Jack and Ennis - totally alone, always watched

Today is World Aids Day - the 20th - and, on a day of remembering how the world and love within it has changed over these last decades, it seems fitting to look briefly at one film in particular, which focused on fitting an extraordinary love into lives that could have had no comprehension of what was around the corner. But what if Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar had not been Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger? It seems unimaginable.


We've heard Ang say that Jake and Heath were his first choices for the roles, but without doubt other actors were considered. In the days before confirmation that Jake and Heath had signed the contracts, one 2004 article speculated about the excitement surrounding the identity of potential leads: 'Should the contracts not get signed, though, there will be no shortage of well-groomed actors with representation who could be candidates to don the Stetsons and chaps. In the months since Ang Lee announced that he would direct the movie, fans have taken to Internet chat rooms with a vengeance, begging the unhearing movie gods to cast everyone from Viggo Mortensen and Brad Pitt, or Jude Law and Benicio Del Toro, or Joaquin Phoenix and Johnny Depp.'


'"He's always been Hollywood's trembling-lipped sensitive boy," pointed out one hopeful fan about Depp. Another opined that Jude Law's "good looks and intense charm would make even a straight cowboy swoon." Both Depp and Law have played gay before (in "Before Night Falls" and "Wilde," respectively). Some computer-savvy cinephiles have gone so far as to create a beefcakey "Brokeback Mountain" poster featuring Josh Hartnett and Colin Farrell, who will reportedly play bi-curious in his upcoming role as Alexander the Great in "Alexander."'


James Schamus commented 'via e-mail that he could not comment on casting decisions before anything has been made official. But, he wrote, "it's still in process, and it's been remarkably hassle free -- no one has raised even an eyebrow and people across the board are responding in a really passionate way to the story and the characters."' Producer Scott Rudin, who had originally 'planned to make "Brokeback Mountain" in the late 1990s with Gus Van Sant ("Good Will Hunting") directing, but now has no connection to the movie -- agreed.'


'"It's an amazing project; I'm incredibly jealous. And I don't get jealous," Rudin says. As for the process of signing up willing actors, he laughed at the notion that it would be difficult. "You've got a great filmmaker and parts for two movie stars. I can't imagine why any actor would not want to play one of those roles."'


But events took the course they were meant to, and Jake and Heath did become Jack and Ennis. Thats only as it should be - you only have to listen to Jake describe how he saw the scene in which the two lovers were watched by Joe Aguirre, and how it always seemed as if Jack and Ennis were being watched: 'It seemed that way, but I feel like, from their point of view, they're really in the middle of nowhere. They would never assume that Joe Aguirre, played by Randy Quaid, would come up there and do that, From Jack's experience of the year before, there is a little talk about it but Joe Aguirre sensed something from the begining.'


'To get perspective, it's really far to get to where they are. They travelled for hours to get where they were, to that camp. Yeah, they are naive. They feel like they're totally alone. They start the movie even when they're in the town feeling totally alone. That's a big part of it - two lonely people finding real intimacy, real comfort in each other.'



Includes pictures from IHJ and scans by WDW.