Brokeback Mountain

Nope, this isn't a metaphor for describing something gay that happened in my life. Last night I actually sat down and watched Brokeback Mountain.


It's one of those movies I'd been curious about for a while, and so when Michella told me she was going to hire it, I figured it couldn't hurt to pop round to her place and see what all the fuss was about. (My favourite part of this was that she asked for it at her video store, and was directed to the "Gay and Lesbian Section". What? They have their own section now?)

We sit down to watch it, and Michella remarked that she had heard that regardless of gender, it was just a great love story. So I'm thinking, I can appreciate that. I may be a little less of a romantic than some (eg Pretty Woman, to me, was just about some rich jerk and a hooker), but I'm not made of stone.

We start the movie, and Jake and Heath are cowboys of sorts, working together alone on Brokeback Mountain for the summer. Jake is a reasonably animated fella, whereas Heath plays the part of the brooding loner, who just mumbles incoherently every now and then. Obviously Jake was a bit of a fan of this, as one night in their tent, he makes his move. All prejudices aside, what happens next isnt particularly romantic or tender, but hey, each to their own.

After a few weeks of being gay together the summer ends and they go their separate ways. Heath marries Jen from Dawsons Creek and has two children, and Jake marries Agent 99 from Get Smart and has a kid too. Except they can't forget their wonderful summer together on Brokeback Mountain, and so four years on, Jake tracks down Heath and visits him.

Upon arrival, they hug, and then make out for a while, which is unfortunately witnessed by Heath's wife, who is somewhat disturbed. And so, for the next few years, they get together a couple of times a year to go away fishing ie have sex. Unfortunately for Heath, Jen leaves him messages in his fishing tackle box that he never gets because he's all over Jake, which confirms her fears that there's more than angling going on, so she divorces him.

Now that Heath is back on the market, Jake suggests they make things permanent, offering to leave his wife, but Heath isn't interested. He's too scared of repercussions, so he continues to live a double life, dating women, while spending a few weeks a year away in the woods with Jake. Jake, for his part, stays with his wife, but sometimes visits Mexico to employ the services of male prostitutes. It's quite a sweet story really.

Finally after 20 years or so, when one of Heath's letters is returned, he finds that Jake has died. Agent 99 tells Heath he died in an accident, but it's revealed some local kids beat him to death (presumably on account of his being gay).

Now, the movie wasn't particularly boring, so I can't say I hated it. What I can't understand is how people think this is a great love story. To start with, we don't get an insight into any type of meaningful relationship between the two of them, there's just a lot of Heath mumbling (so much so we had to turn the subtitles on). Secondly, with Jake consorting with hookers and all, it didn't seem like there was a lot of committment. Finally, there's all this talk about how they were really meant to be together, but they couldn't because of the era. Which was crap, because they could have, it's just they were too scared and/or lazy to leave their lives as cowboys in redneck central, and be together. I have no idea why this rubs me the wrong way, I couldn't have cared less if they ended up together, I just hated the pathetic excuses they made, and these are the type of things you hear when people discuss the film.

Anyway, I've spent way too much time analyzing this film - in conclusion, if you're a big fan of cowboys or homosexuality check this out, otherwise, perhaps give it a miss.