Brokeback

The content that I chose to analyze is Brokeback Mountain.
This movie is very, very near and dear to my heart, so I apologize in advance if I get
carried away with my analysis. I also have to read the book still, so I might be
missing crucial information that I otherwise would have included.
First, some context. The movie starts off in the 1960s, when Ennis Del Mar (Heath
Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) start working together under the table to
protect flocks of sheep from predators. This ultimately leads into an affair rather
quickly, Jack Twist doesn’t have a partner, but Ennis Del Mar is set to marry his
girlfriend, Alma, once the summer is over. So, they make the most of their summer
together.
However, after they wrap up their summer, and Ennis starts building his life
together, he receives a letter from Jack, and this reignites their affair, which lasts
several years before Jack dies, it is ambiguous how he died, whether it was a
murder for his homosexuality or an accident, is unknown.
The reason why I wanted to analyze this, despite being a movie about two men, is
because of how feminism and its representation can benefit men and boys growing
up in a patriarchal society.
The movie goes at length to show Jack and Ennis as deep, complex characters that
deeply love each other despite the world they live in. Jack is presumably the most
experienced with gay relationships and gay intercourse, so he tends to initiate
things in the beginning. This is unusual because Jack is seen as the more
“flamboyant” and “submissive” partner in the relationship, whereas Ennis is seen as
the “stoic” and “dominant” partner.
While this is true for their personalities, their dynamic is one that is often not seen
in same-sex portrayals, at least for men. Jack and Ennis are equals, regardless of
their role in their relationship. Jack is shown cradling Ennis, and Ennis is shown
cradling Jack. There is no dominant or “man” or “woman” in the relationship. In fact,
Jack is shown to want things that women are joked and stereotyped to want; A
family, a life together, something real. The viewers are shown that Ennis
desperately wants the same thing, but his internalized homophobia stops him from
pursuing a life with Jack. This film actively challenges pre-conceptions of what it
means to be a “hard-working family man,” Ennis and Jack are seen crying, incapable
of being strong, defeated, broken, happy, devastated, and yearning. And this is all
in just their romantic dynamic.
Sexually, things get a little bit less subtle. Ennis is shown to want a big family, and
when asked by Alma, his wife, to use protection, he is defensive, suggesting that
they shouldn’t have sex if she doesn’t want his kids. In response, Alma says that
she’d have them if he’d provide for them. This is a stark contrast to the warmth that
we see with Jack and Ennis. We only see one sex scene with Ennis and Jack, their
first sexual experience together. For Jack, it’s nothing that isn’t new to him, as he
had done this before. On the other hand, Ennis is apprehensive, and hesitant, but
once he learns to let go and listen to his impulses, it’s almost like Ennis can’t wait,
and repressed energy is bursting out of him.
Also, it’s important to mention their wives, Alma and Lureen. Alma finds out about
their affair on accident, and Lureen is left ambiguous. Alma had stayed with Ennis
despite this for years until she realized that Ennis didn’t love her and Jack, and she
left. On the other hand, Lureen is constantly seen being the breadwinner for her and
Jack’s family, forever stuck behind payroll and documents that she is responsible for
while Jack works for her. This is an inversion of the traditional nuclear family
structure, whereas Alma invites Ennis over to dinner to see their children together,
another example of an uncommon structure. This entire film sets out to challenge
and redefine the roles that we are so used to, for both men and women and that’s
one reason why I wanted to analyze this film.
Another reason why I wanted to analyze this film is because of the press and the
reception around the film. The cast, especially Heath, were insistent upon people
seeing the movie for themselves before jumping to conclusions. The movie had
been turned into a joke of the tragedy that it is, simply being dumbed down to “gay
cowboys” and “cheating husbands.” The whole point of the movie is that it’s a
tragedy and that it’s about how two men, who genuinely deeply love each other,
can’t be together because the world is not ready for that kind of relationship, and so
for the movie to be received the way it did clearly did not sit well with the cast.
Heath was the most outspoken of the cast, and often shut down any interviewers or
questions that had some sort of bigoted, homophobic ignorance to it because he
was so passionate about the reality of so many men and women that were not
allowed to be together.
Ultimately, this film is so much more than just gay cheating cowboys to me, it’s a
film that challenges the gender norms around men, and dares to show men being
the opposite of what they’re “supposed to be” because they can’t be with who they
love. It’s also a film that inverts traditional family structures, and shows how even
Jack, a nomadic rodeo boy with nothing to tie him down, Ennis, a hard-working
conservative man raised on a farm, Alma a traditional, albeit sadly neglected
housewife, and Lureen, a hard-working, breadwinning woman who runs her own
farming vehicle company; All of these people who are polar opposites to each other,
are still so similar at the end of the day.

Brokeback

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The content that I chose to analyze is Brokeback Mountain.

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