Team Experience: The Best of Brokeback Mountain
Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 1:00PM Ten years ago Brokeback Mountain arrived with truly bracing power.
10 years later Brokeback Mountain has lost none of its power
It was the rarest of things: an honest to god "instant classic". The phrase is overused but once in a while hyperbole proves true. The Oscars were stingy with it (just three prizes) but ten years on the film is as sturdy and majestically irreducible as the mountains that haunt the protagonists. When you're watching it you're breathing rarified air - not from the high altitudes of Wyoming but further on up, think cinematic heaven. The invaluable Ang Lee won his first Best Director Oscar for the film and it's easy to see why given the sensitivity of the performances (early career peaks from four promising ascendant stars), the classicism of the filmmaking, and his unshakeable hand as he sutures the neo western to the romantic tragedy with the thread of American masculinity.
I asked our contributors if they had a favorite scene they'd like to share with us and here were their responses.
FAVORITE SCENES IN BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Not even ten minutes in and Ennis and Jack are already scaling the landscape, herding sheep over mountains of stunningly photographed silver-toned greens and across rivers of clear shimmering blues. Masses of sheep marching across the wide-open plains of the oft-eulogized days gone by are a fitting backdrop for a film that suggests love is just as natural as, well, nature. Most importantly, these early scenes allow audiences – knowing full well they are watching a gay romance – to juxtapose the sight of the traditional American male as well as Americana itself with that of, well, two men fucking. That these scenes are consumed by images of masculinity and ruggedness, cuts to the core of the film and the ideas that we ought not be as concerned with the preoccupation of what it means to be a man, but rather more concerned with being the self we are when we let our guard down and believe nobody is watching. - Glenn Dunks
It's a short moment lasting only for one shot: the camera tilts up from a potato that Jack is studiously peeling to reveal Ennis behind him, naked and taking a sponge bath. Gyllenhaal, in focus, holds his head immobile, the angle suggesting that Ledger is just barely in his peripheral vision. To us, Ledger is a blurry pink blob. Coming shortly before the two men finally consummate their attraction, this single shot is a tiny little fable of erotic longing. The image expresses an anxiety to look and appreciate the naked male form, to lust after it, to respond to it at all, but neither Jack nor ourselves are able to do so. For a film that will spend the rest of its time smartly dissecting the pain of hidden desire, this is a key image, symbolizing the object of desire as both immediately present and inaccessible simultaneously. - Timothy Brayton
There are moments in your life that live on far after they've gone. There are certain people that come into it at just the right time. Sometimes nostalgia can color your memory of it all, until it remains an idealized remembrance of things past. If Brokeback Mountain had focused only on the summer that Ennis and Jack spent together instead of spanning the decades-long affair, would it have had the same impact? After 5 years have passed since that summer - wives, children, lives, and change drifting through the space that brought the two men together, there is a fear that hangs in the air of their first reunion. What if it had just been a brief, yet beautiful flash. The joy of seeing each other again gives way to something more primal and intense. Their bodies (and souls) collide as if the attraction and magnetic pull of each other is impossible to keep them separated again. Blissfully fumbling over each other, the two men are lost to the world. But standing at the porch door, watching but not fully understanding is Ennis' wife Alma. A fumbling mix of emotions tumbling over her lost face. Their rapturous reunion becomes her silent cross to bear. - Abstew
The image that has crystallised in my head from Brokeback Mountain is that of Ennis del Mar standing in front of the sky full of fireworks - I think it was released as a press shot. Watching the film back for the first time in a fair few years, it is not necessarily my favourite scene but it does perfectly encapsulate the film's tender, fractured relationship to the 'American dream'. The image of the cowboy is America's most quintessentially masculine stereotype, and here stands one, before 4th of July fireworks celebrating the land of the free, his anger just exercised over some bawdy, crude men. But Ennis also symbolises the individual man's impossible struggle to be everything his country expects him to be, and this moment shows how Ennis can never simply be the happy family man he wishes so desperately to be. It is celebration and sorrow in one beautifully framed image. - David Upton
She may have been the only one of the Brokeback quartet to not earn an Oscar nomination but Anne Hathaway is at the center of my favorite scene of the film and one where we get the line that best sums up the film's title:
Knowing Jack, it was probably some pretend place where bluebirds sing and there's a whiskey spring...”
Shot in a tight close up and framed by her tasteless big peroxide hair and her garish rings, Hathaway's performance is all in her eyes. As she talks to Ennis and gives him the official story of how Jack died (which Lee juxtaposes with violent images of how he was actually killed), Hathaway’s welled-up eyes show a woman facing the man her husband loved. While Ennis betrays little emotion, we see her almost breaking. Even at this moment of truth, this no-nonsense woman doesn't let her guard down. It's an exquisitely quiet moment that epitomizes the film’s sympathetic portrait of its central couple and those around them. -Manuel Betancourt
Ennis and Jack were cursed with inarticulate feelings but we shouldn't be so shy or withholding with our love for this American classic. We're eager to hear your favorite moment from the film in the comments.
Reader Comments (34)
That peak at Ennis in the truck side window is IT. That's the best shot right there.
Runner up - the fireworks shot of Ennis.
Re: TIm's - that is such a key image. I remember when I first saw the movie, not really sure what to expect, seeing that moment and knowing that Lee - and everyone else involved in the movie - really *got it*.
I wept endlessly when Ennis found that shirt with the blood-stained sleeve in Jack's closet.
I'm actually doing a 'battle of movie moments' at my blog, and one of the first ones I selected was the scene where Alma makes her discovery. Such a powerful shot.
However, if I were limited to a single shot (not an entire scene), I would probably choose the fireworks behind Ledger also.
Excellent post. I love this film so much, it's easily my favorite romance of all time, even if it doesn't have that stereotypical happy ending.
Manuel, that phone call was my pick, too!
I've only seen the movie once, right when it came out, but I can recall that scene so easily. The tight framing on her face helps, but there's this moment where her voice or her breath catches in her throat and makes the tiniest, most soul-crushing sound as she realizes just who she's talking to and what Brokeback Mountain was. It's such a short scene but Anne communicates EVERYTHING about this woman through her voice and her face. Beautiful, beautiful actressing. I also like that Lee offers some ambiguity as to whether what we see was what actually happened to Jack or just what is in Ennis's head. It's the one scene of the film I remember in its entirety (although the reunion kiss comes close).
10 years? I need to watch this again. Wouldn't it be amazing if Carol won Best Picture to remedy that upsetting evening 10 Oscars ago.
I rewatched it a couple of months ago and it left me the same void I had in the first viewing.
The moment that chose Manuel Betancourt is quietly powerful, not only because of Hathaway (she should have been nominated along with Michelle), but because the pain that Ennis imagines is as quiet as it is heartbreaking.
There are a lot of scenes that stay with me from this film. Mostly Ennis' memory of his father taking him and his brother to see the dead body, Ennis' visit to Jack's parents and Abstew's chosen scene. Michelle's immediate reaction and her interaction with them reaches at so many levels.
Great post guys - I'm going to watch BM again this afternoon! It's been too long. Screw my plans to go see Trumbo.
I literally have chills just looking at still photos from this classic film!
My favorite scene is the confrontation between Williams and Ledger 'Jack Twist... Jack Nasty'
Love it. It's hard to pick just ONE favorite scene/shot, but my top five would be:
1. "Jack, I swear"
2. Alma's discovery
3. Lureen on the phone
4. Ennis and Jack's mother
5. "Women don't fall in love with fun"
Honorable mention: Ennis on the Fourth of July
And that doesn't even cover the magnificent vistas, "Jack Nasty," the electric burst of energy known as Lashawn, or Jack's dinner table confrontation with his father-in-law.
What impressed me most after seeing the film a 5th time was Hathaway's phone scene,seems tailor made for Oscar.
Anne Hathaway blew me away in the phone call scene. I remember being surprised and impressed by her performance, because I had no inkling beforehand that she had that in her.
Yeah, that phone call scene. The wig, the eyes, the voice, the intercuts.
But the first reunion scene is also killer.
And the final scene: "Jack, I swear..." Those damned tear-jerking guitars!
And...
I think that she would've been nominated had the movie been released now. She had very little credibility to her name at the time (The Princess Diaries and....that's it).
OMG The ending to this film killed me the first time i saw it and ever since. Its probably up there with the top ten endings I've ever seen. I don't even know if i loved the movie until the ending came up and all of the sudden i realized what this film was truly about. This is one of the best films of the last decade hands down. Maybe even the best, but I love There Will Be Blood and The Wrestler as well. But just thinking about the ending is making me cry. Its seriously PERFECT!!!. When a whole film can culminate into the perfect final shot then thats true greatness. Love the retrospective on this film cause it seriously deserves all its accolades.
10 years ago brokeback lost the oscar... We reallyyy need a gay/lesbian movie to win best picture right now : carol
The hope in Jack's voice and eyes when he says "I might be back," just as they say their goodbyes after the summer on Brokeback. It's the character in a single note - hopeful, self-aware, longing, sad, and brimming with emotion. It's his dream, his curse and, as he later throws at Ennis, the life they could have had.
Ennis can never seem to form a response to this until the film's final line, where the shirts holding each tells it all. "Jack, I swear..." We don't need to hear the rest. It's everything he could never bring himself to say.
The kiss is one for the ages- Heath Ledger is so painfully real it's hard to watch this now. He was robbed of a best actor Oscar and so was the picture.
Oh, to be kissed like that! Swoon!
Just reading this post makes me teary eyed! These are great picks.
I love Timothy's pick because I remember someone saying to me "that scene where Ennis is naked and Jack takes a moment to peek at him". Of course he actually doesn't, but we are still left with that impression that it's easy to misremember that scene.
For me my favourite scene is the momentary flashback at their final meeting "sleeping on your feet like a horse". A moment of tenderness that encapsulates their love that could only work removed from reality, juxtaposed with their current argument and final goodbye. Bliss crushed by reality, but still was once a reality that can't be recaptured.
Hathaway shut me up forever in that phone scene (I used to whine about her a lot before that).
I also really loved Roberta Maxwell's quietly searing cameo as Jack's mother. I wish we'd got to see more of this obviously great actress in the years since.
annie has said that even she doesn't know in the final film if her character actually knew about ennis and jack because she played it differently each take and ang lee edited it together using moments from both. I'm surprised that the cast were all under 25 at the time and could convincing play the characters when they were older and not feel like a high school production...
such a wonderful film and loving everyone sharing their favorite moments.
Wow. Bravo you guys! Such a beautiful retrospective (and intro, Nathaniel). I can't believe its been ten years... few films have hit and stayed with me the way brokeback has. its hard to pick just one scene but I'd have to say Ennis meeting jacks parents and finding those shirts (sob).
*Ennis & Jack forever*
I saw Brokeback Mountain five times in the theater, mesmerized by its haunting beauty and the experience of seeing a love story between two men play before a sold out audience in a giant commercial movie theater. Ten years later it’s lost none of its power and makes my heart throb just thinking about it. These would be the scenes I most cherish...
1. “So what we got now is Brokeback Mountain.”/ Flashback
That searing catharsis. Ennis crumbling. And then a deftly scored flashback to an achingly tender moment of happiness.
2. Finding the shirts (ugh)
3. Reunion kiss
4. Parting (“I might be back”)/ Alleyway breakdown
5. Phone call to Laureen
And obviously the (“Jack, I swear...”) ending. How lovely that in its 10th year we not only got a landmark Supreme Court decision but Carol, an equally glorious same-sex love story in cinemas and the awards conversation. It makes a nice companion piece too. Brokeback will forever be in my personal cannon so thank you to Annie, Diana, Ang, the late Heath, Jake and everyone who helped give us this masterpiece.
Dick may of clued us in on Michelle Williams' greatness but Brokeback Mountain cemented it.
I have only seen this once -- in the theater during its original run as a senior in high school -- and can't return to it yet.
That said, most seared in my brain is Linda Cardellini happy to see Heath Ledger at the diner, and he shoots her down with a cold, "That new guy you're seeing looks like he must be fun."
Her eyes well up with tears. "Ennis del Mar, girls don't want to fall in love with fun!"
I would read, shortly after Ledger's death, that he would be withdrawn and isolated during filming. Cardellini would be joyous all day and when the camera came on she could just get there. He noticed this and said to somebody nearby, "See that? I envy her."
I thought about choosing a single scene rather than just writing the intro but i couldn't pick. I had like ten in mind. now i regret it reading all this love for the movie. there is always so much to say about it.
The cast is uniformly great, down to Anna Faris and Linda Cardellini.
Love all of this. Thanks everyone. I can't pick a favorite scene. It's all sublime. I watch it pretty much every year.
Thank you Manuel for acknowledging the most underrated performance in this film, and its best moment. This was the movie where I realized Anne Hathaway was a real SFA (serious fucking actress).
Thank you for this wonderful post. The five contributors here describe their favorite scenes so beautifully it almost makes me cry.
There are many, many great scenes; in fact, each scene is a piece of art on its own. But having to choose one I would pick the the phone call scene as my favorite. Anne Hathaway's performance, the editing, the framing, the visual clues and contrasts, the deliberate pace and pregnant silences, the cinematic eloquence of what's been said and what's been thought, and the beauty of the words spoken - the whole is nothing short of miraculous.
I have just finished watching brokeback mountain for possibly the 12th time. No other film has ever touched me like this film. Until I came across this blog I thought I was the only person to notice the incredible way Anne Hathaway played the phone call scene that's as good a single scene ever shot in my eyes. I just adore this film and the way it gave reality to love of two men very few films have done before
I have seen BBM more than 20 times. For me, pivotal to the love story of Ennis and Jack was the moment they met again after 4 years. It cemented just how invested and passionate Ennis actually was when it was easy to believe it was Jack who perhaps had the stronger pull in the relationship. Watching the lead up to Jack’s arrival with Ennis so on edge, eyes and ears glued for his arrival. That kissing scene and the scenes immediately leading up to it told me that Ennis actually needed the meeting more when it was superficially easy to believe Jack was the initiator. This movie has changed me in so many ways. It opened my mind to love in all it’s forms.