Witness, won't you, the confluent forces, the
twin streams of conflicting culture represented by the amazing "Brokeback
Mountain" movie phenomenon, a spare and sad and highly controversial little
indie-style flick that is shaking up the homophobic community and raking in
the Golden Globes and which now seems a shoo-in to win an Oscar or four, as
compared and contrasted with, say, the humorless, depressing, dry-as-death
Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination. Oh yes, we have a match. Do you see
it?
Look closer. On the one hand, here is the astounding reach and power of this
rare and striking little film, an emotional tinderbox of a movie that, in
the wrong hands or with the wrong marketing or if it had been off pitch by
just this much, could have very easily been trashed and quickly dismissed,
would have hobbled the careers of two up-and-coming hunk actors, been mocked
across the board and demonized by the religious right as revolting gay
propaganda, the source of all ills, proof of the existence of the devil
himself.
Of course, the latter is still happening (isn't it always?), but the amazing
thing is, no one seems to care. The screech of the right's homophobes is
being easily drowned out by the fact that this astonishing, pitch-perfect
film is now considered a movie that, quite literally, changes minds. Shifts
perceptions. That moves the human experiment forward and makes people truly
think about sex and gender and love and not in the way that, say, "Pride &
Prejudice" makes you think because that kind of thinking is merely sweet and
harmless, whereas "Brokeback" slaps bigotry and intolerance upside its
knobby little head and induces heated discussions of the film's dynamics and
politics and ideas of love over a bottle of wine and some deep curious
sighing.
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ANG LEE: Usually I think it's the ingredients.
It's not even story or characters. Just the taste of the film. What kind of
emotion that I could get from it and show all the people my response that I
found through that, I make a connection with people. Which is like this
movie. That's what it's about. It's a private connection that we all dream
of, that we can make with another person, it's our Brokeback.
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PJH: I think it's clear to anyone who reads "Brokeback
Mountain" that above all it's a wrenching, starcrossed love story. It is
about two cowboys, but it seems inaccurate to call it gay literature. How do
you feel about the film being assailed as gay agitprop emerging from liberal
Hollywood? Did you ever intend for the story to be controversial?
AP: Excuse me, but it is NOT a story about "two cowboys." It is a story
about two inarticulate, confused Wyoming ranch kids in 1963 who have left
home and who find themselves in a personal sexual situation they did not
expect, understand nor can manage. The only work they find is herding sheep
for a summer some cowboys!
Yet both are beguiled by the cowboy myth, as are most people who live in the state, and Ennis tries to be one but never gets beyond ranch hand work; Jack settles on rodeo as an expression of the Western ideal. It more or less works for him until he becomes a tractor salesman.
Their relationship endures for 20 years, never resolved, never faced up to, always haunted by fear and confusion. How different readers take the story is a reflection of their own personal values, attitudes, hang-ups.
It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it through his or her life experience, prejudices, world view and thoughts. Far from being "liberal," Hollywood was afraid of the script as were many actors and agents.
Of course I knew the story would be seen as controversial. I doubted it would even be published, and was pleased when The New Yorker very quickly accepted it. In the years since the story was published in 1997 I have received many letters from gay and straight men, not a few Wyoming-born. Some said, "You told my story," some said "That is why I left Wyoming," and a number, from fathers, said "Now I understand the hell my son went through."
I still get these heart breaking letters.
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