Brokeback Mountain

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Movie
German title Brokeback Mountain
Original title Brokeback Mountain
Country of production USA , Canada
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 134 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Ang Lee
script Larry McMurtry ,
Diana Ossana
production Diana Ossana,
James Schamus
music Gustavo Santaolalla
camera Rodrigo Prieto
cut Geraldine Peroni ,
Dylan Tichenor
occupation
synchronization

Brokeback Mountain [ broʊkbæk ˌmaʊnt (ə) n ] is a film drama directed by Ang Lee from the year 2005 with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead roles. The film tells the story of a homosexual love affair between two cowboys over a period of around 20 years, based on the short story Brokeback Mountain by the writer Annie Proulx, first published in 1997 .

action

In the spring of 1963, Ennis Del Mar, about nineteen, accepted a job at a sheep farm on Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming . There he met Jack Twist, a little older, who had been working there for the second summer. He and Ennis go up to the mountains with a herd of sheep to tend the animals.

The relationship between Ennis and Jack develops into a camaraderie over time. One of them looks after the campsite, while the other commutes between the pasture and the camp during the day and spends the night with the sheep. One evening Ennis is too drunk to go back to the herd and so stays at camp. Jack lies down in the only tent and Ennis stays by the fire that is going out. During the night Jack asks the freezing Ennis to come into the tent. When they lie side by side, Jack pulls Ennis' arm over his shoulder, half asleep; Ennis jumps up and the situation seems to escalate when Jack tries to kiss him. Instead, the two men have sex. The next day, they both stress that they are not gay and assure each other that the incident will stay between them. However, they sleep together again that night.

A cold snap means the end of their work and apparently that of their intimate relationship as well. Ennis can't cope with the breakup of their time together, so a fight breaks out between the two of them while the camp is being dismantled, with Ennis's blood staining the sleeves of their shirts. Back in the valley, they part ways. At Jack's suggestion to meet again at Brokeback Mountain next season, Ennis does not respond. When Jack has left, Ennis collapses sobbing against the wall of a house in a side street.

Jack asks again about work as a shepherd on Brokeback Mountain a year later, hoping Ennis will do the same. But the sheep farmer Joe Aguirre had observed the two of them the previous year and makes it unmistakably clear to Jack that he has no job for men like him who “hold the line” (original text: “You stemmed the rose”).

Four years later - Ennis, who married his fiancée Alma, lives with her and two daughters in modest circumstances and works on a ranch. Jack announces a visit to him on a postcard. Succumbing to her passion, he and Jack kiss when they meet and are accidentally observed by Alma. Jack kept himself afloat by riding rodeo until he met his wife Lureen, the daughter of a rich agricultural machinery dealer, with whom he has a son. Since then he has led a comfortable life and works as a machine salesman in his father-in-law's company. Jack and Ennis sleep together in a motel. They decide to meet in the future and now spend time together twice a year on alleged fishing trips in the mountains. Nevertheless, they do not dare to leave their families and enter into a stable relationship with one another. Jack brings up the subject again and again, but Ennis is against a future together because his father showed him as a child the body of a rancher who was cruelly murdered because of his homosexuality. He suspects that his father was involved in the act. Due to the traumatic childhood experience, Ennis fears a discovery and forces himself to lead a life that is as adapted as possible.

Alma divorced Ennis in 1975 because of increasing marital problems. When Jack hears about the divorce, he makes his way to Ennis and hopes that they can now live together. But Ennis doesn't believe in the proposal. Disappointed, Jack seeks contact with men from the sex scene in Mexico . His marriage also suffers from tension. In 1977 Alma let her ex-husband Ennis understand that she knew about his homosexuality, and he had a hard time preventing himself from beating her about it. Over the next few years he and Jack met repeatedly in the mountains, but Jack in particular became more and more unhappy with the situation. At the meeting in the spring of 1981, Jack learns that Ennis won't have time to meet again because of his work, and he gets angry. He suggests that he was in Mexico because Ennis rarely had time for him, to which Ennis reacts with jealousy. Ennis collapses during the argument and confesses to Jack that he can no longer stand the life they lead. But Ennis's longing for Jack is unbroken. Shortly afterwards he breaks up with his girlfriend Cassie.

Months later he got his postcard addressed to Jack back with the note "deceased". According to his wife, Jack died while fixing a car when a protruding rim smashed his face. A faded-in silent scene in which Jack is brutally beaten up by three men leaves open whether it is Ennis' ideas or what actually happened, i.e. whether Jack was actually killed by homophobic men. Ennis travels to Jack's parents to ask them to have Jack's ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain, as he wished. He learns that Jack had repeatedly mentioned that he wanted to build a log cabin with Ennis nearby and run his parents' ranch. A few months before his death, he decided to get a divorce and pursue these plans with another man. In Jack's room, Ennis discovers the blood-smeared denim shirt he wore on Brokeback in 1963. He notices that his own shirt, which he thought he had forgotten back on the mountain, is in the shirt. Jack's father refuses to let Ennis scatter his son's ashes on Brokeback Mountain. However, his mother allows him to take the shirts with him.

In the mid-1980s, Ennis lived in a trailer when his eldest daughter came to see him to invite him to their upcoming wedding. She forgets her cardigan with Ennis, who then stows it in the closet. On the inside of the closet door, Ennis's shirt hangs over Jack's; next to it is the postcard with the view of Brokeback Mountain that Jack Ennis sent before they saw each other for the first time. Ennis closes a button on Jack's shirt, strokes the card with his thumb and says with tears in his eyes: "Jack, I swear to you ...".

History of origin

The film is based on a short story by the American writer E. Annie Proulx, which first appeared on October 13, 1997 in an issue of The New Yorker magazine. The short story received critical acclaim and won the 1998 O. Henry Award and the National Magazine Award . In 1999 Proulx published a revised version of Brokeback Mountain in her anthology book Far Outside - Tales from Wyoming (original title: Close range: Wyoming stories ), which won the book prize of The New Yorker magazine in the same year and the English-Speaking Union's in 2000 Ambassador Book Award and Borders Original Voices Award in Fiction .

As early as 1997, the writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry and screenwriter Diana Ossana Proulx's short story adapted for the big screen. However, the film studios hesitated to make a film of the screenplay, as depicting cowboys in love amounted to breaking a taboo .

Filming began on June 14, 2004 and ended on August 15, 2004. The film was shot in various locations in Alberta, as well as in La Mesilla and Grand Teton National Park .

Shortly after the film's release, Randy Quaid, who played the supporting role of the rancher Aguirre, sued the film's producers for $ 10 million plus punitive damages because they saw the film as a low-budget project with no prospect of profit had presented in order to secure his cooperation at a lower fee. In May 2006, Quaid withdrew his lawsuit after the studio announced further payments.

Film music

The main reason for the soundtrack of Brokeback Mountain drew Gustavo Santaolalla . Newly composed instrumentals as well as titles by well-known folk and country artists were used. The participating artists included a. Willie Nelson , Rufus Wainwright , Linda Ronstadt or Emmylou Harris . The Golden Globe Award- winning track A Love That Will Never Grow Old was composed by Santaolalla with Bernie Taupin , and sung by Emmylou Harris. The Spanish version of Quizás, quizás, quizás is also used in the film.

  1. Opening - Gustavo Santaolalla
  2. He Was a Friend of Mine - Willie Nelson
  3. Brokeback Mountain 1 - Gustavo Santaolalla
  4. A Love That Will Never Grow Old - Emmylou Harris
  5. King of the Road - Teddy Thompson
  6. Snow - Gustavo Santaolalla
  7. The Devil's Right Hand - Steve Earle
  8. No One's Gonna Love You Like Me - Mary McBride
  9. Brokeback Mountain 2 - Gustavo Santaolalla
  10. I Don't Want to Say Goodbye - Teddy Thompson
  11. I Will Never Let You Go - Jackie Greene
  12. Riding Horses - Gustavo Santaolalla
  13. An Angel Went Up in Flames - The Gas Band
  14. It's So Easy - Linda Ronstadt
  15. Brokeback Mountain 3 - Gustavo Santaolalla
  16. The Maker Makes - Rufus Wainwright
  17. The Wings - Gustavo Santaolalla

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created at RC Production , Berlin, under dubbing direction by Norman Matt based on a dialogue book by Marius Clarén , who also lent the voice to Jake Gyllenhaal.

role actor German Dubbing voice
Ennis Del Mar Heath Ledger Simon hunter
Jack twist Jake Gyllenhaal Marius Clarén
Lureen Newsome Anne Hathaway Bianca Krahl
Alma Beers Del Mar Michelle Williams Anna Grisebach
Cassie Cartwright Linda Cardellini Carola Ewert
Joe Aguirre Randy Quaid Frank-Otto Schenk
Lashawn Malone Anna Faris Gundi Eberhard
Randall Malone David Harbor Frank Schaff
LD Newsome, Lureen's father Graham Beckel Roland Hemmo
Alma Del Mar junior (19 years) Kate Mara Luise Helm
Mrs. Twist, Jack's mother Roberta Maxwell Regine Albrecht
Mr. John Twist, Jack's father Peter McRobbie Friedrich Georg Beckhaus

reception

Brokeback Mountain premiered on September 2, 2005 at the Venice Film Festival . The film opened on December 9, 2005 in five selected cinemas in New York , Los Angeles and San Francisco . In just three days, Brokeback Mountain grossed $ 544,549 in sales, a record for all films launched in 2005. The nationwide cinema release in the USA began on December 16, 2005. In Germany, the film was released on March 9, 2006. It was first seen on German free TV on February 22, 2009 on ProSieben .

The importance of the film drama, which also tops the list of the best films in 2005 in various online surveys (including the Internet film database IMDb ), is also increasingly gaining a political component. The film received a lot of praise from critics and viewers, but also sparked controversial discussions, mainly in the USA.

Debate about the film

In the USA

The depiction of a love affair between two cowboys in American cinemas soon caused quite a stir and sometimes outrage. The term “gay cowboys” soon stood for a homoerotic to homophobic metaphor in the discourse on male societies and this film.

In the gay movement and scene, the film stylized the figure of the “gay cowboy” into a taboo-breaking figurehead as well as a distinctive sex idol. To the disappointment that it was not Brokeback Mountain but LA Crash that received the Oscar for Best Picture , some commentators interpreted it as a symptom of homophobia within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences .

In Christian - conservative circles in the United States, however, the portrayal of homosexual cowboys was taken up as a threat to the American way of life . B. from Concerned Women for America or the author David Kupelian. The film is accused of propagating a “ homosexual lifestyle ” and undermining Christian values ​​and morals by directing sympathy for the protagonists with perfect cinematic means and demonstrating to a mass audience the equality of a gay relationship with a heterosexual one. The fact that the two men committed adultery against their wives and that this takes a back seat in the film because of the focus on the feelings between Ennis and Jack is criticized. The makers of the film are also accused of being part and tools of a " gay agenda " which, in their opinion, has set itself the goal of destroying religion, marriage and the family in American society. The Roman Catholic bishops of the USA condemned the film and classified it in the highest category of danger as "morally offensive" because the film encourages immoral behavior. Robert H. Knight , director of the Institute for Culture and Family (sponsored by Concerned Women for America), attributes a message to the western genre that he sees tarnished by Brokeback Mountain . In his opinion, the Western announces “real brotherhood” and is free “from any sexualization ”.

Larry H. Miller , owner of Utah Jazz , banned advertising for this film from his Salt Lake City entertainment complex in 2006 . The presenters Bill O'Reilly , John Gibson and Cal Thomas also accused the filmmakers of the gay agenda . When Heath Ledger passed away in 2008, Gibson joked about it using a quote from the movie. Gene Shalit called Gyllenhaal's character Jack Twist a sexual predator. The GLAAD group criticized this remark and asked him if Leonardo DiCaprio was also called that in Titanic . Shalit later apologized. Rush Limbaugh disrespectfully called the film " Bareback Mountain".

Alleged censorship on Italian television

When the film was first broadcast on Rai Due, Italy's public broadcaster, on December 8, 2008 at 11 p.m., two scenes of homosexual love were cut from the film, while more straightforward heterosexual and violent scenes were shown. The censored sequences were a kissing scene and the hinted sex scene in the tent on Brokeback Mountain. The content of the film was thus significantly changed and the nature of the relationship between the two main characters was obscured from ignorant viewers. This led to protests by gay organizations and individual members of parliament. State television initially stated that it was not responsible for the cuts, but that it had received the film in this version from sales. The director of state television, Claudio Petruccioli, apologized for the "error" and Rai Due boss Antonio Marano announced that the film would be shown in full after Christmas. The uncut version was finally broadcast on March 17, 2009 at 11:40 p.m.

Reviews

The film received mostly positive reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes review collection has an 87% positive rating based on 234 professional reviews.

“A deeply moving drama, the actors of which fill their characters with believable life and yet leave them their secret. In the hopes, longings and life lies of the couple, the masterfully staged, epic film conveys the loneliness and fears of its two protagonists. "

- Lexicon of international film

“'Brokeback Mountain' is the first highlight of the film festival. He comes along with a calm and a slowness that has become rare in the cinema. Takes time observing. Doesn't issue anything. And finally eradicate this cliché of the lonely cowboy thoroughly ... Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, of whom it was previously unknown whether they were just stars or real mimes. How they age here, which is not just a matter of the mask, how they hide their desire and yet let it flash out from behind their mask; and how Ang Lee stylized this into a timeless story despite this extremely time-related story, which could still happen in the provinces today: This is great cinema art. "

- The world

"For its bold start and real execution - its handling of Western mythology, its discovery of a subversive sexual honesty in an unexpected setting - 'Brokeback Mountain' ultimately fails to fully capture our emotions."

- Time Magazine

“Unfortunately, Ang Lee takes a long time to make the desperation of his heroes plausible. Put in a friendly way: the director refrains from any direct accusation from the outside world and only describes how the protagonists fare - their awkward hugs, their sudden outbursts of violence, their failures towards their own families. Only at the end does the film gain the passion that it previously claimed for an hour and a half. Lee can be accused of the splendid landscape kitsch and the delicate gay kitsch of this film, but his message is of beautiful universal validity: In a world that is poisoned by the terror of the moralists, people cannot be happy. "

- The mirror

“It is wonderfully easy for Ang Lee to develop the rough bond between two Westerners from the archaic work of herding cattle and a passion from their companionship… And one night… Ennis crawls into Jack's tent with chattering teeth. This is where the most touching scene in the history of the genre takes place, where the grandiose actors manage to show cowboys as lovers without damaging their angularity: after the first touch, the viewer fears for minutes that it might degenerate into murder . "

- The time

Awards

Academy Awards 2006
Golden Globe Awards 2006
British Academy Film Awards 2006
Screen Actors Guild Awards 2006
London Critics' Circle Film Award 2006

In 2016, Brokeback Mountain ranked 40th in a BBC poll of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .

In 2018 Brokeback Mountain was inducted into the National Film Registry .

Edits

With Proulx's libretto and music by Charles Wuorinen , the material became the opera Brokeback Mountain , which premiered in Madrid in January 2014 and had its German premiere in December 2014 at the Aachen Theater .

literature

  • Annie Proulx: Far Out: Stories from Wyoming . Luchterhand, Munich 1999. German translation by Oskar Halbsattel, ISBN 3-630-87039-2
  • Annie Proulx: Close range: Wyoming stories . Scribner, New York 1999, ISBN 0-684-85221-7 (English edition)
  • Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana: Brokeback Mountain: story to screenplay . Scribner, New York 2005, ISBN 0-7432-9416-5 (English edition)
  • Annie Proulx: Brokeback Mountain . Heyne, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-453-35110-X
  • Annie Proulx: Brokeback Mountain . Fourth Estate, London 1998, ISBN 1-85702-940-2 (English edition)
  • Various: Ang Lee and his cinema - poetry in large format , In: Du, Die Zeitschrift für Kultur , No. 1, February 2006, place of publication: Zurich, ISBN 3-03717-021-2
  • Slavoj Zizek: Homophobic Rodeo. "Brokeback Mountain" or: Only gay cowboys will win , In: Frankfurter Rundschau , March 11, 2006, features section, p. 17
  • Daniel Mendelsohn: An Affair to Remember: Brokeback Mountain, a film directed by Ang Lee, based on the story by E. Annie Proulx , In: The New York Review of Books , No. 53.3, February 23, 2006
  • Philippe Besson : Un homme accidentel . Paris: Edition Julliard, 2008. ISBN 2-264-04851-4

Web links

Wikiquote: Brokeback Mountain  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ release document for Brokeback Mountain . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2006 (PDF; test number: 105 246 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Brokeback Mountain . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Script text . Proulx, Annie; McMurtry, Larry; Ossana, Diana: Brokeback Mountain, Story To Screenplay. New York, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-9416-5 . P. 32.
  4. ↑ Staff and agencies: Quaid drops Brokeback pay suit. May 5, 2006, accessed February 4, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Sharon Waxman: Lawsuit Over 'Brokeback Mountain' Reveals Unease Over Pay for 'Arthouse' Films . In: The New York Times . March 29, 2006, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed February 4, 2018]).
  6. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Brokeback Mountain. Retrieved February 4, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Movie Master and Wunschliste.de and OFDb.de .
  8. ↑ Brandon Gray: Utah Theater Snub Can't Bridle 'Brokeback Mountain' . Box Office Mojo . January 9, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
  9. ^ Utah Theater Balks at 'Brokeback Mountain' . In: KUTV . January 10, 2006. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved on July 24, 2007.
  10. ^ Roger Friedman: 'Brokeback' Faces Burnout at Box Office , Fox News Channel . December 23, 2005. Retrieved July 24, 2007. 
  11. ↑ Fox host John Gibson Mocks Heath Ledger's Death . In: The Huffington Post . January 23, 2008. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  12. ^ Rush Limbaugh: Feminization Has Taken Democratic Party Backward . 2006. Archived from the original on October 24, 2006. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 11, 2006. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rushlimbaugh.com
  13. ↑ chc / AFP : Gay love film: Italian TV censors “Brokeback Mountain”. In: Spiegel Online . December 10, 2008, accessed August 28, 2013 .
  14. ↑ J. Müller-Meiningen: "Brokeback Mountain" censorship. Separate campfires. In: Sueddeutsche.de. December 12, 2008, accessed May 28, 2015 .
  15. ^ "Brokeback Mountain" torna su Rai2. Ma stavolta senza censurare i baci… LaRepubblica.it, March 10, 2009, accessed on October 28, 2014 (Italian).
  16. ↑ Brokeback Mountain at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
  17. ↑ Brokeback Mountain. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  18. ↑ Peter Zander: Thomas Mann's spirit blows at the Lido , article in der Welt , September 3, 2005, accessed on May 7, 2011.
  19. ↑ Wolfgang Höbel : George Clooney, Festspiel-King , article in Der Spiegel magazine , September 3, 2005, accessed May 7, 2011.
  20. ↑ Love as a duel , article in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit , March 9, 2006, accessed on May 7, 2011.
  21. ↑ Stefan Keim: Gay inside, cowboy outside . In: Die Welt - NRW . No. 49 , December 7, 2014, p. 13 ( online at welt.de [accessed December 12, 2014]).