RhymePhile's Rat Race

EDITED on December 12 to add screencaps of the LOGO special made by chromatophobia



Evening, kids.

Mission accomplished. I went to see Brokeback Mountain today at 2:45 p.m. It eventually sold out at the Clearview Chelsea, and every single show starting at 6 p.m. onward into the night was sold out as well.

The theatre only held 320 people, but it was a nice crowd of mostly gay couples with a sprinkling of women thrown in. The age difference was varied as well, but there were a lot of young guys.

This is the first time I've been to a film in Manahattan, and for the $10.50 ticket price (for a matinee, yet!) I could have brought two people to the movies at home. But overall it was a really great experience...no one talking, no noise, no cell phones.

Now, for the quick review...

Heath Ledger is absolutely amazing in this film. I've seen him in a few things, none of which I cared for, but in this movie he's fantastic. Playing a gruff, non-talkative cowboy (or jackaroo as they say in Oz, right, since he looks after sheep?) suits him. Jake Gyllenhaal makes a great cowboy too, because that boy is so pretty. His eyes say it all in every scene. It was very brave of them to make this film, but I think they made a great choice because it really gave them a chance to stretch their acting chops. And for the record: one sex scene, one cuddling scene, and two really great kissing scenes.

If you've read the short story, you won't be surprised at all. It follows it exactly, with one little deviation in the script which you can discover if you read my long review. The vistas are gorgeous; Ang Lee has a knack for getting beautiful cinematography. Alberta, Canada stands in for Wyoming. The film's theme is hauntingly beautiful, and the music that plays over the credits includes Willie Nelson and Rufus Wainwright, whose tour T-shirt I just happened to wear today. Coincidence? Since it's set in Wyoming, expect lots of old-time country music with slide guitar, which I happen to love.

Okay, the long review. But first, a WARNING...

I actually took notes throughout the film, so this is going to be a very, very detailed recap of the whole movie. I even wrote down notable quotes. Near the end of this review/recap, I've included spoiler space for those of you who don't want to know the ending. You can read everything that happens up to there, but realize if you click on this cut you're going to get an *extremely* detailed recap of the movie. Okay? You've been warned. It's about 7 pages in Microsoft Word, so you know that if you read this you'll learn everything you need to know about Brokeback Mountain.

Please feel free to share this recap to other communities, lists, journals, etc., just link back here or mention where you got it from, okay?



EDITED to add some stuff on Monday, December 12, including screencaps

Thanks to chromatophobia for making the screencaps and posting the info at cap_it

You can find more images at my Photobucket account,
http://photobucket.com/albums/a170/RhymePhile/Brokeback%20Mountain/

The film starts in 1963 in Signal, Wyoming. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) gets out of a pickup truck and walks over to a dusty, grime-covered trailer. He wears his cowboy hat low over his face, and leans against the side of the trailer, and lights a cigarette.

Moments later an old pickup truck comes barreling down the road and screeches to a stop. Out hops Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) who leans against the bed of the pickup before he slowly turns and notices Ennis standing there. Ennis doesn't see him, but Jack gives the other man a look that can only be described as sultry. Gyllenhaal has incredible eyes, and in this film they are so expressive that most of the time he doesn't have to say anything to get his meaning across.





Randy Quaid plays Aguirre, the owner of the sheep herd the cowboys are expected to take care of on Brokeback Mountain. He instructs the men that Ennis will stay in the camp during the day and fix the meals for Jack, who will sleep with the sheep and only come into camp for breakfast and dinner.

Ennis can best be described as taciturn. He doesn't speak much, has a gruff attitude, and is extremely guarded. Ledger tends to mumble a lot of his lines, because he's giving off a tough Western cowboy vibe, along with an accent. He does a really good job with it.

When they get up to the mountain, both talk about their pasts, Jack of rodeo and Ennis of ranching. They've led tough and emotionless lives, as many a cowboy did and still does. They also both had rough upbringings. Jack's father is a stern man who didn't seem to care much for his son, and Ennis's parents were killed in a car wreck, so he was raised by a brother and sister. Jack is surprised and happy that Ennis is finally talking when he says, "That's the most you've talked the whole time we've been up here." To which Ennis replies, "Hell, that's the most I've talked in a year." So you can imagine the type of guy Ennis is.

In one scene Jack tells Ennis about his mother's religious beliefs, and when Ennis doesn't really understand, Jack simply tells him it's more than "two sinners like us [that] are going to Hell" can comprehend. Ennis says, "You may be a sinner, but I ain't yet had the opportunity."

Eventually they switch jobs, with Ennis staying out to tend the sheep and Jack remaining in camp. One night both men are drinking, and Ennis discovers that he's too drunk to get back on his horse. He asks Jack for a blanket and says he'll sleep next to the fire. Jack offers to let him sleep in the tent, but Ennis tells him he doesn't mind.

In the middle of the night Jack is awakened by Ennis, who is making noise because the fire has gone out and he's shivering. Jack calls out to him, telling him to get into the tent.

Later, the two men are asleep, with Jack facing the camera and Ennis behind him. Jack pulls the blanket down, and reaches behind him for Ennis's hand. He then brings Ennis's hand down to his crotch, causing both men to startle and wake up.



They both jump up, and it appears that Ennis is ready to punch Jack, but Jack grabs him and kisses him. The scene is very frenzied as the two are overcome by something that's been simmering for a long time.







Ennis pulls away, but then he kisses Jack back. The two men are kissing each other when Jack unbuckles his belt, obviously wanting to take Ennis. But Ennis kisses Jack roughly and then pushes him down on his hands and knees, and unbuckles his own belt. Ennis then grabs Jack's jeans and yanks them down, and he enters Jack from behind. We don't see anything, obviously, but the camera makes it quite clear that there is thrusting going on, and Jack's moans and whimpers of pleasure are pretty clear. The scene is very short, but heated.

In the morning there is no real discussion about what happened, and Ennis gets on his horse and leaves.

That night, Ennis returns for supper. We see him afterward, sitting by the fire looking confused and nervous, but also excited at what's happening. He keeps batting his hat against his leg, unsure of what to do, since Jack is already in the tent.



His emotions get the better of him, and he goes into the tent to find Jack shirtless. They look at each other for a moment, and Ennis seems afraid.



But Jack comforts him, caressing his cheek and telling him that it's okay. Again they kiss, very hot and heavy.





Jack rolls on top of Ennis, and continues kissing him deeply. Another fairly short scene, but extremely hot.




Later, Ennis explains himself: "This is a one-shot thing we got going on here. I ain't no queer." Jack agrees, saying that no one else but them need know what they've been doing.

It's clear, however, that the stern, serious Ennis comes alive when he's with Jack, because later the next morning they're laughing and teasing each other by slapping their shirts against each other. Jack tackles Ennis, and they both fall down kissing.

At that point, of course, is when Aguirre sees the men through his binoculars. He's come to tell Jack that his uncle is sick and may die. Jack tells him there's nothing he can do, clearly needing to remain on the mountain with Ennis.

Back out on the mountain, a sudden storm comes up and drops hail and snow, scattering the sheep. After the men separate the flock from other herders on the mountain, Ennis returns to camp to find Jack packing it up. Jack tells him that Aguirre sent word that there's another storm brewing, and to get the sheep down off the mountain.

Ennis is pissed off, saying that they're going to be without a month's pay since they're leaving early. Jack offers a loan, but Ennis gets angry, although he's clearly not angry about the money. He's upset that he's being forced to leave Jack so soon.

Jack finds Ennis later sitting off by himself and playfully tackles him, telling him they have to be going.



But Ennis, who's in love with this fellow cowboy but can't express it, takes out his frustration on Jack and punches him. Both men are bloodied afterward, Ennis with a bloody nose and Jack a cut on his cheek, and they herd the sheep back down the mountain without talking to each other.

Back in Signal, Aguirre counts the sheep and is disappointed, telling the men they basically did a shitty job.

Jack heads to his truck and asks Ennis if he's going to be doing the same thing next summer. Ennis doubts it, saying he'll probably take better paying work elsewhere.



Ennis is also upset that he left his good white shirt up on the mountain. Finally, the two men stand there, unsure of what to say to each other after their time together. There's no real goodbyes or hugs or wishes of good luck; Jack simply gets into his truck and drives away, although he was waiting like he was hoping Ennis would say something.

After Jack drives off, Ennis is slowly walking down the road and is forced to stop, because his knees are shaking. He drops to his knees and gets physically ill, crying while he does it.

Those events make up the first 30 minutes or so of the film.

Years pass; Ennis marries a girl, Alma, and has two daughters.

Interestingly, in the sex scene with his wife, he begins kissing her, and then turns her over to have sex with her, exactly the same way he did with Jack.

Ennis's home life is made up of screaming kids, endless jobs in which he bounces from ranch to ranch doing work, and nights where he returns home exhausted. His wife wants to move into town, and eventually they do, above a laundromat.

Jack, meanwhile, returned to Aguirre's place the following summer, asking for work. But Aguirre calls him on his extracurricular activities, telling Jack that *he* was hired to watch the sheep -- not the dog -- but that Jack was busy "stemming the rose" with Ennis. I swear that's the euphemism he used, and I think I transcribed it correctly. Jack then hits the rodeo circuit (bulls) and has a pretty poor time of it. Minor gaffe in the riding scenes: Gyllenhaal is a lefty, while the stuntman rides righty. See if you can pick it up when you see the film.

During one particular ride, a rodeo clown (they call them bullfighters nowadays) helps Jack out of a sticky situation. Later, Jack offers to buy the guy a beer, but the way it's filmed it's clearly meant as a sexual advance. Jack's beer is refused, and the rodeo clown leaves the bar and goes over to a group of his buddies. They don't really telegraph the scene, but I think it's clear that the clown suspects something.

Lots of bullridin', ropin', slide guitar, and Ennis's screaming kids later, it's 1966. Ennis has become cold and embittered toward his wife (though he treats his kids well) and drinks heavily. This film makes married life and having kids seem depressing. Really.

Jack, on the other hand, meets a barrel racer (female, if you've never seen barrel racing), Lureen, at a rodeo and starts up a romance.



Her daddy's rich: he sells high-end farm equipment. They get married, much to her father's dismay (throughout the film the father-in-law only calls him "Rodeo") and have a son.

A year later a postcard arrives in the mail for Ennis. It's from Jack, telling him he's going to be down his way and they should meet up. Ennis's enthusiastic postcard reply? "You bet."

When the day approaches, Ennis sits in his apartment, nervously drinking beer after beer.



His wife tries to talk to him, the kids seek his attention, but nothing is getting him out of that chair where he's staring at the street below. That night Jack finally shows up. He's been living in Childers, Texas, a 14-hour drive away from Riverton, Wyoming, where Ennis lives.

When Jack's truck pulls up, Ennis actually *smiles* and goes running down the stairs. "Jack fuckin' Twist," is all he says before pulling the other man into a giant hug.





This time Jack is hesitant, but Ennis drags him out of the dirt driveway and slams him against the side of the house and kisses him passionately.



In all these moments, it's like the two men are rabid for each other. That's the best way I can put it, because the scenes are really, really powerful and physical.




Unfortunately, Ennis's wife sees this occur, and can't believe it.



She never lets on, however. She plays along when Ennis then hurriedly tells her that he and Jack are going out for a beer, and not to wait up because he probably won't be home once they "get to talking and drinking." When he leaves she grabs her daughter and cries.



Jack and Ennis head right for a motel, and we learn it's been four years since they've seen each other. They're together in bed at this point. Jack is sitting behind Ennis, with his forearm wrapped around Ennis's chest.



Jack simply says, "That ol' Brokeback's got us good, don't it?"



During the same visit the men decide to go fishing up in the mountains. While there, Jack suggests getting a ranch so they can always be together. But Ennis says it "can't be that way," because "[if] we're around each other and this thing grabs hold of us again at the wrong place, wrong time, we're dead."

Ennis tells him the story of two men in his town when he was a boy that lived and ranched together, making it clear that there was something going on other than ranching. Then we see a flashback. One of the men was beaten to death and left in a ditch. Ennis's father brought him and his brother to see the dead man, as a lesson of some sort. Ennis can't take that chance, and tells Jack, "if you can't fix it Jack, you gotta stand it," and "there ain't no reins on this one," referring to the men together.

From there the men keep in contact by postcard, meeting up 2 or 3 times a year to go "fishing." We see how the men's lives are changing: Jack goes to work for his father-in-law at his farm machinery business while his wife becomes more and more money hungry, while Ennis and his wife drift farther apart until they eventually divorce on November 6, 1975. She gets custody of the girls, and Ennis must pay $125 a month for each child until they're 18.

When Ennis sends a postcard to Jack informing him about the divorce, Jack drops everything and drives the 14 hours back to Wyoming to surprise Ennis. Ennis is surprised, but Jack explains that when he got the postcard he thought that meant things had changed, and he came right away. Ennis tells him that he can't do it that weekend, because he has his daughters, and he has work commitments. Jack, heartbroken, gets back into his truck and drives the 14 hours home, crying.



Now here's something that wasn't in the short story: from that sad scene with Ennis, Jack heads to Mexico to pick up a male prostitute.

At Thanksgiving in 1977, Jack finally stands up to his bastard father-in-law during dinner, while back in Wyoming Ennis has been invited to dinner with his kids, ex-wife, and her new husband. Helping to clear the table, Alma confronts him in the kitchen about all the fishing trips over the years. She tells him she hung a note at the end of his line that read, "Hi Ennis, bring home a bunch of fish," but he never noticed. She goes on to tell him that she knows all about Jack Twist, and in this scene you can watch Ledger physically shake with anger, try to control himself, shake again, and then explode, with Ennis threatening Alma with a fist held at her face, denying any of that ever occurred. He is so angry that later that night when a guy almost runs him over as he heads to a bar, he goes over and starts attacking the guy in his truck.

In 1978 Ennis has a new girlfriend (Linda Cardellini from the TV show Freaks and Geeks, and who I almost didn't recognize),



while in Texas Jack flirts with the husband of one of his wife's friends. Of course, all this time the men have been seeing each other when they can.

On another of their week-long "fishing" trips, Jack again brings up the idea of the two of them getting a ranch together, because he tells Ennis, "Truth is, sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it."

On the last day of the trip Ennis breaks the news that he won't be able to see Jack until November, because he can't get out of work and he has child support to pay. Jack is furious, wondering what happened to August and telling him "there ain't never enough time!" Ennis tries to make him understand, but Jack won't have it, because he knows that Ennis is just afraid to be with him. Jack says, "We have a bitch of an unsatisfactory situation, here." The two of them at this point have been going up to Brokeback for almost 20 years, and that's all they'll ever have, Jack yells, Brokeback. Jack wants more, but Ennis won't give it to him. Jack tells him "I wish I knew how to quit you," and Ennis replies that he wishes he would. Ennis then breaks down crying, telling Jack that "I'm this way because of you." Jack goes to comfort him, but Ennis fights him off, until eventually Jack grabs him and hugs him, and Ennis allows Jack to hold him while he cries.





The last time they meet, there's also a short flashback scene as Jack watches Ennis get into his truck and leave. He's remembering back when they were on the mountain together, and Ennis came up behind up to tell him to get to sleep because he was "sleeping on his feet like a horse."





Spoiler space for the ending of the film, if you haven't read the short story. I'm going to ruin it for you, so be forewarned!

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***

*** Save a horse, ride a cowboy ***


Some time later, one of the postcards Ennis sent to Jack seeking another meeting comes back to him with the word "Deceased" stamped across it. Ennis is stunned, and calls Jack's wife.

The wife tells Ennis that Jack was fixing a flat on a seldom-traveled road when the tire he was pumping up exploded, and the rim hit him in the face. She says that he was knocked unconscious and drowned in his own blood. While she says all this, Ennis is imagining what he thinks really happened -- three men take a tire iron to Jack's face and beat him to death. You see Jack scramble to the side of the road, past a rail fence, and fall to the ground. Three men crowd over him while his hands are up, trying to protect himself. Then you see a wide shot as the three men start beating him with the tire irons, and then we get a quick close up on Jack. He's on the ground, and the camera tracks down on him from above, so that he looks upside-down (i.e. his chin is at the top of the frame). There's some blood coming from his nose. Then the camera pulls back again, and we see the three men continue to beat him while he struggles to fight. The final scene is yet another quick close-up, Jack's face covered in blood. There is no sound in this scene, thankfully, except for Jack's wife speaking in voice-over.

Jack's wife tells Ennis that Jack was cremated, and that half of the ashes are staying with her, while the other half were sent to his parents. She tells him that she heard Jack talk about wanting to be buried at Brokeback Mountain, but she never knew where it was. Ennis tells her he knows where it is, as they spent time one summer working sheep on top of it, and he'll go to Jack's parents and ask for the ashes.

Ennis arrives at a sad, desolate ranch in Lightning Flat. They didn't mention which state in the movie, but according to the short story it's in Montana. Jack's mother greets him at the door, and she brings him coffee when he sits down at the kitchen table. Jack's father is also at the table, barely acknowledging the fact that Ennis is sitting there.

Then Ennis struggles to find a way to offer to bring Jack's ashes to the mountain. Ledger is wonderful in this scene as he seeks to remain strong in front of Jack's mean-looking father, while also trying to hold back tears. Jack's father tells Ennis that he knows his name, because Jack told his father that he wanted to bring Ennis to the ranch to help make a go of it, and build a cabin. Then Jack's father tells Ennis that Jack mentioned he was going to bring another "friend" of his to help work the ranch, just recently. Ennis seems saddened and surprised by this, while Jack's father obviously had a feeling about what was going on with his son. He seems cold and unfeeling over Jack's death. The father says that Jack thought he was too good to be buried in the family plot -- but he's going in there, no matter what his wishes were.

Jack's mother offers Ennis a chance to look at Jack's bedroom, as she kept it the same from the time he was a boy.

Ennis pokes around the sparsely furnished bedroom and comes to the closet. He looks at Jack's boots, and then goes through the clothes that are hanging there. Instantly he notices the blue shirt Jack wore on Brokeback Mountain, because it has the blood stain on the sleeve from after the men fought. Then Ennis pulls up the sleeve, and finds the white shirt he thought he forgot on the mountain hanging hidden right underneath Jack's shirt.

He lifts it from the closet, and brings it to his face, inhaling Jack's scent.



At this point just about everyone in the theatre was sniffling. Ennis takes the shirt and crumbles it into a ball, hiding it from Jack's father when he comes down the stairs, but Jack's mother gives Ennis a paper bag to put the shirt in. She seems sympathetic; it's as if she might have known about her son.

Toward the end of the movie, Ennis's daughter (who played Matt's lesbian girlfriend on Season 2 of the TV show Nip/Tuck) comes to visit him at his new place, a single trailer at the end of a dusty road. She visits for a bit, and tells him she's getting married. He tells her he was supposed to work on a cattle drive, but that he's going to quit to be there at the wedding. After she leaves he discovers she has left her sweater behind, so he carefully folds it and opens one side of his bureau to put the sweater away.

And in the final scene of the movie, Ennis opens the bureau door wider so that we can see the two shirts hanging there, this time with Jack's blue shirt underneath Ennis's white striped one. Tacked next to the shirts is a postcard with the simple image of Brokeback Mountain on it. As the film comes to a close, Ennis smoothes the shirts and straightens the postcard, and simply says, "Jack, I swear."