Letters From Bobby

I heard months ago that Brokeback Mountain was about two gay cowboys played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Initially I thought, “Great…two handsome cowboys attracted to each other. The only thing I’ll have in common with those characters is my orientation and the fact that I once sat on a horse. But I’m a big Heath Ledger fan. It took Mel Gibson well over two hours to play a Minute Man in “The Patriot.” The only thing I liked about that colonial clunker was Ledger. I felt he was more than just new eyecandy. I really became sure of that when I saw his short but rivetting work in “Monster’s Ball.” His performance got overlooked because Halle Berry got all the raves. Larry McMurtry, the writer who gave us “Hud,” “The Last Picture Show” and “Lonesome Dove” co-wrote this cowboy movie script. Love his work. I didn’t read any reviews because nowadays critics give away too much about a film. I didn’t know what to expect. Consequently, I went on one of the most intense and surprising emotional journeys in one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. Heath Ledger should be a contender for Best Actor. Oh, baby, he is so damn good. It’s a masterful performance that will give his career the kick it deserves. You really can’t imagine any other actor playing that part. Gyllenhaal also shows he’s got some chops. I don’t want to get into all the elements of the story. You should experience it like I did. It’s not a “gay cowboy” flick. It’s not the Queer Eye team stars in “Oklahomo!” Let me share my take on what the writers and director Ang Lee maybe see as the essence of the film — freedom and loneliness in the Land of the Free. Do people choose to live a lie so they can feel safe? Jack and Ennis are basically two tough, lonely, working class men. Jack (Gyllenhaal) lets his feelings out. Ennis (Ledger) keeps them in. They’re cowboys — icons of American spirit and individuality. But in all the wide open spaces they roam, they are still corralled by society’s conventions of 1963. They’re limited in where they can go with their serious desire and affection for each other. The men are fenced in by forces of family, religion, income, location and politics of the time. There’s danger if they’re caught outside those fences. How many of us settle for what we don’t want because it’s safe? How many of us go wild sometimes because we can’t have what we want even when it’s offered to us? Why can’t we declare our independence? There’s one shot where you see them working as sheepherders. Two cowboys on their horses surrounded by sheep. That’s a symbol of their tale. They’re cowboys but society pressures them to be sheep — to follow the pack, to conform, to hide the individual. The audience broke out into big applause at the end of the movie. As I was leaving with a buddy, I turned to him and said “At some point in our lives, we all had an Ennis.” You’ll understand when you see it. When people can’t be themselves, when they can’t reveal differences that really do no harm, someone is going to get hurt. There’s a domino effect of broken hearts. I want to see “Brokeback Mountain” again. It forced me to check a prejudice. Just because a guy is handsome doesn’t automatically mean that love will be easy for him. I didn’t think I’d connect with those characters. But I did. I understood their journey and the detours they took because, honestly, I thought about taking the same ones myself. The box office will tell if the country is mature enough to handle such an excellent, compassionate film. And Ang Lee’s vision of the mountain area is awesome. We’re so obsessed with red carpets, bells & whistles and flash that we forget what beautiful country we have. The cinematography is poetic. That’s my review. One more thing. Jake Gyllenhaal has the best eyebrows of any movie star since Audrey Hepburn.

Wow. What a movie. The action may begin in 1958 but it really echoes conditions in broadcast news today — for instance, why Ted Koppel felt he had to move on from ABC’s “Night Line.” George Clooney has definitely got the gift when it comes to directing. I thought he did a sensational job with the highly under-appreciated Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. What he did with the story of CBS News legend Edward R. Murrow taking on Sen. McCarthy (which became a zenith in TV journalism) yet seeing his news program get kicked to the curb in favor of entertainment shows that no one remembers today is excellent. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that good night, and good luck gets nominated for Best Picture and gets Clooney a nomination for Best Director. By the way, the famous Edward R. Murrow broadcasts, clips of which are shown in the movie, are now rentable on DVD. They are still awesome. See “Harvest of Shame” about the abject poverty and racist working conditions endured by produce pickers. It aired on Thanksgiving Day back in the 50s. Some of most severe poverty was just three miles away from a famous Ivy League university. THAT was Old School Journalism.