Jake on Brokeback Mountain: If there's love, that's all that matters

Today may be a wet, dull and rather chilly day in England, nothing very special at all one would think, but to Brokies the world over 24 June IS a special day. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the day that Annie Proulx brought Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar out of the wilderness and back together for their reunion. This has inspired me on a very enjoyable task - to furtle through my collection of Brokeback bits and pieces to look for little treasures.


Brokeback Mountain was a highly anticipated piece of cinema, not only in the US but also in the UK, where enough time had passed since the release of the film in America that expectations were soaring of a controversial and unique depiction of love where most of us, including the protagonists, would never expect it. It showed us how love could be found high up in the mountains and meadows, in glorious wide open scenery, but that it could still smoulder on in small towns, depressed homes and cheap motels. This love affair was almost like breathing - like taking in a big breathe of clean, cold, country air and holding it in for as long as possible.

'Cowboys in Love' was a popular subject for the media, not least because of the leads - both beautiful and interesting actors - and the director, whom, one may have thought, couldn't have seemed further away from America's West. Oscar expectations were high and so coverage was intense. Today, I'm focusing on one example of that interest, found in The Arts and Books section of the Daily Telegraph (Saturday 10 December 2005).


The Telegraph article focuses on an interview with Ang Lee. In these early days after the film's release, Ang seems unaware of how successful Brokeback Mountain would be, financially and socially. He is asked if he was worried about the film's gay element hurting its commercial success: "With this kind of budget, I don't feel much pressure. It was very modest - just over $11 million. It's a love story I believe in. I think it will make its money back, and you just feel lucky to have made this movie." As for why he made the film: "I read the last paragraph of the short story and I got choked up. It's a story I didn't quite understand, but because I got choked up I felt there must be something there."


The interview concludes with an interesting and amusing titbit about how Ang works with American as opposed to English actors: "There's no question that American actors are the most comfortable with cameras. English actors are brilliant with speech and dialogue, but they don't like it if you move your camera around. It freaks them. If you put your camera into a position where it seems it's spying on English actors, they seem to thuink it's rude!"


The Telegraph article is under no illusion about one of the main reasons for Brokeback Mountain's success: Jake Gyllenhaal. 'There is something of the old-time movie cowboy about Jake Gyllenhaal. Tall, muscular, with blue eyes and an intense, deadpan stare.' I can feel my heart beating faster...

Some familiar quotes, and others less familiar, from Jake are used to show Jake's path to Brokeback Mountain and how he made Jack Twist his own. "Yeah, I grew up very, very well-off in many ways, but that doesn't stop me being angry and being able to use the anger in a movie, I hope." During filming of Brokeback, "If I walked into the make-up trailer first thing in the morning and realised Heath was being a pain because he was exhausted and I was a little pissed off with him because of that, then I would take that into our love scenes. I just decided that whatever I was feeling, I was going to incorporate the real stuff into the scenes."


This is a love that refused to die and Jake was able to draw on a whole array of emotions: "What's special about Brokeback Mountain is that it says that whether it's heterosexual, homosexual, if there's love, that's all that matters, and it will last, no matter how scrutinised or abused it is." His own relationship had recently ended in whatever circumstances: "I'm 24 years old and my relationships are going to be incredibly dramatic just by the nature of what they are. I'm at an age where I don't know totally who I am, so how can I know who I am in a relationship? Society gives us these ideas of what love is supposed to be and how we're supposed to act and the movies say very simply, guy gets girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl again, and I have subscribed to that idea and I think a lot of young people of my generation have done the same and have been led to a lot of unhappiness."


Includes pictures from Focus Features and IHJ.