Brokeback Mountain (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

The two cowboys meet when they’re hired by grumpy Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid, who should have gotten more screen time), to watch over his herd of sheep on Brokeback Mountain. One cowpoke will watch over the sheep during the day while the other guards their base camp. Dependant on each other for company, the laconic Ennis and the loquacious Jack develop a friendship over meals, revealing conversations about their difficult childhoods, and long pulls of whiskey. After a heavy night of drinking, instead of returning to watch the sheep, Ennis stays in camp. Jack invites him into the tent to keep warm. Director Ang Lee shoots the ensuing love scene in shadowy darkness, so it’s hard to see what’s going on, but the grunting and heavy breathing leave no doubt. From what I could discern of Ledger’s grimacing features, love can truly hurt. (Time out for trivia: Ledger almost broke Gyllenhaal’s nose with his own during their passionate embrace.)

Soon after, Aguirre checks on the progress of his herd and sees the two men playfully wrestling. Aguirre abruptly ends the job a month early. Frustrated over the loss of work and their relationship, Jack and Ennis end up fighting, drawing blood. Jack and Ennis reluctantly separate, with Ennis returning home to marry his finance Alma Beers (played with superb country innocence by Michelle Williams). The couple struggles to raise two daughters in small town Riverton, Wyoming, and Jack quickly becomes part of Ennis’ past. Jack asks Aguirre for his job back the following summer and Aguirre gives Jack a taste of how people would react if they knew of his forbidden relationship with Ennis.

Aguirre: I ain’t got no work for you. You boys sure found a way to pass the time up there, Twist. You boys weren’t paid to let the dogs watch the sheep while you stemmed the rose.

Moving back to Texas to take up bull riding, Jack meets Lureen Newsome (a career performance by Anne Hathaway), an aggressive, rich, rodeo queen. The couple marries and has a son, and Jack becomes a salesman for Lureen’s father, who happens to hate him. Four years pass and when Jack passes through Wyoming on business, he contacts Ennis. When the two men embrace, seemingly out of view, Alma sees them. In the next moment, Alma’s world collapses. She becomes argumentative and distant, yet she continues to stay with Ennis, unable or unwilling to face what she’s seen. Using a camping trip as their ruse, the two men continue their affair. Jack tries to convince Ennis that they should face their feelings for one another and start a ranch together. Tormented by the memory of the torture of a gay man in his hometown, Ennis refuses.

Jack and Ennis return to living their lives as lies. Ennis and Alma’s marriage continues on a downward spiral, finally collapsing one night in the bedroom:

Ennis: If you don’t want no more of my kids I’d be happy to leave you alone.
Alma: I’ll have them if you support them.

When Jack learns of the divorce, he tries to convince Ennis to move in with him, but Ennis says he’s reluctant to move away from his children. They argue, and Jack seeks comfort with a male prostitute in Mexico and later, a fellow rancher. Ennis meets waitress Cassie Cartwright, but Ennis is non-committal, empty. When Ennis sees her with another man at a diner, he barely lifts his fork from his pie:

Cassie: Carl? Yeah, Carl’s nice. He even talks.
Ennis: Good for you.
Cassie: I don’t get you, Ennis del Mar!
Ennis: That’s alright. I was probably no fun anyway.
Cassie: Girls don’t fall in love with fun.

Months later, the post card Ennis sent to Jack to set up their next meeting is returned, marked “deceased.” Contacting Lureen, Ennis is told Jack died when the rim from the tire Jack was fixing killed him. Ennis can sense this isn’t the real story and travels to Jack’s parents house to fulfill his friend’s wish to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. There he encounters one last naysayer – Jack’s father, who insists his son will be buried on the family farm. Ennis is allowed to visit Jack’s boyhood room, where he finds the bloodied shirts he and Jack wore twenty five years ago -- the day they fought on Brokeback Mountain.

The provocative love story between two men is told with respect and with few clichés, but if this was a love story between a man and a woman, “Brokeback Mountain” wouldn’t even qualify as a movie for Lifetime. The fact that Jack is willing to risk exposure and Ennis isn’t helps make their story more compelling. Ennis and Jack’s early scenes on the mountain are beautifully shot; the mountains themselves, as the saying goes, are breathtaking. Because they’re the only two characters for an extended period, with one being a virtual mute, the early scenes move at a snail’s pace. When the two men begin their separate lives, the story line skips like a flat rock across the water, as if to make them inconsequential. One moment Ennis is getting married, the next he’s toting around two girls and four years have passed. It’s a shame, because the storylines with Lureen, Alma and Cassie are more interesting.

Ledger is a good actor, but he’s saddled (sorry) with a character that’s a virtual sphinx. An actor with a heavy British accent off screen, Ledger has mastered the economical, tight-lipped delivery that served Gary Cooper well. You have to judge his character’s emotions by how tight features get, or his shuffling gait. Because he conceals his emotions, Ledger’s character is more prone to meltdowns, which is logical, but whenever Ennis explodes there’s no build up, nothing in-between the calm and outrage. And straight, gay or neuter, would anybody carry a torch for a silent, self-avowed loser like Ennis for twenty five years? Fault the writers, not Ledger, who nails his character’s struggle between feeling passion or guilt over his relationship with Jack. Gyllenhaal’s character is more open, more of seemingly well adjusted wise guy, a predator of both sexes who’s better equipped to live with his lie. Gyllenhaal connects with his relationship with Ledger on an emotional and physical level, but not with Hathaway. They have little chemistry together. It helps in the later scenes when they’re supposed to be growing distant, but Gyllenhaal’s goggle-eyed expressions and slack-jawed reaction to Hathaway when they meet looks more like he’s being hit with a bad case of kidney stones instead of falling in love. Hathaway is a gem, transforming herself from a sexually aggressive daddy’s girl, to a business woman obsessed with success, to an embittered mogul disgusted with her husband’s lack of attention. And yes, she’s beautiful, even with the bad 80s Farrah Fawcett shag. The women in Ennis’ life all give sterling performances, particularly Michelle Williams, who plays the mousy, put-upon Alma. Williams doesn’t allow the bitterness of her betrayal to register when she’s with Ennis, but when she finally gets to confront him about his “fishing trips” with Jack, she’s far from the rube Ennis first married. When Cassie (Linda Cardellini) confronts Ennis, you can hear her heart break all the way into the street. Although Randy Quaid is only in a handful of scenes he steals every one – witness his “stemming the rose” line passing into the folklore of memorable Hollywood movie quotes.

The Extras

The expanded version of “Brokeback Mountain” includes a set of eight collectable post cards and a second CD of bonus features. The features include “Impressions From the Film,” a set of stills from the film presented in chronological order with music by Academy-award winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla. “Music From the Mountain” focuses on Santaolalla, who composed the beautifully sparse guitar-based soundtrack in just two weeks – before the movie was even shot. Stunt Coordinator Kirk Jarrett is the centerpiece for “On Being a Cowboy,” which follows the actor’s preparations for the film. Ledger, who grew up on farms in England was a natural horseman,(“He took to it real good”), but Gyllenhaal and Hathaway were sent to “Cowboy Camp” with Gyllenhaal also receiving lessons on how to ride a mechanical bull for his rodeo scenes. “Directing From the Heart: Ang Lee” profiles the Academy-Award winning director, and there’s also an interview with script writers Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry, who admits he was skeptical about the movie’s success. “Sharing the Story: The Making of Brokeback Mountain” is an in-depth, behind the scenes look at the production of the film from start to finish, with interviews with the stars and Lee.

The cinematography is beautiful and the sets capture the back road desolation of Montana, but ultimately, “Brokeback Mountain” is about relationships. The forbidden relationship between Jack and Ennis may be the one that grabbed the headlines, but Ennis’ damaged relationship with Alma and Jack’s unfulfilling marriage to Lureen are the most interesting ones to watch.