brokeback
i tend to be very particular and exclusive about the movies i watch. especially the movies i watch in the theater. and for good reason. most of the movies that are released on mainstream cinema screens aren't worth the 78 cents that my $12.00 snacks actually cost. bubble gum teen movies and toilet humor starring saturday night live cast members are not my idea of a quality night on the town. so i avoid them. i choose carefully what i subject myself to in 2-hour time blocks. as a result, my cinematic experiences are always either hilariously entertaining or profoundly moving. last night's movie outing raised the bar. jan and her mother and i went to Brokeback Mountain. if you haven't seen it, do. if you have seen it and didn't like it, then you and i have nothing in common. while i think there is a place for the over-the-top queer genre that wraps itself up neatly at the end of 2 hours with a previously disapproving family attending a pride parade, focus films rightly leaves that storyline to the lifetime movie network and does something entirely different and real and tragic and beautiful.
secretly and tidily situated in the enormity of (what i assume to be) the canadian rockies, this love known only to the two people who share it, becomes as majestic and ineffable as the setting in which it begins. this story is told in the same silence that contains the love of ennis and jack. rare are the moments of outburst and wild emotion, and as such, they are that much more effective. rarer still are the scenes of homophobic violence and hate crimes. this story is about the silence of forbidden love. it tells the story of the very real experience of invisibility and rejection. throughout the film, at least three supporting characters are aware or hint at awareness of the love between ennis and jack. none of them speaks of that awareness explicitly. not even to ennis or jack. there is no "outing" of the characters, because in this context it would be more embarrassing for the person who publicly identifies their knowledge of the love than it would be for the men who share the love and have a substantially deeper understanding
of it. and this points to one of the most impressive elements of the characters. neither of them is personally embarrassed by their love. confused at first, angry that this is happening to them, but not embarrassed. they simply recognize that it is not an option. and both of them simultaneously carry on a permissible life. this is a homophobia that stings to the core of human existence. the message is not that one will not be accepted if one divulges his persuasion. the message is that this love is so deeply rejected that there exists no language to name it or express it. the fragile counterbalance to this refusal to identify the relationship between ennis and jack is that their love, from the perspective of the affirming on-looker, is so pure and so intense that it does in fact elude language. this story reflects a truth that thankfully so many of us will never know in its fullness. no one lives happily ever after, there is no declaration of lifelong commitment uttered between two passionate lovers. there is silence and pain and loss and love too powerful to need exclamation. and it all happens quietly under the vast shadow of compromise and survival tucked neatly in the green valleys and tiny towns at the foothills of the rockies.
secretly and tidily situated in the enormity of (what i assume to be) the canadian rockies, this love known only to the two people who share it, becomes as majestic and ineffable as the setting in which it begins. this story is told in the same silence that contains the love of ennis and jack. rare are the moments of outburst and wild emotion, and as such, they are that much more effective. rarer still are the scenes of homophobic violence and hate crimes. this story is about the silence of forbidden love. it tells the story of the very real experience of invisibility and rejection. throughout the film, at least three supporting characters are aware or hint at awareness of the love between ennis and jack. none of them speaks of that awareness explicitly. not even to ennis or jack. there is no "outing" of the characters, because in this context it would be more embarrassing for the person who publicly identifies their knowledge of the love than it would be for the men who share the love and have a substantially deeper understanding
of it. and this points to one of the most impressive elements of the characters. neither of them is personally embarrassed by their love. confused at first, angry that this is happening to them, but not embarrassed. they simply recognize that it is not an option. and both of them simultaneously carry on a permissible life. this is a homophobia that stings to the core of human existence. the message is not that one will not be accepted if one divulges his persuasion. the message is that this love is so deeply rejected that there exists no language to name it or express it. the fragile counterbalance to this refusal to identify the relationship between ennis and jack is that their love, from the perspective of the affirming on-looker, is so pure and so intense that it does in fact elude language. this story reflects a truth that thankfully so many of us will never know in its fullness. no one lives happily ever after, there is no declaration of lifelong commitment uttered between two passionate lovers. there is silence and pain and loss and love too powerful to need exclamation. and it all happens quietly under the vast shadow of compromise and survival tucked neatly in the green valleys and tiny towns at the foothills of the rockies.
posted by shelly at 1/14/2006 11:55:00 AM
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