Brokeback Mountain [2005 film]

It was really interesting to read this and realize this was what spurred the movie. Had I read this before seeing the film, I think it might have edged closer to four stars, but it's difficult to compare the very small bits of connection one gets in this short story with the depth of the relationship that we see on screen. The inconsistent dialect in the dialogue threw me just a bit, too.

That said, the story of Jack and Ennis is a powerful one, if tragic, and they are definitely characters that hold a special place for me regardless of where I find them.

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 Gyllenhall deliver emotionally charge, remarkably moving performances in "a movie that is destined to become one of the greatest classics of our time" (Clay Smith, The Insider).

Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal

Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger (top); Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway (bottom) BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Review: Part I Jack's frustration with Ennis leads to excessive drinking and to the search for companionship elsewhere."You have no idea how bad it gets!" he yells at Ennis in the film's climactic confrontation scene."… I wish I knew how to quit you." Such all-consuming yearning is meant to be the result of a communion of souls, but that communion is nowhere to be found in the interplay between the two...

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, show more 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 show less

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)

Based on the 'E. Annie Proulx' story about a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys and their lives over the years.

Director: Ang Lee
Writers: Annie Proulx (short story), Larry McMurtry (screenplay)
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams

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