Breaking the mold

By Jeff Hindenach
210 west News Editor [send email]

Is America ready for a love story between two cowboys?

It seems as though it’s shaping up that way. In its first weekend in limited release, Brokeback Mountain, the story of two cowboys from Wyoming who form a bond while herding sheep one summer, has done the unheard of by raking in more than half a million dollars from the five theaters that were showing it in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Monday it received the top three awards; best picture, best director (Ang Lee) and best actor (Heath Ledger), from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Firm Critics Circle. The movie was also recognized by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association as the best movie of the year, to add to its growing buzz.

A haunting love story set in 1963 Wyoming, Brokeback Mountain follow the lives of Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) after a summer where the men share an intense connection Although the two end up moving on to lives with dysfunctional marriages and broken families, they continue their relationship on and off for over 20 years with “fishing trips” to the mountain. The beautiful thing about this movie, and the very thing that might entice the homophobic audience, is that the love story between the two men is spoken in silence. The dialogue is short, yet full of meaning.

The word love, nor the word gay, is ever used. After a short, intense sex scene during that summer, little contact is ever made between the men. In fact, near the end of the movie, they could actually pass as fishing buddies. But in the moments of silence between the men, you can feel the intense passion between them shake your very core. No one is more intense in this way of speaking in silence than Ledger.

He gives an unparalleled performance that I have rarely seen on screen. His character is a tough, gritty cowboy who is scarred from his past and rarely opens up to anyone. Yet he has these emotional outbursts that force you to feel his pain. Ledger portrays the perfect balance of the character’s sheltered softness and intense passion. Annie Proulx, who wrote the original short story the movie is based on, has been quoted as saying Ledger’s performance is so convincing, she wonders how he got into her head.

Also shocking the audience with her performance as Mrs. Jack Twist is Anne Hathaway. Although her role is small, it is amazing to see her transform from a lively rodeo queen into a cold Texan housewife. Hathaway and Ledger have the most intense scene on the phone that could easily land her an Oscar nod.

Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams, who plays Ledger’s wife, also give outstanding performances, but the real gem in this movie is Ledger. His performance is above and beyond any actor's I’ve seen so far this year. If this movie is going to get an Oscar for anything, it will be his performance.

But the real strength for Brokeback Mountain is its underlying love story.

It sounds cliché, but it really does transcend the gay storyline of the movie. It could be played out in any scenario and still have that intense and haunting passion. And my hope is that is what will draw people to the theater.