God's Own Country: Is it Brokeback Mountain?

(*Slight Spoilers*)

God's Own Country has been compared to Brokeback Mountain (and was quite frankly marketed similarly). In some fundamental ways, they are quite alike.

Generally speaking, I find comparative statements irritating, even when I make them (see below). The two movies are comparative in terms of strong silent introverted men inhabiting a land-oriented existence (and the plots deliver similar key events--to the point where God's Own Country feels like an answer to Brokeback Mountain). However, they are different scripts, different directors, different countries, and different auras. There truly is no need to compare them.

I'm going to anyway with the caveat that my reactions are subjective rather than objective. These are both good films.

I prefer God's Own Country because (1) it is about solving day to day problems; (2) it has a constructive ending.

To start, both God's Own Country and Brokeback Mountain are romances set against masculine landscapes. I don't see that sentence as derogatory to men or women. It is what it is, and the fairness or rightness of it can be debated elsewhere. The sweeping grandeur of the Wyoming Mountains and the sweeping grandeur of the Yorkshire countryside, though not the same, are essentially both male.

It helps to keep in mind: more men than women perform extensive hikes and men generally seem to write more about dangerous hiking (Walk in the Woods, Into the Wild, Following Atticus, Last Breath). I am not saying that women don't hike (I don't want to but hey, that's me) nor am I saying they shouldn't nor am I saying they don't write books about it (they do; I looked it up).

I am saying that both movies lovingly, beautifully pay worship to masculine landscapes and masculine ideals. In the same way that I would call Bread & Tulips a gorgeous feminine film, I call God's Own Country and Brokeback Mountain gorgeous masculine films.

As a woman, I found God's Own Country a little more relatable.

(1) This could be due to the number of All Creatures Great & Small episodes I've seen. Another possibility could be the reason I find manga often more relatable than other forms of fiction; I'm a huge fan of slice-of-life where characters attempt to solve everyday domestic issues or, in the case of a Yorkshire farm, everyday farm issues: getting sheep tagged, helping a lamb find a new mother; making dinner; rebuilding a wall. I love to watch people figure out how to make the world work and/or how to negotiate a place for themselves in the world.

(2) I argue elsewhere that Brokeback Mountain isn't strictly speaking a tragedy since I personally don't consider the tragedy at the end to be the point of the film.

Nevertheless, God's Own Country has a FAR more positive ending.

Granted, the time period is vastly different, making a more positive ending credible.

Yet the main difference lies in the character arc. In many ways, Ennis (Brokeback) is a fated figure while John (Country) is a growing character (different movies, different themes, different purposes, different auras).  John's character arc ends with gain--he achieves what he hoped for; that doesn't mean it came easily or that John's change is solely reliant on Gheorghe. He has changed for himself and his family as much as for Gheorghe. He has accepted reality. If he wants a strong partner, he has to be one.

In the end, Brokeback is high romance which is awe-inspiring . . . in small doses. The epilogue to Brokeback, in my mind, would end rather like Frodo's pay-off in The Lord of the Rings: just as Frodo took a ship away from Middle-Earth, Ennis--when it came time for him to pass--would take a horse and disappear into the mists.

Coming Home

The characters of God's Own Country are more Sams--in their epilogue, they'd make the land around them thrive.

I love Frodo and I love Sam. I love to watch them both.

I understand Sam just a little bit better.