Whatever tagline they put on the movie poster for Brokeback Mountain, there's only one real way it'll be known: as the first gay Western. Ang Lee, director of 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' has crafted an astonishing film portraying a desperate and tragic relationship between two men, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, in the wilds of Wyoming.
The fact that this is a film about two men in a homosexual relationship will upset a lot of Christians to begin with. I understand that, but I want to argue why I think you should go and watch this film, and why you might even enjoy it.
The film itself started as a short story in the New Yorker by Annie Proulx back in 1997. Adapted as a screenplay, it tells the story of two young men - a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy - who meet in the summer of 1963 whilst they are working together in the beautiful setting of Brokeback Mountain. Alone for the summer, they begin an emotional and physical connection that is to last for the next 20 years, full of complications, joys and tragedies.
The complications include the double life that both men end up leading. After their summer together, Jack and Ennis both go on to marry and have children. Ennis remains in Wyoming whilst Jack marries the daughter of a wealthy businessman in Texas. Four years go by before they make contact again, but after this they begin secret meetings back on Brokeback Mountain, in the guise of fishing trips, where they recreate something of what they found in each other that first summer. Whilst Jack is ready to leave his wife and head back to Wyoming to live with Ennis, it is Ennis who is much more unsure, aware of the impact on his family and torn between love and a mix of shame and duty.
At the beginning of their relationship, after things have become physical one night on the mountain, both men deny to each other being gay. Their denial somehow makes their union seem more palatable at that moment, but reveals the deep cultural revulsion towards homosexuals in this part of the world. Men are men: they live rough, they herd cattle, they drink in the bar... and if they get physical it's in a drunken brawl, not in an emotional encounter.
So what are we to make of this film. Gay communities will welcome the acceptance of the fact - and it must be a fact - that homosexuality existed in the West. The Gay Rodeo Associations, of which there turn out to be many, will be even more ecstatic. Christians, I suspect, will be deeply uneasy about a movie with homosexuality as its central theme.
Let me start by saying that I think this movie will challenge some perceptions wrongly held by many Christians. That is not to say that it will necessarily challenge a Christian belief that homosexual life is wrong, but there is a tendency among Christians to see gay relationships as amounting to no more than gay sex. That somehow love, trust and acceptance cannot exist too. That seems to me to be wrong, whatever your view of homosexuality. Brokeback Mountain is not about sex, it's about love. Real and undeniable love. Of course, there is a selfish element to this love. Both men mislead and lie to others, especially their wives. They deceive and hurt them in order to pursue the relationship. The film doesn't hide this. Ennis in particular is caught between the commitment he has made in marriage and the feelings he has for someone else. He tries to have both, and all suffer as a result.
At another level this is a film about challenging the culture we live in. Let me scare some Christians and say that perhaps we have something in common with the characters in Brokeback Mountain: trying as we do to live a different life that flies in the face of cultural norms. Jack and Ennis's battle to live differently within a culture that rejects their way of life will resonate with many trying to live out a life of faith in Christ. Of course, we are often just as guilty as they as in failing to do that, trying to have the best of both worlds without really accepting the cost of living differently.
That is not to say that the homosexual community find themselves in a world where they are now completely accepted. In many ways it's the church that has often been guilty of homophobic practice, rejecting those whom we are called to welcome. I stand with Tony Campolo on this one. His argument, as I understand it, is that before Christians do any more preaching on the rights and wrongs of the homosexual life, we first need to seek forgiveness for the attitude, practices and downright rejection we have been party to over the past decades. Only then can we begin to listen, share and build relationship with the gay community. None of this, in my mind, needs to challenge the view that homosexuality should be rejected as a lifestyle by Christians, but it does seem to be more in line with the way Jesus lived with and among people. His harshest criticism was always reserved for the religious and pious, which I suspect might be some of us today.
I found Brokeback Mountain a moving and powerful film. It makes my top 10 of the year, which is no mean feat these days. And it has plenty to say to the Christian community: I just hope we bother to listen.
Brokeback Mountain opens in the US tomorrow and in the UK next year.
