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Brokeback Mountain

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Brokeback Mountain is an acclaimed and controversial Academy Award-winning 2005 film that depicts a sexual, romantic, and emotional relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1983. The film, released in 2005, is directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee from a screenplay by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry, which they adapted from the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, Anna Faris, Linda Cardellini and Randy Quaid.

Brokeback Mountain was honored with Best Picture and Best Director accolades from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Golden Globe Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and Independent Spirit Awards among many other organizations and festivals. Brokeback Mountain had the most nominations (eight) for the 78th Academy Awards, where it won three: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. The film was widely considered to be the front-runner for the Academy Award for Best Picture, though it ultimately lost to Crash. [link][link][link] [link][link][link][link][link]

Contents

Plot

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Brokeback Mountain is the story of Ennis del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), two young men who meet and fall in love in 1963 on a sheepherding job on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. The film documents their complex relationship over the next twenty years.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
When the two men first begin work on Brokeback Mountain, Ennis is stationed at the base camp while Jack watches after the sheep higher on the mountain. They initially meet only for meals at the base camp, where they gradually become friends. After a time they switch roles, with Jack taking over duties at base camp and Ennis tending the flock. One night, after the two share a bottle of whiskey, Ennis decides to remain at the base camp overnight instead of returning up the mountain. Ennis is at first reluctant to even sleep in the same tent as Jack, but late that night the men share a brief, intense sexual encounter. Over the remainder of the summer their sexual and emotional relationship deepens further.

After the two part ways at the end of their job, Ennis marries his long-term fiancée Alma Beers (Williams), and starts a family. Jack moves to Texas, where he meets and marries rodeo princess Lureen Newsome (Hathaway). The couple soon has a son.

Four years later, Ennis receives a postcard from Jack asking if he wants to meet when Jack passes through the area. The men reunite, and their passion immediately rekindles. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together on a small ranch. Ennis, haunted by a childhood memory of the torture and murder of a gay man in his hometown, fears that such an arrangement can only end in tragedy. He is also unwilling to leave his family. Unable to be open about their relationship, Ennis and Jack settle for infrequent meetings on camping trips in the mountains.

Ledger as Ennis Del Mar.
Enlarge
Ledger as Ennis Del Mar.

As the years pass, Ennis's marriage deteriorates. Unknown to him, the relationship was discovered by Alma who eventually divorces him and takes custody of their two daughters. Jack hopes that Ennis's divorce will allow them to live together at last, but Ennis refuses to move away from his children. Meanwhile, his oldest daughter, Alma Junior, visits Ennis on a periodic basis, and Ennis meets and dates a waitress. On another trip with Jack in the mountains, Ennis insists, to keep his job, he cannot meet with Jack again before November. Ennis and Jack's frustrations finally erupt into a bitter argument and a struggle becoming a desperate embrace. However, the two men part upset.

Months later, a postcard Ennis sent to Jack, about meeting in November, is returned in the mail, stamped "deceased". In a strained telephone conversation, Jack's wife Lureen tells Ennis that Jack died in an accident. As she explains, a brief scene of Jack being beaten to death, by 3 men, illustrates Ennis' fears that Jack's death was not accidental. Lureen tells Ennis that Jack wished to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. She suggests that Ennis contact Jack's parents about this.

Ennis visits Jack's parents and offers to take Jack's ashes to Brokeback Mountain. Jack's father refuses, insisting that Jack's remains be buried in the family plot. Jack's mother is more welcoming, and allows Ennis to see Jack's boyhood bedroom. Ennis discovers in this room, two old shirts hidden in the back of the closet. The shirts, hung one inside the other on the same hanger, are the ones the two men were wearing on their last day on Brokeback Mountain in 1963.

Shortly after Ennis meets Jack's parents, his daughter visits him at his home. Now 19 years old, she's getting ready to marry a boy, and asks for her father's consent in giving her away at the wedding. Ennis seems initially reluctant, citing that he might have to work, but decides against it and pours two glasses of whiskey for him and his daughter with which to celebrate. Ennis asks if her fiance loves her, and she affirms that he does.

At the end of the movie, Ennis opens his own closet to reveal that he has hung the two shirts reversed, with his plaid shirt hugging Jack's blue shirt, inside the door beneath a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. Ennis carefully fastens the top button of Jack's shirt. With tears in his eyes, Ennis mutters, "Jack, I swear . . . ." Although the final words are spoken in a strained voice (and debated), they are also shown in the closed-captioning mode of the DVD. [See also: webpage references to "Jack, I swear" phrase.] URL accessed 26-May-2006., and then, he slowly, carefully straightens the postcard of Brokeback Mountain and closes the door. As the door closes on the closet, it opens a long view to the outside, through the window, to the green and yellow fields and the dirt road outside [final scene].

Spoilers end here.

Filming locations

While the movie is set in the Big Horn Mountains of eastern Wyoming, most of it was filmed in the Canadian Rockies in southern Alberta. Ang Lee decided that Alberta would be an ideal place to shoot Brokeback Mountain because of its lush landscapes broadly similar to those in Wyoming, the lower production costs in Canada, and the willingness of the Alberta Film Development Corporation, an instrument of the Alberta provincial crown, to assist with funding.#redirect [[Template:Fact]]

The "Brokeback Mountain" of the movie is actually a composite of angles, from the peaks of Three Sisters around the town of Canmore to Fortress and Moose Mountain in Kananaskis Country. The campsites were filmed at Upper Kananaskis Lake, Elbow Falls and Canyon Creek, also in Alberta. Other movie scenes were also filmed in Cowley and Fort Macleod.

Other parts of the movie were filmed in La Mesilla, New Mexico and in Wyoming, at Grand Teton National Park.#redirect [[Template:Fact]]

The movie was filmed during the summer of 2004.[link]

Commercial success

Brokeback Mountain cost about U.S.$14 million to produce, excluding its advertising budget.Box Office Mojo (2006). ["Brokeback Mountain."] Retrieved Mar. 5, 2006. According to interviews with the filmmakers, Focus Features was able to recoup its production costs early on by selling overseas rights to the film.

The film saw limited release in the United States on December 9, 2005 (in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), taking $547,425 in five theaters its first weekend. This was the highest per-showing average for any drama in film history.Ben Katner (2006) ["Brokeback Mountain."] TV Guide, Feb. 27, 2006.

Over the Christmas weekend, it posted the highest per theater gross of any movie and was considered a box office success not only in urban centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, but also in suburban theaters near Portland, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and Atlanta. On January 6, 2006, the movie expanded into 483 theaters, and, on January 13, 2006 Focus Features, the movie's distributor, opened Brokeback in nearly 700 North American cinemas as part of its ongoing expansion strategy for the movie. On January 20, the film opened in 1,194 theaters in North America; it opened in 1,652 theaters on January 27 and in 2,089 theaters on February 3, its widest release.

Brokeback Mountain's theatrical run lasted for 133 days and grossed $83,043,761 in North America and $95,000,000 abroad, adding up to a worldwide gross of more than $178 million.Box Office Mojo, ["Brokeback Mountain"]. Retrieved Apr. 20, 2006. It is the top-grossing release of Focus Features,Box Office Mojo. ["2006 Studio Market Share: Focus Features."] Retrieved Mar. 9, 2006. ranks fifth among the highest-grossing westerns,Box Office Mojo. ["Genres: Western."] Retrieved Mar. 12, 2006. and eighth among the highest-grossing romantic dramas (1980-Present).Box Office Mojo. ["Genres: Romantic Drama."] Retrieved Mar. 12, 2006.

The film was released in London, UK on December 30, 2005 in only one cinema, and was widely released in UK on January 6, 2006. On January 11, Time Out London magazine reported that Brokeback was the number one movie in the city, a position it held for three weeks.

The movie was released in France on January 18, 2006 in 155 cinemas (expanding into 258 cinemas in the second week and into 290 in the third week). In its first week of release, Brokeback Mountain was in third place at the French box office, with 277,000 people viewing the movie, or an average of 1,787 people by cinema per week, the highest such figure for any film in France that week. One month later, it reached more than one million viewers (more than 1,250,000 on March 18th), with still 168 cinemas (in the 10th week). Released in Italy on January 20, the film grossed more than 890,000 euros in only three days, and was the fourth highest-grossing film in the country in its first week of release. In the second week, in 224 theatres, the film's gross increased to €1,986,000, and is at €4,626,271 for its fifth week (second only to Match Point at its sixth week).

Brokeback Mountain was released in Australia on January 26, 2006, where it landed in fourth place at the box office and earned an average per-screen gross three times higher than its nearest competitor during its first weekend despite being released in only 48 cinemas nationwide. Most of the Australian critics praised the film. Brokeback was released in many other countries during the first three months of 2006. The film was released in Peru and in the Netherlands on 16 February, and opened in Germany on 9 March. It premiered in Brazil on February 3 and quickly topped the charts with more than 100,000 viewers. The movie was released in India on March 10.

During its first week of release, Brokeback was in first place in Hong Kong's box office, with more than US$350,000 (nearly $17,000 per cinema).

Brokeback Mountain was the highest-grossing movie in the U.S. from Tuesday, January 17 through Thursday, January 19, 2006, perhaps due primarily to its wins at the Golden Globes on January 16. Indeed, the movie was one of the top five highest-grossing films in the U.S. every day from January 17 until January 28, including over the weekend (when more people go to the movies and big-budget films usually crowd out independent films from the top-grossing list) of January 20-22. On Saturday, January 28, the movie fell out of the top five and into sixth place at the box office during that weekend before entering the top five again on Monday, January 30, and remaining there until Friday, February 10.

The movie was released on January 20, 2006 in Taiwan, where the director Ang Lee was born. It ran until April 20. Box office made NTD 50,112,471(US＄1,568,957) in 16 theaters. A total of 210,791 people watched Brokeback Mountain in Taiwan.

Critical reception

Professional film critics have heaped praise on Brokeback Mountain. The film won four Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture-Drama, and was nominated for seven, leading all other films in the 2005 awards. It has won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, as well as the title Best Picture from the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Dallas Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the Utah Film Critics Society, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (the BAFTAs).

Brokeback Mountain was given two thumbs up by Ebert & Roeper, the former granting a four-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times. Currently, the film holds an 86% rating of "Certified Fresh" from 214 reviews on RottenTomatoes.com and received 'circumspect' positive reviews from the Catholic News Service and Christianity Today.[link] Conservative movie critic Michael Medved gave the film three and a half stars, stating that while the movie's "agenda" is blatant, it is an artistic work. He did not, however, place the film on his year end top 10 list.

Most gay and lesbian cultural commentators have praised the film, although a few critics, such as David Ehrenstein, believe that the film's cultural impact is being overplayed at the expense of other groundbreaking films and the challenges that openly gay and lesbian actors still face. A few other gay commentators have written disapprovingly about the fact that, in what has been widely hailed as a "breakthrough" film for gay cinema, neither the film's two lead actors, nor its director, nor its screenwriters are gay.

The film's significance is attributed to its portrayal of a same-sex relationship without any reference to the history of the civil rights movement. This emphasizes the tragic love story aspect, which leads many commentators to effectively compare Ennis and Jack's drama to classic and modern romances like Romeo and Juliet or Titanic, often using the term star-crossed lovers. This link to classic romances is no coincidence: the poster for the film was inspired by that of James Cameron's Titanic, after Ang Lee's collaborator James Schamus looked at the posters of "the 50 most romantic movies ever made".

When Ledger and Gyllenhaal were asked about any fear of being cast in such controversial roles, Ledger responded that he was not afraid of the role, but rather he was concerned that he would not be mature enough as an actor to do the story justice. Gyllenhaal has stated that he is extremely proud of the movie and his role, regardless of what the reactions would be. Although he has repeatedly stated being heterosexual, he regards rumours of his bisexuality as flattering. Both have stated that the sex scenes in the beginning were difficult to do. Lee found the first scene difficult to film and has stated he has great respect for the two main actors for their "courage."

On January 3, 2006, Focus Features' parent company, Universal, announced that Brokeback Mountain was the most honored film of 2005. The independent website criticstop10.net backed that assertion, reporting that Brokeback Mountain was the most frequently-selected movie on reviewers' year-end "Top Ten" lists of 2005.

On March 9, 2006 Brokeback Mountain made headlines yet again when a press release was sent to more than 400 media outlets announcing that nearly $26,000 had been raised for an ad to be posted in the Daily Variety on March 10, 2006. This $26,000 had been raised by just over 600 fans through an online donations site, affiliated with a non-studio-sponsored online forum which is devoted to the film and the book.[The Ultimate Brokeback Guide] The story was quickly picked up by several outlets including Yahoo!, The Advocate, and the New York Times.[link] The ad served as a simple show of fan support despite its losing the Best Picture Oscar,[link] and is probably the first time that fans have sponsored the running of such an ad. This Daily Variety issue is already sold out and it's impossible to order as a back issue.

International reception

The title of Brokeback Mountain has been translated into several other languages (see: Brokeback Mountain titles). The Region 1 DVD has Spanish, French, and German audio tracks.

The film also met with mixed reactions in other nations, including the People's Republic of China, and Middle Eastern countries:

Controversy

Roman Catholic Church

The positive review by the Catholic News Service caused a controversy in itself when it gave the movie an "L" rating, meaning "appropriate for limited adult audiences". A few days after the original review was published, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting changed the rating to "O" for "morally offensive," in part due to the reaction of conservative Catholic organizations, such as LifeSite. On December 29, 2005, the review was completely removed and replaced with a review that praised the film and its actors as "superb" but also stated that the homosexual relationship the film portrays went against Catholic teachings. Nevertheless, the review stated, "the universal themes of love and loss ring true."

Utah theater cancellation

On January 6, 2006, Utah Jazz owner and Latter-day Saint Larry H. Miller pulled the film from his Jordan Commons entertainment complex in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The decision was made at the last minute after entering into a contract to show the film and heavily advertising for it. He reneged on his obligations approximately two hours before the first scheduled showing upon learning that the plot concerned a same-sex romance. Miller stated that the film got away from "traditional families," something he called "very dangerous." [link] Focus Features has threatened to sue him and announced it will no longer do business with him. In a statement the company added, "You can't do business with people who break their word."

Political Pundits

Several political pundits on Fox News, including commentators Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and Cal Thomas, accused Hollywood of pushing an agenda and told their viewers that the Christian-themed [[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|Chronicles of Narnia]] had more merit for "Best Picture of the Year." On December 23, 2005, the network reported that Brokeback Mountain was facing "Brokeback Burnout," citing as evidence a fall in revenues from Sunday, December 18, 2005, to Monday, as well as subsequent falls during the week.[link] Others have pointed out that nearly every movie faces declining business during the transition from weekend to weekdays. O'Reilly has persisted in his criticism, bringing up the movie as a subject of intense criticism on more than nine occasions on his show, and a half-dozen times on his radio program, saying, "I have nothing against the subject matter. The point is that these newspapers use entertainment to push political agendas. They do it all the time, it's indoctrination. I'll predict the movie will get a lot of awards, but will not do big box office outside of the big cities."[link] Fox News columnist Priest Jonathan Morris has referred to the movie as "propaganda" that "glorifies homosexuality."[link]

Gene Shalit and The Today Show

The film critic for the U.S. morning show The Today Show, Gene Shalit, called Gyllenhaal's character, Jack Twist, a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts." This triggered complaints, particularly from gay media watchdog group GLAAD, which argued that Shalit's characterization of the character would be akin to calling Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Titanic a sexual predator for his romantic pursuit of the character played by Kate Winslet. Shalit later apologized.

In a letter to GLAAD, Shalit's son Peter, who is gay, said "He may have had an unpopular opinion of a movie that is important to the gay community, but he defamed no one, and he is not a homophobe." He went on to say that GLAAD had defamed his father by "falsely accusing him of a repellent form of bigotry."[link]

U.S. social conservatives

Several Christian fundamentalist groups, such as Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family, lambasted the film heavily. Following wins by Brokeback Mountain, Capote, and Transamerica at the 2006 Golden Globes, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, a Concerned Women for America Senior Fellow, cited these films as examples of how "the media elites are proving that their pet projects are more important than profit" and suggested that they were not popular enough to merit so much critical acclaim.[link]

Radio personality Rush Limbaugh often referred to the film as Bareback Mountain or Humpback Mountain.

Criticism of marketing

Some commentators have voiced concerns about the coverage of the movie's homosexual theme in the mass media both in advertising and in public events, such as press conferences and award ceremonies. Several journalists, including New York Daily News writer Wayman Wong, Dave Cullen and Daniel Mendelsohn,[link][link] have complained that the movie's director, lead actors, and publicity team all avoided using the word "gay" to describe the story, and pointed out that the movie trailer does not show the two male leads kissing each other but does include a clip from a heterosexual love scene.

Quaid lawsuit

On March 23, 2006, actor Randy Quaid, who played Joe Aguirre (Ennis and Jack's boss), filed a lawsuit against Focus Features (LLC), Del Mar Productions (LLC), James Schamus, David Linde, and Doe's 1-10 alleging that they intentionally and negligently misrepresented Brokeback Mountain as "a low-budget, art house film with no prospect of making any money" in order to secure Quaid's professional acting services at below-market rates. The film had grossed more than $160 million as of the date of his lawsuit, which sought $10 million plus punitive damages.

On May 5, Quaid dropped his lawsuit. Quaid's publicist said he decided to drop the lawsuit after Focus Features agreed to pay him a bonus. Focus Features denies making such a settlement.

Animal cruelty

The American Humane Association raised concerns that animals were treated improperly during filming--that sheep were handled roughly and that an elk appeared to have been shot "on cue," suggesting further that the animal was anesthetized for this purpose, violating standard guidelines for animal-handling in the movie industry.

Post-Academy Awards reaction

Brokeback Mountain had won the 'Best Picture' award in almost all major pre-Oscar award ceremony, except for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Some critics who had lauded the Academy for its recognition of Brokeback Mountain subsequently accused its members of being unfair and homophobic for naming Crash as Best Picture. Prior to the Awards, even many supporters for Crash believed Brokeback Mountain would win, even though they hoped otherwise. Also, author Annie Proulx lamented the selection of Crash (see awards article). By contrast, Roger Ebert defended the selection of Crash, but the Ultimate Brokeback Forum financed a full-page ad in Daily Variety (10-May-2006),[link] thanking the creators of Brokeback Mountain, and listing its Best-Picture awards (which omitted the Academy). ''

Trivia

Gyllenhaal and Hathaway as Jack Twist and Lureen Newsome.
Enlarge
Gyllenhaal and Hathaway as Jack Twist and Lureen Newsome.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Awards

Some of the most significant awards and nominations for Brokeback Mountain are listed below.

Notable awards

Notable nominations

DVD release

DVD cover
Enlarge
DVD cover

The DVD was released in the United States on April 4, 2006. The film moved more than 1.4 million copies on its first day of release and was the second biggest seller of the week behind Disney's [[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (film)|The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]].[link] Though the ranking fluctuates daily, by late March and early April 2006 Brokeback Mountain had been the top-selling DVD on Amazon.com several days running.[link] The Region 2 DVD was released on April 24, 2006. The Region 4 (Australia/New Zealand/South America) release is set for July 25, 2006.(May 26, 2006)[Brokeback Mountain] EzyDVD.com.au. URL accessed May 26, 2006

See also

Footnotes

Further reading

External links

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Reviews

News articles

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Films Directed by Ang Lee
Pushing Hands • The Wedding Banquet • Eat Drink Man Woman • Sense and Sensibility • The Ice Storm • Ride with the Devil • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon • Hulk • Brokeback Mountain

 

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