Directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain is a sweeping epic that explores the lives of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection. The complications, joys and heartbreak they experience provide a testament to the endurance and power of love. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal deliver emotionally charged, remarkably moving performances in “a movie that is destined to become one of the great classics of our time” (Clay Smith, The Insider).A sad, melancholy ache pervades Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee’s haunting, moving film that, like his other movies, explores societal constraints and the passions that lurk underneath. This time, however, instead of taking on ancient China, 19th-century England, or ’70s suburbia, Lee uses the tableau of the American West in the early ’60s to show how two lovers are bound by their expected roles, how they rebel against them, and the repercussions for each of doing so–but the romance here is between two men. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are two itinerant ranchers looking for work in Wyoming when they meet and embark on a summer sheepherding job in the shadow of titular Brokeback Mountain. The taciturn Ennis, uncommunicative in the extreme, finds himself opening up around the gregarious Jack, and the two form a bond that surprisingly catches fire one cold night out in the wilderness. Separating at the end of the summer, each goes on to marry and have children, but a reunion years later proves that, if anything, their passion for each other has grown significantly. And while Jack harbors dreams of a life together, the tight-lipped Ennis is unable to bring himself to even consider something so revolutionary.
Its open, unforced depiction of love between two men made Brokeback an instant cultural touchstone, for both good and bad, as it was tagged derisively as the “gay cowboy movie,” but also heralded as a breakthrough for mainstream cinema. Amidst all the hoopla of various agendas, though, was a quiet, heartbreaking love story that was both of its time and universal–it was the quintessential tale of star-crossed lovers, but grounded in an ever-changing America that promised both hope and despair. Adapted by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from Annie Proulx’s short story, the movie echoes the sparse bleakness of McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show with its fading of the once-glorious West; but with Lee at the helm, it also resembles The Ice Storm, as it showed the ripple effects of a singular event over a number of people. As always, Lee’s work with actors is unparalleled, as he elicits graceful, nuanced performances from Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway as the wives affected overtly and subliminally by their husbands’ affair, and Gyllenhaal brings surprising dimensions to a character that could have easily just been a puppy dog of a boy. It’s Ledger, however, who’s the breakthrough in the film, and his portrait of an emotionally repressed man both undone and liberated by his feelings is mesmerizing and devastating. Spare in style but rich with emotion, Brokeback Mountain earns its place as a classic modern love story. –Mark Englehart
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March 16, 2006
#1
One of the worst films ever made.
First, the concept of the story is ridiculous.
A cowboy is more likely to shoot another man in the head, when he makes a pass at him, rather then “imagine” falling in love with him.
How gross.
Why don’t these left wing nut cases make a film instead about how to treat these sick in the head gays rather then making them out to be victims or romanticizing this ill and abnormal behavior.
It is abnormal and for this reason mother nature does not allow same sex individual to procreate.
Gays are abnormal and this has nothing to do with religion or politics – it is natures way of making sure these defective creatures do not procreate this defect.
March 16, 2006
#2
I went into this film with the mindset that it was going to be moving and interesting and an overall great film. I however found it boring and pointless. I would like to know how these two fell in love. I would have liked to see more of the emotions that compelled these two reluctant men to form a relationship. I was left with just random mumblings. I have not read the story, but I’m thinking it is probably much better than the film. I can see that there was a good story to be told within, but it was just not explored. I am sorry this movie wasn’t what it could have been. I don’t recommend it. Obviously it found its fallowing, as there are 100s of wonderful reviews out there. This however is not one of them.
March 16, 2006
#3
Now that I have your attention, I went to this movie expecting nothing considering the media hype surrounding its pre-release. That is pretty much what I got. First, I will admit that the movie is not a bad movie, just amateurish in alot of respects. For example, we have 2 aimless drifters (one who wears a white hat, and the other a black hat..hmmm…) who manage somehow to “fall in lust” one long “hot” summer. At the end of the day, however, we have no idea whether its lust or love, was it just 2 bored and horny men taking care of business or a deep love that transcends societal constraints (something the gay establishment would like us to believe). Well, after 4 years of no contact (during which white hat gets married and has 2 kids based on an obligation to marry a woman–what a concept!, black hat gets married for money to a girl he meets after a failed attempt to pick up a guy at a bar) they reunite….and the rest is history.
I found this movie overly long and tedious to the point of disbelief. The two characters are in their own way ridiculous. Black hat is clearly an opportunist both sexually and financially who has no qualms about leaving hearth and home to take up with white hat who to his credit (at least for the first half of the movie) maintains his dignity by at least pretending to stand by his commitment to his wife and children. However, by the last half of this movie, white hat seems a bit off since by now its the late ’70s, the Village People are in full drag, and being gay is tres chic..he still stays way way in the closet while black hat is prowling anywhere he can to get off (that includes Mexico, a buddy in town, and God only knows who and what else). Of course, black hat meets his end at the hands of ignorant folk (or so we should believe) that has nothing whatsoever to do with his choices in life….and white hat goes to lead a miserable existence without black hat (he was apparently going to have to do anyway since it appeared that black hat had found someone else and was about to ditch white hat, what a love story!!!)….considering white hat’s moribund personality, this was a foregone conclusion.
Overall, I would recommend renting this movie for no other reason than seeing how Hollywood and the gay establishment got it wrong. There is nothing uplifting about seeing 2 men in love, or lust, or whatever you call it, lieing to themselves and the people around them to no end other than to make life miserable for everyone involved.
March 16, 2006
#4
It is films like brokeback mountain that make us wish for a return to censorship because they promote lifestyles that are repulsive and unnatural as well as irresponsible and socially destructive. Sorry, but that is how I feel and most people feel the same.
March 16, 2006
#5
I’m gay, but I am not convinced that these two Bisexual men are profondly in love. Why,when,and how did they love each other? I didn’t find in this movie. I think their love story has no sense and pretentious. The only best factor of the movie is Michelle Williams’performance. She deserves the nomination in both Golden Globe and the Academy Award. I really appreciate Ang Lee’s the Wedding Banquet,but not this one. In fact, I think Brokeback Mountain is the worst film directed by him. I’m very disappointed with it. I don’t wonder why it didn’t won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In contrast, I wonder why it won the Golden Globe and was nominated in the Oscar.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Anyway, there are still many other gay films better than Brokeback Mountain like Just a question of love, You I love, Farewell my concubine, and the Wedding Banquet.