Brokeback Mountain

First of all, I can't imagine the name is just a coincidence, and you get a pretty good snapshot of the movie from the title, Brokeback Mountain - it pulls no punches, and there's no real buildup, it jumps right into its subject matter. I should not have been surprised, given that this is an Ang Lee film, that it smacks you up and downside the head with visual cinematography. That old cliche "a picture is worth a 1000 words" seems to be Lee's credo. Even though some of us take things in better in an auditory or kinetic medium, in this day and age we are pretty much all visual, we have to be...I mean the bulk of advertising is through television commercials or internet, newspaper readers/subscriptions have dropped precipitously, etc. With the crazy schedules we all call life, the quickest way to stay on top of things is through visual information. It seems like hardly anyone takes the time to write a real letter anymore, for instance. Or to take this blog, I've always been a journaler, although it had become more sporadic these past few years, but now here I am blogging away because it's faster and easier than pen and notebook.

The movie is a lot to take in all at once, and though it deals with love and fear, and the difficulties and social censorship that homosexuals must deal with...it's also a lot about sex, psychological needs, commitment issues, responsibility in relationships, rejection, denial and self acceptance, and the close-minded violence of conformity. That's a mouthful and I don't think I covered it all. Lee gets it all in there, but as a result you kind of feel like you're thrown right into the middle of it, and even now I don't think it has sunk in. It's an extremely powerful film, that will take me a while to process. Were someone to ask me now what the movie is about, or what its message is, I don't think I could do it justice. I see now why Jake Gyllenhall made a comment that he and Heath Ledger ran into each other afterward, and neither one wanted to say what he thought of it, with both of them saying something like, "I don' t know, man, what do you think?" Some of the imagery is violent and intrusive, almost making the movie-watcher feel they have been violated or assaulted, which is probably much to the point. (I'm thinking of the sheep and the imagery shown of Jack's "accident with the tire blowing up.") Though this movie was placed 3-4 decades ago, it's heartbreaking to think we live in a society where such atrocities, such fear and biggotry, still exist.

Whether this movie is having or will have any real social impact is a subject for debate, I suppose, but I'm not sure I've been this moved by a film since I saw Schindler's List... and I'm sure it deeply touches others who've seen it as well. It's a very public piece of the journey toward a widespread social acknowledgement of everyone's right to live their own life as they choose, with whom they choose. Unfortunately, I suspect it probably creates a divide between those people who already support everyone's right to their lifestyle and those who believe there is only one lifestyle-- and the latter will not be found in this movie's audience. But it is in the news, thanks to its content, and now also because of its numerous Oscar nominations, and actually from the President's State of the Union night film reel - and therefore not something that can be summarily dismissed.

If you haven't yet seen it, go see it...though I've stumbled over my tongue this entire blog, I can be clear about this...you won't be exactly the same person who went in when you walk out the theater door.