Revisiting ‘Brokeback Mountain’, a classic

When a finely crafted story lands up in the hands of a compassionate director, what emerges is an elusive yet haunting cinematic experience. Ang Lee’s movie adaptation of Annie Proulx’s acclaimed short story Brokeback Mountain is an intimate exploration of human turmoil, purpose and love set in the lush green snow-capped mountainous landscape of Wyoming.

It takes us through the journey of Jack and Enis, two hardworking cowboys, who fall in love with each other when they take up a temporary paid gig of herding sheep on the steep pastures of Brokeback Mountain. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jack Twist, the shy and vulnerable rodeo and Heath Ledger plays Enis Del Mar, the hot-headed yet deeply contemplative cowboy.

Initially, shy about sharing their histories, they tend to the sheep and carry out the work as needed. The silence and cold air of Wyoming soon makes them open up to each other about their rough childhoods and far-fetched ambitions. Amidst the vast mountains, the two find solace in each other’s warmth and soon embark upon an ingrained human relationship which eventually becomes their fondest memory to hold on to. The story explores the consequences of not outgrowing a tendency to escape from what makes one truly happy due to societal factors.

Proulx’s story was published in The New Yorker in 1997. The story also appeared in her short story collection — Close Range, which was published in 1999. Proulx spent most of her life in Northern Wyoming, amidst the intimidating, breathtaking mountains of endless greenery and intermittent snow patches.

These overwhelming landscapes inspired her to work on engaging characters that traverse through hard-hitting narratives which explore morals and societal tendencies. In her own words, ‘Characters carry the story and they carry the place’. Annie had heard of the violence that was prevalent in a society against homosexuality. The idea to write the story originated when she witnessed an old cowboy standing by the wall next to a bunch of men playing pool at the pool table in a local bar in Wyoming.

She keenly observed the sad, longing expression on the old cowboy’s eyes and it provoked her to think of what it would mean to be an old gay cowboy in a town which is strictly against being gay. It inspired her to work on a narrative of two cowboys falling in love but trying hard to make it seem discreet in the society.

Proulx spent a lot of time with Ang Lee before the production began and she trusted the scriptwriter, Larry McMurtry, who knew the environment of the story very well.

Ang Lee was excited when he was given the opportunity to direct this story based on his repertoire of conceiving emotional poetry magnificently onto the cinematic medium. By then, he had directed films exploring highly volatile characters in vast landscapes (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2000) and domestic intricacies in a close-knit Taiwanese household (Eat Drink Man Woman in 1994).

After he read the story, he was consumed by the abstract idea of unresolved love. He was intrigued by the fact that the two characters are forced to privatise their feelings for each other but still manage to find pockets of freedom at Brokeback Mountain. The mountain acts as a metaphor for the rules bound by society, forcing them to climb it to materialise their true love for each other.

Due to the ease of infrastructure, the entire film was shot in and around the Canadian Rockies in Southern Alberta. After photographing stock locations in Wyoming, the production team went around scouting the Canadian provinces for frames which mimicked the same stock locations.

Gustavo Santaollala adorned these landscapes with a meditative acoustic guitar based score. In one of the snippets behind the-scenes, Jake Gyllenhaal said that Ang Lee trusted the actors, empowering them to explore scenes on their own. Heath Ledger said that Ang Lee is ‘a very silent man by nature who’s attention to detail is microscopic’.