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MovieMail's Review
It's hard to think of a film in recent memory that has received as much universal acclaim as Brokeback Mountain. Here is a film that has astonished cinemagoers, winning almost every film award going (except, famously, the Best Picture Oscar) and topping Sight & Sound's poll of the best films of the year. Fortunately, the film completely justifies the hype; this is a film to be watched many times.
Based on Annie Proulx's novella, it tells the saga of the relationship between two cowboys, Ennis and Jack (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal), who, to their mutual surprise, fall in love whilst tending sheep on Brokeback Mountain. Their love is thwarted by contemporary attitudes towards homosexuality (the action begins in 1963), and by Ennis' engagement to Alma (Michelle Williams). A few years later, however, Jack sends Ennis a postcard suggesting they re-ignite their relationship.
Brokeback Mountain's script is one of its highest assets; although its characters are uneducated and unable to articulate the forbidden passion they are experiencing, many of the lines achieve an elegiac profundity, as when Jack rues: "There ain't never enough time, never enough...". Gustavo Santaolalla's Oscar-winning guitar score beautifully compliments the action, softly evoking the slow-burning affection at the film's start before gradually amplifying as love takes over. Ang Lee, one of the great directors currently at work, never allows the emotional content to tip over into melodrama - the affecting moment when Alma discovers the affair is a masterclass in understatement. Lee's direction of his actors is particularly impressive, never less so than when Ledger delivers the film's last, enigmatic line: "Jack, I swear..."
From script to screen: Interviews with Larry McMurty & Diana Ossana
Sharing the story: The Making of Brokeback Mountain.
Film Description
Undoubtedly one of the great films of the new millennium, Ang Lee's western is an astonishing achievement. Its incredibly moving depiction of the homosexual love between two cowboys (Ledger and a BAFTA-winning Gyllenhaal), and a poetic, frequently enigmatic script helped it win just about every award going, including the Golden Lion in Venice and the Best Picture BAFTA. A masterpiece.
It's hard to think of a film in recent memory that has received as much universal acclaim as Brokeback Mountain. Here is a film that has astonished cinemagoers, winnin... more >
It's hard to think of a film in recent memory that has received as much universal acclaim as Brokeback Mountain. Here is a film that has astonished cinemagoers, winning almost every film award going (except, famously, the Best Picture Oscar) and topping Sight & Sound's poll of the best films of the year. Fortunately, the film completely justifies the hype; this is a film to be watched many times.
Based on Annie Proulx's novella, it tells the saga of the relationship between two cowboys, Ennis and Jack (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal), who, to their mutual surprise, fall in love whilst tending sheep on Brokeback Mountain. Their love is thwarted by contemporary attitudes towards homosexuality (the action begins in 1963), and by Ennis' engagement to Alma (Michelle Williams). A few years later, however, Jack sends Ennis a postcard suggesting they re-ignite their relationship.
Brokeback Mountain's script is one of its highest assets; although its characters are uneducated and unable to articulate the forbidden passion they are experiencing, many of the lines achieve an elegiac profundity, as when Jack rues: "There ain't never enough time, never enough...". Gustavo Santaolalla's Oscar-winning guitar score beautifully compliments the action, softly evoking the slow-burning affection at the film's start before gradually amplifying as love takes over. Ang Lee, one of the great directors currently at work, never allows the emotional content to tip over into melodrama - the affecting moment when Alma discovers the affair is a masterclass in understatement. Lee's direction of his actors is particularly impressive, never less so than when Ledger delivers the film's last, enigmatic line: "Jack, I swear..." < less
