Two questions were posted on this list that were never clearly addressed
regarding Brokeback Mountain. One was about how true was the reality of the
environment and issues the basic story of the movie, the second was about
the Mormons. I would like to offer input on both issues.
I can tell you from first person experience there was little difference in
any of the rural cow towns in the west in the late 50's and early 60's. A
cowboy, ranch hand, or dirt farmer could move from one job to another, the
only difference was the landscape, the weather, the stock job, and the
entertainment or lack thereof. The overall setting and production values in
Brokeback Mountain were exactly right for 1960 in that part of Wyoming,
although if you carefully watch the location credits you will see most of
the filming was done in Canada. But you could transplant those two 'cowboys
to any part of the west at the time, Montana, New Mexico, California or
Nevada, and it would have been the same job, only with different stock,
weather, employers, bars, etc. For the Brokeback Mountain job, Jack and
Ennis were not cattle wranglers, they were herding sheep. Sheep are stupid,
inbred, messy and time consuming animals. Not like cattle, and perhaps this
is one of the ironic metaphors of the story. The two main men are not the
cowboys of the old west, they are the remains of a life gone by. They can't
even find jobs cattle wrangling. They describe to each other abuse and
neglect they had as children. They are uneducated, unskilled, and trapped
in an environment and society in which their ambitions seek only a better
paying wrangler job or a better running pickup. Another ironic story
metaphor are the pickups, the cowboys pride and joy, the replacement for the
horse. Through most of the movie the pickups are falling apart, need work,
radiators steaming. This is the cowboy's fancy horse? In 1960 the
expectation in those western rural parts was you slide through high school,
find a job, get married and have kids, and find whatever gets you from one
day to the next, be it work, religion, women, or whiskey. Or you leave.
Hell, at 19 these boys can't even grasp the concept of leaving. Going to
Texas or riding the rodeo circuit is the extent of leaving. Finding
identity and the emotions of love in each other was a fragile thread to hold
them on the face of the earth and time was dissolving in front of their eyes
They did the best they could. I left. And I never really looked back
until I looked at this film.
I was weeping, not so much in regard to the deouement of the love story, but
because I was viewing a replication of certain places and people in a time,
not so long ago, that doesn't exist anymore. From the very first frame the
film established a mood and atmosphere so clear in it's recreation, the very
look could produce an empathetic reaction. This is the power of the film.
The overall elements of the film design were subdued but accurate to the
smallest detail, especially noting changes as the years went by. The music,
set decoration, lighting, photography, costume design, and especially the
acting became a harmonious unit. Perhaps film as an art form is finally
beginning to mature and be looked at as if we were viewing a painting by
Vermeer. The exchange between the film and the viewer becomes complex yet
so simple we are immediately intimate with the subject, reacting to the
light, the composition, the action, and the dialogue of the entire visual
framing.
So yes, the film is about as clear a realty of the time as one could hope
for, considering the wild west is now tamed into freeways, shopping malls,
Indian casinos, 24 hour television, vacation high spots, and cineplexes
where you go see Brokeback Mountain. What still exists in many places are
flavors of racial and gender based bullying, religious bigotry, and
ingrained platforms of conservative intolerance. But one final word and
this is a key into the genius of the film. The truth is in the style and
honest visual presentation of the screenplay and in this regard Brokeback
Mountain finds a place along with other great films as art that describe a
part of the American landscape and people; Citizen Kane, Stagecoach, The
Grapes Of Wrath, Birth Of A Nation, On The Waterfront, High Noon, The Last
Picture Show, and others of that stature.
The Mormons had best wait for another mail.
Danny Steward / Seattle
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