Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a great love story about two men in love that made headlines with its outright gay love story with no hint to any gay rights movements.
Film making 20/25
Cinematography 20/25
Audio 22/25
Bonus Features 18/25
Total 80/100
Brokeback Mountain was a movie hit in more ways than one and won plenty of accolades and awards for both Academy and international film awards. The story is about two men who fall in love and follow their lives through twenty years of being torn between each other and others in their lives.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Jake Twist, a rodeo cowboy who takes a job at a sheep ranch and meets Ennis del Mar played by Heath Ledger. They are both young and hard working but end up falling in love with each other while out tending the sheep for long periods in the Wyoming mountains.
Ennis and Jack end up having a rough but convenient affair during the end of their stay while sheep herding and part ways to meet again four years later. During the separation Ennis marries his fiancé and Jack falls in love with a rodeo cowgirl but can’t shake the thoughts of being with Ennis.
He eventually writes to Ennis and they get together again with both families in Wyoming where Alma, Ennis’ wife sees them kiss passionately when they again meet. They separate for another length of time and end up seeing each other every once in awhile for a recurring fishing trip but Alma knows what is really going on.
Ennis just can’t keep his relationship with his wife together when she knows of the affair and they end up divorced and Jack can’t wait to get back together with Ennis. Ennis has been wanting to get a ranch and live with he rejects the idea due to an incident in his past where he witnessed a gay man being beaten to death.
Ennis is afraid the same will happen to him and Jack if word ever gets out about their relationship so they end up with a brief outing here and there that ends up each time with a deeper emotional departure. Ennis receives a postcard back that he had sent to Jack with deceased written across it and contacts Jack’s wife to find out what happened.
In the movie while Alma is describing a roadside accident where a tire explodes and kills Jack the scene shows men beating Jack to death. Ennis ends up living a rather lonely life after this but does come to terms with his relationship with his children who were in his ex-wife’s custody after their divorce.
The film is very realistic and without any of the gay rights or political aspects that give it a solely dramatic love story aspect instead of trying to make a statement. Many of the reviews and critical acclaim liken the story to Romeo and Juliet or The Titanic with a love story that cannot possibly work or be brought out into the open.
The film is well written, made and acted with plenty of good scenes in the great outdoors as well as the great musical score for the film that did win an Academy Award. Brokeback Mountain also won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay which is not the only awards it won but the biggest ones.
Brokeback Mountain is a great film and worth seeing at least once with very good performances by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, do these guys ever give bad performances? The Blu-ray edition of the film has a lot of extras including the usual Blu-ray commentary, a few making of features, and several other bonus items.
The Blu-ray feature contains more features on the success of the film, how they made it and some of the controversy surrounding the story and movie than most movies. I would not say it really is big controversy as such but that is a good idea behind the stories and concept of the movie and characters.
Some of this controversy relates to the stories gay or just bisexual point of view of the two men that did bring up several countering points of view in the media. Much of the big news surrounding the movie had plenty of points of view and the movie did have a lot of controversy from plenty of differing areas but it over all was a good film regardless of what point of view you have.
Some of the features and commentary talk about the differing viewpoints as well as controversy of the film as well as the well done acting for the two good actors who did their jobs well in the film. This would have been a hard film to perform in without any controversy but any film with such wide ranging views on sexuality would of course add tension and potential problems to the job.
Most of the controversy aside the Blu-ray features add a little to the films entertainment value and help give a fuller picture to the films behind the scenes mood and how the film made it so big. Mostly the film is good and the Blu-ray features seem to try and bolster this point more than anything else.
Brokeback Mountain is a good film, the awards obviously show this, but may be off putting to some due to its love story between two men. The Blu-ray feature has some good looking high definition audio and video but nothing above the average Blu-ray film as well as some extra content that is worth a look.