everse Shot writer Chris
Wisniewski on
Brokeback Mountain:
"Lee’s film tells the stories of two men: Ennis (Ledger), who feels the burden of repression so strongly that he denies what he wants -- and, potentially, who he is -- and Jack (Gyllenhaal), who feels his identity with a force that cannot be contained. The film aligns itself completely with Ennis’s point of view (not insignificantly, he’s the top in the relationship), and so we see the climactic tragedy at its center through his eyes only. By making that choice, Lee’s film wallows in the very repression that paralyzes its protagonist. Artistically, that might be a valid choice, and it’s worked for Lee before. Politically, though, there’s something dangerous -- at the very least, we can admit, inadequate -- in the way Ennis and, eventually, the film seem to suggest that some things simply
must be kept in the closet, for the price of doing otherwise would prove far too high. Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist would almost certainly disagree -- indeed, with such fervor that he would stake his life on it -- but the film never really gives us that point of view. It’s Ennis’s voice that we hear almost exclusively, reminding us, 'If you can’t fix it, you just gotta stand it.' Fine. In the meantime, I’ll wait for a mainstream gay film that says something truly progressive and courageous, namely: 'If you can’t stand it, you just gotta fix it.'"
Get Over It: Brokeback Mountain