HOLLYWOOD HUES
Troubled affair

Brokeback Mountain raises a few questions. But there are no answers in this much-overrated film, writes Ervell E. Menezes

TAKE two 19-year-old ranch hands (read cowboys) Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and pitch them into the biting cold of the Wyoming mountainside. They are paid to keep the sheep away from the wolves but loneliness becomes a problem. Despite claiming not to be gays they drift into a gay relationship that lasts for decades, even after their respective marriages. That’s Brokeback Mountain, the most-talked about movie of this year’s Oscars.

The year is 1963, when gay was still a hush-hush subject. So, how do they deal with their predicament? "If this thing gets us holed up, it’s the wrong thing and the wrong time," says Ennis, the less loquacious of the two but Jack, more deeply into it, makes no bones of his plight when he candidly admits "you have no idea how hard it gets."

How strong is this gay thing? Or is it merely male bonding? That is the question? Is gay being underplayed because it was underplayed in those years? Hong Kong-born director Ang Lee, known more for his action films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, does his best to keep the subject almost under wraps. Apart from a single scene, which is believed to be shot-for-shot out of Annie Prolux’s short story, on which the film is based, it is more cerebral — a strong undertone. And yet Lee won the Best Director Oscar for it.

Frankly, Brokeback Mountain is a much-overrated film because of the pre-Oscars hype it received. Does one hear someone say "but that’s what the Oscars are all about." Yes, quite truly. The film begins rather pedestrianly as we get Ennis and Jake embark on their mountainous quest after taking orders from their crusty boss (Randy Quaid). The outdoors are shot caressingly by a Spanish newcomer but he lost out to Don Beebe (Memoirs of a Geisha) in the Oscars race.

After their initial sortie, the film lopes into fast forward mode as life moves on. Ennis marries (Michelle Williams), has two daughters and goes through hard times to make ends meet. Jack does likewise (Ann Hathaway), has it a bit better, except for his rich and pompous pa-in-law. Then their parleys put a spoke into their respective marriages.

It is only in the last quarter that the film really catches on. That is when; despite their separate doubts they find the strength of their relationship. But is it too late? "It’s more than two gay cowboys roaming the landscape. It’s about how secrets that make it last," says actor Jack Gyllenhaal in an interiview. Though Gyllenhaal has been known to portray surely, introspective teenagers in the past it is Heath Ledger who has the more challenging role but Gyllenhaal is not far behind. They keep the film going and of the others only Michelle Williams does anything of note.

American playwright Sandy Dixon (who hails from Wyoming), among others, feels that the gay element is tarnishing the image of the good old cowboy, but that’s a matter of conjecture. Westerns in the past have alluded to it like Red River and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And with gaydom out of the closet today, such subjects are inevitable.

To be fair to Brokeback Mountain it raises a few questions. Is it anti-women? Has the pendulum swung right back after women’s lib? Is male camaraderie returning? But there are no answers in this much-overrated film.

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