Brokeback Mountain

After viewing Brokeback Mountain  this past week, which I chose to watch after we did not have class Tuesday, September 14, I had very mixed feelings. When I felt this way upon watching the film I chose to go to our film class’s website and read up on  film in the articles posted. After reading Harry M. “Benshoff’s article, “Brokering Brokeback Mountain- A Local Reception Study,” I felt as though I somehow understood the film  not only better, but on a deeper level, and from there I was able to form opinions. Overall, I completely agreed with Benshoff’s article reviewing Brokeback Mountain, especially on three of the topics he discussed: the irony of the film, the wilderness versus the “closet” of homosexuality, and the idea of treating homosexuality as a disease.

                Benshoff made several valid points in his article that helped me to understand the irony in the film. In the beginning of Brokeback Mountain before we see either of the characters with a homosexual personality, the men are pictured in wide open, mountain-side settings, that would typically be thought to be a “manly” atmosphere.  When thinking back on the film after hearing of the “ironic” theme, it also clicked that in general the whole movie as a whole seemed to be this way, being that it was about two hardcore, cowboy-type men starting a relationship in the wilderness while they were onsite for work. This idea continues further when they continue to return to the vast openness of the mountains for some twenty years later to continue to pursue their secret relationship.

                Going along with the topic of the open wilderness, it took me reading Benshoff’s article to understand the idea of using the wilderness in Brokeback Mountain in comparison with “the closet” of homosexuality. After I read the article and went back and viewed a couple of the scenes of the movie, I find it to be incredibly interesting, especially since I found it to be so understated. I liked that this analogy wasn’t so “in your face” through the film, and I appreciated it so much more once I was able to go back and look for it. As Benshoff pointed out, this idea came together in the end when we see that Ennis keeps “Jack” in a closet in his trailer with a photograph of Brokeback Mountain.

                The third and final idea that really hit me while reading Benshoff’s review of the film was mainly so interested to me because I was quite excited upon reading it due to the fact that it had crossed my mind a few times when I initially watched the movie.  It was no secret throughout the film that the common people in the towns where the men were leading their lives found the idea of homosexuality to be like a disease, and were appalled by even assuming that it could be true. This stems back to when Ennis told Jack the story of his father when he was a young boy, and as Benshoff pointed out, it was “confirmed,” so to say, when he heard of Jack’s death from Lureen when she told him that Jack had died from a “tragic human condition”