Introduction
Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee’s film, is a phenomenon in American culture and has drawn discourses on the subject of culture like no other. The movie explores the love and lives of two homosexual sheep herders from Wyoming Texas in the period between 1963 and 1983. The two ranch hands spend their 1963 summer looking after sheep in a Texas mountainside and eventually fall in love (Gyllenhaal, 2006). After the summer ends, the two men proceed to marry and have separate families without contact with each other. However, the affection they had once felt for each other brings them back together. The story shows the two men as they struggle with cultural strictures that continue to impact their lives. The story examines the essentialist or social construction theories among critics of homosexuality that had been kept in undertones for a long period in the 20th century and before. The movie crystallizes the homosexuality discourse and provides arguments for proponents and critics alike. This paper examines the film Brokeback Mountain using the lenses provided by Edward T. Hall’s high context and low context cultural factors as well as Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions.
In Brokeback Mountain, nature plays an important role as an alternate cultural setting where Jack and Ennis deviate from traditionally accepted cultural norms. This deviation may be examined through Edward T. Hall’s theory on culture. Hall asserts that culture is a screen and all aspects of human life are altered and touched by culture. He proposes a cultural theory which holds that in high-context cultures, various contextual elements help people understand the rules around them. This ensures that a lot is usually taken for granted. This may be confusing for those who do not understand cultural rules that are unwritten. Communications in this kind of context is mostly non-verbal and implied. In low-context cultures, not much is assumed. This implies that a lot of explanation is required and that not much can be misunderstood especially when visitors are present. This theory is applicable in this movie in that during the summer when Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist are alone in their work as cowboy hands and in their fishing trips (Gyllenhaal, 2006). In this natural setting of the mountainside they are in a high-context culture. The two are in the wild and in large open spaces where they are unhindered by cultural strictures that they later find when the summer ends and they return to civilization. The high-context culture is implied by the various implicit and covert messages they send to each other while alone. This is mainly in the form of body language and gestures especially when the two are intimately involved with each other. In addition, it may be noted that every time that Jack and Ennis attempt to voice their doubts in verbal ways, an argument results and no resolution is achieved.
The wordlessness persists as they indulge romantically with each other and are unable to rationalize what is happening. Although they understand the cultural rules that exist in a traditional sense, their understanding of these rules is vague. This is also revealed when Jack and Ennis talk about the religious persuasions of their parents as being Pentecostal without really understanding what the religious denomination stands for. In addition, they exhibit a lot of non-verbal communication while reserving much of their expression to the inwards. They are timid and muted in their approaches towards each other. This is because they take a lot for granted. When they get married to women and start to lead separate lives, they begin to experience the pressures of being in a low-context culture where very little can be taken for granted. Their families have already stipulate roles for them to fulfill as fathers. Their relationships with their families start to become rough because the rules in this low-context culture are clearer and well understood. As a result of this, bonds are weaker than in the high-context culture.
Hofstede’s five dimensions may also be used to provide a five-pronged inspection of the film. Hofstede’s five dimensions include masculinity vs. femininity; Individualism versus collectivism; Small versus. large power distance; uncertainty avoidance (weak versus strong); Long-term versus short term orientation and indulgence versus restraint. Masculinity versus femininity is the traditional value that is associated with males and females (Patterson, 2008). In masculine cultures people value assertiveness, ambition, wealth accumulation and competitiveness. In feminine cultures, people value quality of life and relationships more than outcomes of work. In Brokeback Mountain the homosexuality theme is adopted by the protagonists Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist who are strongly masculine in a masculine culture negate the masculinity by adopting a more femininity kind of approach to life. For example, Ennis and Jack portray sexual tendencies which transgress over the accepted heterosexual norms. They kiss and make love, thereby valuing interpersonal relationships between males more than competition and dominance as is the norm in their cultural context. Their divergence from the cultural norm is confirmed by their efforts to hide from society by marrying women despite loving men. This represents as socio-political divide between homosexual and homosocial desire.
The individualism versus collectivism dimension comprises of the extent to which members of a culture define themselves while away from their groups. In individualistic cultures, individual personalities and preferences dominate while in collectivist cultures, memberships of long-term groups determine how people act. This may be in terms of religious groups, families, professions etc. In Brokeback Mountain, the individualism culture dominates over Ennis and Jack when they go out fishing and camping while working as ranch hands. Both of them do not give much significance to the views of their parents or friends regarding homosexuality. Despite musing over what other people would say regarding their being gay, they let their own cravings lead them. However, after marrying and building families of their own, their actions are less impulsive. This is the collectivism culture which leads them to choose having private meetings instead of leaving their wives for each other.
The uncertainty avoidance (weak versus strong) dimension is the extent to which society members try to handle anxiety by reducing uncertainty. Strong uncertainty avoidance cultures have people who are more risk averse. They have explicit rules regarding different aspects like religion, sexuality, food etc. Weak uncertainty avoidance cultures have implicit rules and people are not risk averse. In Brokeback Mountain, the prevalent culture is strong uncertainty avoidance. This is depicted by Ennis’ reference to a gay couple has faced a horrific death upon being discovered. Ennis’ father tries to instill manly traits in his son by showing him horrific images of the gay couple who had been burnt. This shows that the culture has explicit rules on sexuality. Jack’s quick denial of being a homosexual is as a result of these rules. Despite the culture being mainly of a high uncertainty avoidance, Jack and Ennis escape to their faraway hiding place which they regard as being of a low uncertainty avoidance setting and live unencumbered by cultural rules.
Indulgence versus restraint as a Hofstede dimension is associated to the degree with which a society allows its members to gratify their natural and basic desires in enjoyment of life and merry-making. Social norms area used to regulate indulgence. In Brokeback Mountain, the society depicted shows a low indulgence and more of restraint. This is because people frown upon the homosexual tendencies of Jack and Ennis and show contempt at their attempts to self-indulge in homosexual pleasure with each other (Patterson, 2008). This is also depicted at the instance when Jack pressures Ennis into leaving his family and building a life with him. Ennis remains steadfast in refuses. He cites his various obligations to his family and wife as well as his attempts to avoid societal ridicule and punishment. This scene illustrates the culture of restraint which forbids a man to run away from his family obligations in the pursuit of self-indulgence and pleasure. The restraint of the prevalent culture on Jack and Ennis is also evident in the symbolism used in the film. Brokeback Mountain. The mountain is symbolic as the place where they first had their love affair. The two do not get an opportunity to return to this place and this is also symbolic because it depicts their homosexual indulgence as a sin which should never be repeated. At some point, Jack angrily recalls that all they have is the mountain. This scene is representative of the struggle that Jack and Ennis have against the restraints of society in achieving their desires. Another symbol that shows this is the wind which hits the trailer like a mound of dirt from a dump truck. This shows the wind as portending a dark future for Ennis and Jack as it had done when they had been called off the mountain.
Long-term versus short-term orientation comprises of the extent to which as society attaches importance to the future or pas. Long-term societies have people predominantly attaching more value to attitudes and actions which affect the future such as persistence, shame and thrift. Short-term cultures predominantly have people who attach more value to attitudes and values which are determined by the past or present. In Brokeback Mountain, Jack and Ennis confer more value to the past and they can be said to be more short-term oriented in the sense that they keep reminiscing about Brokeback Mountain. However, when Ennis refuses to leave his family for Jack, he is being more long-tem oriented.
Conclusion
Brokeback Mountain is a film by Ang Lee which explores the love and lives of two homosexual sheep herders from Wyoming Texas as they struggle with the cultural norms and set of rules that threaten to stifle their happiness. The film lends itself to critical evaluation using theories such as Edward T. Hall’s high context and low context cultural factors as well as Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions as discussed in this paper.
References
Gyllenhaal, J. (Director). (2006). Brokeback Mountain [Motion picture]. U.S: Focus Features.
Patterson, E. (2008). On Brokeback Mountain: meditations about masculinity, fear, and love in the story and the film. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
