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Sunday, January 22, 2006

Brokeback Mountain

The other night I saw "Brokeback Mountain," a very good film. It would have been interesting to see more of how the main characters were together, but most of that was left to the imagination as the narrative focused on what kept them apart and how things were for them when apart. Not exploring the relationship itself is a legitimate artistic choice, especially where part of the point is that there wasn't a relationship anyone would find satisfactory. Still, it would have helped the film to show more of the little interactions between people in love, in addition to everything else it shows.

The really interesting artistic decision is the depiction of the first sexual encounter between Jack and Ennis. There were a million ways to play it, and the one the filmmakers chose was unexpected and, to me, curious. I wondered whether some footage from the preceding campfire scene might have been left on the cutting room floor. Anyway, not to belabor the point, but what ever happened to foreplay? I suppose the message is that the character wasn't socially equipped to do anything but let his most basic urges take over. But, as the boys' school don in "The Meaning of Life" asked, "What's wrong with a kiss, boy?"

And speaking of kissing, I think most people having a secret, forbidden relationship would be a little more careful about, say, making out where other family members could easily see them. Yes, yes, passion, four years and all that, but people in such situations are sneaky. They do little things in support of their cover stories, or at least don't construct transparent, refutable cover stories.


posted at 1:23 PM

1 Comments:

Blogger syp said...

I believe the lack of foreplay is true to the source material - although I cannot vouch for that from personal experience as I haven't read the short story. Also, I think you can figure out quite a bit about Jack and Ennis' relationship from the few scenes of them together. Ennis actually speaks and has a sense of humor. I think the time they spend apart speaks volumes about they time they have together.

January 24, 2006 4:05 PM  

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