Brokeback Mountain: 2005

The 2006 Oscar Best Picture went to Crash, a film I've seen and that is hotly contested as unworthy of its Oscar. I have no desire to see Crash again, especially when I could watch a better film about race relations where things don't tie up as neatly as they do in parts of Crash. So I went with the film that people believed would win that year: Brokeback Mountain. I didn't know much about Brokeback Mountain prior to watching it other than Ang Lee was the director (and he is amazing), the film stars Heath Ledger (and he is also amazing), and the story has gay characters (which is a type of story I need to see more of to understand LGBTQ experiences).

I expected Brokeback  to have some action. With cowboys and horses, I expected the usual ranch scenes, maybe some shooting, just the usual western film characteristics. While Ennis and Jack shoot an elk and at coyotes and look after sheep, the film doesn't really fit the western genre I expected. Instead, it's a love story. Totally unexpected for me, and honestly, a huge relief since I don't really like westerns. What I found so moving in this film were the quiet moments. Seeing Alma realize that her husband doesn't love her and is in love with a man is heartwrenching. I know she doesn't accept what he's doing, and my heart breaks for her not being able to forgive him for being who he is.

Her silence breaks later when she is remarried and confronts Ennis about all the fish he didn't catch on those fishing trips with Jack. The scene where she confronts him made me so angry at first because I thought she was shaming him for being gay, but I wonder if it's more about her being heartbroken. I don't know if her hatred is directed at him or at his sexuality. The complexity of her feelings and how he can't handle those feelings makes the scene all the more intense.

Having now seen both Crash and Brokeback Mountain, I have to say I'm disappointed that Crash won. Brokeback Mountain may be subtle, but it's subtlety is part of what makes it so powerful. The love story between Jack and Ennis shows how beautiful love is and that love is love, no matter who that love is between.