Even when it was in limited release, the film “Brokeback Mountain,” or the “gay cowboy movie,” caused quite a frenzy. However, Ang Lee’s film, based on a short story by Annie Proulx, is much more than an “Oscar Wilde Bunch.” Brokeback Mountain is a rare American film that, against the epic backdrop of the American West, the mythic territory of Rocky Mountains, Wyatt Earp, and Gene Autry, subtly tears apart notions of American masculinity and the noble frontier society.

The story of two Marlboro Men who fall in love with each other is a brilliant yet bleak depiction of post-war Western rural life that is both touching and emotionally compelling. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two young cowboys (sheepboys?) who meet in the summer of 1963 when they’re hired to spend the summer watching over Joe Aguirre’s (Randy Quaid) sheep. Their initially stoic exchanges mature into friendly camaraderie and, with the help of some whiskey, loneliness and a healthy dose of mutual attraction, they start a relationship that will last 20 years. They illicitly meet a few times each year, returning to Brokeback Mountain, where the freedom of the wilderness allows them to enjoy each other’s company, a place where they are neither straight, nor gay, much less queer, but are lovers. However, the meetings are brief and both men have to return to the restrictions of the putatively civilized world they call home, complete with wives, children and the beguiling myth of the cowboy.

Indeed, the cowboy myth looms large on the lives of Ennis and Jack, as it does the American collective consciousness. On the surface, Ennis is the archetypal Western rugged individual, a man of stony silences, limited emotional expression and reserved mannerisms. At the beginning of the film he seems to possess the emotional expression of a man who is scarcely more human than the famed Marlboro cowboy. However, his strangled grunts and seeming inability to open his mouth all the way on the few occasions he does speak are the tics of a man leading a life of quiet desperation. Heath Ledger is an absolute revelation in this role, wearing the cowboy hat and boots like a suit of armour, a fractured identity struggling to carry out the expected performance of masculinity. The inner turmoil of tragic realities churns in his eyes. Both actors, in fact, give their characters voices and mannerisms that are utterly idiosyncratic, making sense of the stifled speech, the haunted look and strong but diffident manner.

Lee also shows us how both men’s internal struggles with their sexuality hurts the people they choose as their heterosexual covers. These families suffer, mostly from neglect, and in Ennis’ wife Alma’s (Michelle Williams) case, from the knowledge that their entire marriage was a lie. Williams brilliantly portrays a woman whose simple yet comfortable reality is shattered, leaving her unable to process the fact that everything she has built her life around is not what she thought.

In an age where we have a president who is regularly photographed strutting around his 1,600-acre Crawford cattle ranch in his $300 designer cowboy boots and $1,000 cowboy hat, spitting cowboy lingo (though strangely he’s hardly ever seen riding a horse), “Brokeback Mountain” reminds us that such images simplify much more complex truths. Cool becomes a value in itself, and absence of feeling and emotional expression is mistaken for strength. Rugged individualism in America these days only goes about as far as never joining a carpool, yet we are presented with false images and ideals. In the socially conservative era in which we currently reside, to see this film is an imperative. “Brokeback Mountain” serves as something of a lesson to the incessant ultra conservative harping against the “unnaturalness” and deviance of gay sexuality. It presents in its place the unnaturalness of sexual suppression, and the tragic consequences of intolerance, all with a finesse and skill that is simply stunning.

directed by: Ang Lee
written by: E. Annie Proulx (short story), Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (screenplay)
starring: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Randy Quaid, Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams
rated: R for sexuality, nudity, language and some violence