Brokeback Mountain redux

 

Only a few Hollywood filmmakers rival Ang Lee's directorial sensibilities. This scene from Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film that is appearing in a lot of movie buffs' newfeed recommendations for Pride Month, shows Lee's mastery of tone, pacing and environment and the magic he can pull from actors.

It is clear to me that the three cast members in this brief scene -- Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar, Roberta Maxwell as Jack Twist's mother and Peter McRobbie as Jack's father -- understand intimately what this painful meeting means for each of their characters: loss, regret and disconnection through their estrangement from the murdered Jack.

That the Twists' home has been whitewashed -- inside and out -- is important to note but not because of what happened to their son. It was (is) common practice to whitewash what can't be replaced or or restored to newness. We do that with structures and sometimes with ourselves. In this instance, the house is old and in need of brightness, but the dinginess is bleeding through.

The cross on the wall in the kitchen tells viewers this is a "Christian home," ruled by a man who both loved and resented his son. He knew who his son was and, in so many words, attributed Jack's death to his own poor choices. He's hurting FOR his son and BECAUSE of his son but he won't let his son go with Ennis to the mountain that, in the father's eyes, took his life.

It's the near silent connection between Ennis and Jack's mother (Maxwell's performance is so powerful) that lifts the sadness of this scene just a bit. Her invitations to Ennis to visit Jack's room -- where Jack is still her son, innocent and alive -- and to visit the Twists again filled the frame with sincerity and truth. Lee trains the camera's lens on the mother tenderly putting the bloodied shirts in a paper bag, like she's handling Ennis heart -- which, in a way, she was.

Yes, the film is a classic for its uncompromising depiction of love between Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar but it is also celebrated for its unblinking portrayal -- in these five minutes -- of how hate can sear all of us to the bone.