his relationship with Jack. The two spar, causing Ennis to storm out and cease contact with Alma. Ennis has a short-lived romantic relationship with a waitress named Cassie. Jack and Lureen befriend another couple, Randall and Lashawn Malone, and it is implied that Jack and Randall have a brief affair. At the end of a fishing trip, Ennis tells Jack that he cannot see him again before November due to work demands. The pair argue, blaming each other for their not being together. Ennis begins to cry, and Jack embraces him.
Sometime later, Ennis receives a returned postcard that he had sent to Jack, stamped with "Deceased". Ennis calls Jack's phone number, and Lureen picks up the call. She tells Ennis that Jack died in an accident from drowning in his own blood after a car tire exploded in his face. While she is describing what happened, Ennis envisions a group of men brutally beating Jack to death with a tire iron. Lureen tells Ennis that Jack wanted to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain, and Ennis visits Jack's parents in hopes of carrying out that wish. Jack's father refuses and contends that Jack's ashes will be interred in a family plot. Jack's mother tells Ennis that he is welcome to go to Jack's bedroom upstairs, if he wants. Ennis goes there alone, and in the closet, he finds the shirts which the two cowboys wore during their brawl long back, with Ennis's shirt inside Jack's. Ennis holds the shirts to his face, inhales deeply, and silently weeps. When Ennis returns downstairs, Jack's mother sees him holding the two shirts, and allows him to keep them.
Later, a 19-year-old Alma Jr. arrives at Ennis's trailer to tell him that she is engaged to Kurt, a man who works in the oil fields. She asks for his blessing and invites him to the wedding. Ennis briefly hesitates due to his work commitments, but then he agrees to attend the wedding. Once Alma Jr. leaves, Ennis goes to the closet where the two shirts hang together, though now Jack's shirt is inside Ennis's. Next to them, tacked to the closet door, is a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. With tears in his eyes, he stares at the mementos, and says, "Jack, I swear..."
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
The film received a limited release in the United States on December 9, 2005,[42] and grossed $547,425 in its first weekend.[43] Over the Christmas weekend, and beginning of January 2006, the film expanded into more domestic theaters. On January 20, the film opened in 1,194 theaters, then 1,652 theaters on January 27, and 2,089 theaters on February 3, its widest release.[43]
Brokeback Mountain was released in one theater in London on December 30 and received a wider release in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2006.[44][45] The film was released in France on January 18, to 155 theaters, expanding to 290 by the third week. In its first week of release, Brokeback Mountain was in third place at the French box office. In Italy, the film grossed more than €890,000 in three days and was the fourth highest-grossing film in its first week.[43] The film was released in Australia on January 26, where it ranked fourth place at the weekend box office. Brokeback Mountain was released in many other countries during the first three months of 2006.[46] During its first week of release in Hong Kong, Brokeback Mountain was ranked first place at the box office, earning more than US$473,868 ($22,565 per theater).[47] The film opened in Lee's native Taiwan on January 20. The film grossed $83 million in North America and $95 million internationally, for a worldwide $178 million. It is the highest-grossing release for Focus Features.[43][48]
International distribution[edit]
The film has been given different titles in accordance to different languages and regions. For the film's release in French and Italian, it was titled Le Secret de Brokeback Mountain and I segreti di Brokeback Mountain (The Secret(s) of Brokeback Mountain), respectively.[49][50] In Canadian French, the title is Souvenirs de Brokeback Mountain (Memories of Brokeback Mountain).[51][52] The film received two Spanish titles: Brokeback Mountain: En terreno vedado (In a forbidden terrain) for its release in Spain[53] and Secreto en la Montaña (Secret in the mountain) for its release in Latin America.[54] In Hungarian, the title was Túl a barátságon (Beyond friendship).[55]
Discussion on characters' sexuality[edit]
Critics and the cast and crew disagreed as to whether the film's two protagonists were homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, or should be free of any sexual orientation classification. The film was frequently referred to in the media as the "gay cowboy movie", but a number of reviewers noted that both Jack and Ennis were bisexual.[128][129][130] Sex researcher Fritz Klein said that the film was "a nice film with two main characters who were bisexual" and suggested that the character of Jack is more "toward the gay side" of the spectrum and Ennis is "a bit more toward the straight side".[131]
Gyllenhaal said in 2006 that Ennis and Jack were straight men who "develop this love, this bond," saying in a Details interview: "I approached the story believing that these are actually two straight guys who fall in love."[131] However, in 2015, he told The Hollywood Reporter that this was a "gay love story", and that his character was the more "overtly gay" of the two.[132] Ledger told Time magazine in 2005: "I don't think Ennis could be labeled as gay. Without Jack Twist, I don't know that he ever would have come out. I think the whole point was that it was two souls that fell in love with each other."[133]
Others said they felt the characters' sexuality was meant to be ambiguous. Clarence Patton and Christopher Murray of New York's Gay City News wrote that Ennis and Jack's experiences were metaphors for "many men who do not identify as gay or even queer, but who nevertheless have sex with other men".[134] Entertainment Weekly wrote that "everyone called it 'The Gay Cowboy Movie' until they saw it. In the end, Ang Lee's 2005 love story wasn't gay or straight, just human."[106] Tom Ciorciari of EFilmCritic.com wrote: "We later see Jack eagerly engage Lureen sexually, with no explanation as to whether he is bisexual, so in need of physical intimacy that anyone, regardless of gender, will do, or merely very adept at faking it."[135]
LGBT non-fiction author Eric Marcus dismissed "talk of Ennis and Jack being anything but gay as box office-influenced political correctness intended to steer straight audiences to the film". Roger Ebert believed that both characters were gay, but doubted it themselves: "Jack is able to accept a little more willingly that he is inescapably gay."[136] Producer James Schamus said, "I suppose movies can be Rorschach tests for all of us, but damn if these characters aren't gay to me."[131] Brokeback Mountain author Annie Proulx said, "how different readers take the story is a reflection of their own personal values, attitudes, hang-ups."[137][138]
When Ledger and Gyllenhaal were asked if they feared being cast in controversial roles, Ledger stated that he was not afraid of the role, but rather he was concerned that he would not be mature enough as an actor to do the story justice. Gyllenhaal has stated that he is proud of the film and his role, regardless of what the reactions would be. He thinks rumors of him being bisexual are flattering, stating: "I'm open to whatever people want to call me. I've never really been attracted to men sexually, but I don't think I would be afraid of it if it happened."[139] Lee described himself as shy upon shooting the first sex scene and found it initially, technically difficult but praised Ledger and Gyllenhaal for their professionalism.[140] Ledger's performance was described by Luke Davies as a difficult and empowering portrayal given the environment of the film: "In Brokeback Mountain the vulnerability, the potential for danger, is so great – a world so masculine it might destroy you for any aberration – that [Ledger's] real brilliance was to bring to the screen a character, Ennis Del Mar, so fundamentally shut down that he is like a bible of unrequited desires, stifled yearnings, lost potential."[141]
Author Jim Kitses quoted Diana Ossana's acknowledgement of how the film "subverts the myth of the American West and its iconic heroes."[142] He commented: "What drives the emotional attack of the film is the inadequacy of its characters to articulate and understand, let alone control, the experience that strikes them like a storm. American cowboys—of all people—have no business falling in love with each other. Practical and conservative types of a rough and ready manhood are by no means ready for man-love."[142]