Author: Roger Ebert
Translator: Yi Ersan
Proofreader: Qin Tian
Source: Rogerebert .com (11 December 2005)
"I've never been a citizen of a certain place," Ang Lee told me. "My parents moved from the mainland to Taiwan. We were outsiders there. We later moved to the United States and were still outsiders. When we came back to the mainland, we were also outsiders there -- outsiders from the United States."
He stirred the tea at hand, sniffed it, and didn't drink it. Ang Lee is a special outsider, and both of his children were born in my hometown of Illinois. One year, when I was interviewing nominees at an Oscar, he proudly told me, "These are my two Urbana kids!" Someone then asked me, "What did he just say about children?" Do they have any symptoms?"
"Anywhere can be home, but any place is not a real home, and you have to deal with loneliness and alienation," Ang Lee told me. "At my age, I know that no matter what, people will eventually face loneliness. I'm happily married, I love my kids, but ultimately you have to face yourself. I believe that the elusive world that cinema creates is better than anything else. I was very happy when I made the movie. But I live on the other side of the screen."
"The Wedding Feast"
In this sentence, Ang Lee explains why his films are so different. What we see is the external world of the film, and he lives in it, and it is all the same world- his world. He's made comedies like Eating Men and Women (1993), anxiety-filled films like Ice Storm (1997), science fiction like Hulk Hulk (2003), martial arts films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and British literary adaptations like Sense and Sensibility (1995), and now Brokeback Mountain, about two young shepherds in Wyoming who find themselves gay and unable to face this fact.
Brokeback Mountain
The film's two main characters, played by Heath Ledger and Jack Gyllenhaal, were sent to the mountains as shepherds in 1963 to find summer jobs. Day after day, they seemed to be waiting for something, and then one night, they suddenly had sex. "It's only going to happen once," they agreed the next morning. But when night fell again, their fate was set. They were destined to love each other for the rest of their lives – but in that world, people couldn't understand homosexuality, and no one would discuss it.
Brokeback Mountain is based on a short story by Anne Pulle. "I never asked her why she had the name 'Broke Back,'" Mr. Lee said. "I don't dare ask her."
Later that day, during the Toronto Film Festival, I spoke with Heath Ledger, who was sometimes surprised that he was an actor, just as his character was surprised that he was gay.
"He's struggling with his own genetic makeup," Ledger said of his character Ennis. "He is fighting all the traditions and fears that have been instilled in him. I tried to concretize his fears. His words were always squeezed out of his mouth with great difficulty."
He said he grew up in Australia and knew some ranchers and shepherds. "They rode on their horses from morning to night, and only gravity bound them. At the end of the day – when they get off the horse, the way they walk is different. Dismounting is like a sailor ashore. Australian ranchers have tight lips as they speak. I know how to perform because I've seen it and communicated with them. I guess that's to keep flies from getting into their mouths."
Is he showing a humorous side?
Heath Ledger is likely to be nominated for an Oscar for the role. "I never went to acting school," he said. "I don't have theater experience either, and all my trials and errors happen on the set."
But his performance in Brokeback Mountain is perfect.
"Ennis hates his love for Jack," he said. "That's how I interpreted his journey. What makes his relationship with his children so important is because it's a part of his life of conviction."
"It's a model of my acting, and no matter what the story or the characters are, I have to figure out the part of my self-doubt. Doubt myself, or the character doubts himself, or both. There was so much fear and doubt that I didn't know what to do. If I continue to think deeply, I may not have the courage to make such a choice."
But he clearly had the courage.
"I've suspended my career because it's somehow unprovoked in front of me. I don't think I deserve it. I got into this line of work at a very young age. I'm going to have to leave for a while and do something more interesting."
In the film, the characters of Gyllenhaal and Ledger are each married. Gyllenhaal was more willing to accept his hidden feelings. He thought maybe one day they could run the farm together—and Ledger knew a few people who were killed when they tried to do so.
"They never really talked," Mr. Lee said. "The story is almost identical to Larry McMurtree's Lonely Dove, except for the sexual orientation of the protagonist. I discussed this with McMurtree (who is also our screenwriter). It's time to write a gay version of The Lonely Dove story. Only an outsider like me or a woman like Anne can break it up, speak it frankly, get rid of metaphors, and see it in a straightforward way. It's there. I began to realize that at that particular moment, they didn't understand their actions. Their wives didn't understand either. What they feel is a private, very romantic idea of falling in love, but they can't talk about it. And we'd say we're in love. They're like falling into the void. Are you afraid of falling? The most powerful things in their lives are the things that are missing."
"Heath Ledger, the success or failure of this film is his. He can have that mysterious, sad Western temperament. In a manly environment, he was scared and low-key. The whole thing happened after they climbed higher, where the air was thinner and everything was unknown and mysterious. To me, that's what "broken back" means."
Ang Lee finally took a sip of tea.
"My experience has taught me," he said, "that the hardest thing to tell is an epic short story." Fragments of life make up an epic feeling. You have to pick up the little details that make the audience feel like it happened in a meeting two or three years apart. It may seem easy, but it's actually hard, especially since they never say it. One day I said to Anne, 'Your concise prose style is hard to bring to the screen.' Do you know what she said to me?' 」
What did she say?
"She said, 'That's your mission.'" 」