Brokeback heartbreak

As SO had to take the weekend off to heal up from his minor surgical procedure, I loaded up on movies checked out from our local library. One of the films I picked up was the much-hyped Brokeback Mountain. I was prepared to be disappointed. I didn't think it could possibly live up to all the buzz.

I was wrong.

It really got to me, this movie about two people caught up in an impossible, doomed relationship. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal touched me deeply as they became the characters of Ennis and Jack, young men drawn to each other against their own better judgement and dictates of society.

We watched half of it Saturday night. At church on Sunday morning, I couldn't focus on the sermon because I kept wondering what was going to happen in the movie. I've seen enough movies to get the pattern down -- I knew this kind of film would not end well. Tragedy was just around the corner. Which one of these cowboys was going to die? Were they both going to be murdered by a bloodthirsty mob? My stomach churned.

After lunch, with both kids safely involved in other things, SO and I sat down to finish the film. Lots of things were left unspoken, and the visual impact of the movie was left to the interpretation of the viewer. I'm pretty sure I would make a poor film critic because there's so much I miss. I watched several scenes many times over, and even downloaded the short story off the Internet to see what Annie Proulx had written. Maybe that would answer some of my burning questions.

My heart was broken.

When I watch a story this good, it's transcending. I'm lifted beyond what I have just seen and apply the lessons to the world around me. With the Constant Gardener, I reflected on human greed and the plight of the powerless against the powerful. In America found me sobbing over the responsibilities some children must shoulder in order to keep their families intact. Truly Madly Deeply left me devastated by the knowledge that death always wins, no matter how strong a love is shared, and that one must go on living as Pablo Neruda said so aptly in one of his poems.

What lessons did I take away from Brokeback Mountain? Some people are doomed to meet their kindred spirit in the body of another of the same sex, a coupling deemed unacceptable by society. Every moment shared brings with it the realization of how few moments there can actually be. If you refuse to apply a moral construct to this coupling, the tragedy is apparent and overwhelming.

SO and I wondered if the film would have had the same impact if the characters had been women, but women don't have the freedom to leave their families for weeks at a time in order to go "fishing" with a buddy.

I doubt there will be a Brokeback Mountain II: the Alma and Lureen story.

(Check out Eeyore's real life BBM story: Ennis and Jack and Junior and Tim.)