This movie that would be a great movie, for my taste is undone by a fact. This fact caused all the rest to fall apart. I tell it in the spoiler zone. Apart I must be the only person who has been a little long but that's the way it is.Photography, without being the best in the world, is good. The two main actors are great and the others alsoIt is well set and putting tough guys in difficult places as opposed to their sexual tendencies is very well thought out.Although I do not like your address. I know it's hard to think how to plan well and not settle for the camera is a simple observer but here it is and that's saying that Ang Lee does not usually plan badly.It is appreciated that actors who are beginning to dare to do this type of movies.Spoiler:At the end of the film, when we see father and daughter, I could not stop staring at Heath Ledger's dyed hair. It is assumed that this is a movie would be big budget. Did not he give them to really age him? I could not help but think, but if you are brothers, how is your father going to be. This fact caused all the rest to fall apart. I really like the symbols he uses, like finding the shirt in the closet.
... View MoreIn many ways, this is a very typical love story : a forbidden romance, bowing down to the rules and needs of the society, the resulting sorrow, ruining more lives in the process with betrayal, a desperate attempt to cling to traces of the romance, just leading to more heartbreak and an unfulfilling life. As can be inferred from the summary, this is a sad movie, but it is also beautifully shot, full of scenes with natural beauty and soothing calm, interspersed with moments of passion which nonetheless mellow out with gentle love and tender care as time passes and the characters grow older. What truly shines though is the brilliant acting performances, especially by Heath Ledger who truly sells a very conflicted and broken soul, torn between love, duty and fear.
... View MoreIt may now be 12 years old, but Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, based on the short story by Annie Proulx, is still more relevant than ever. At the time of its release, the debate around gay marriage was raging, and continued to do so in the subsequent years. Thankfully, same-sex marriage is now practised in many countries across the world, although it would still be deemed a crime and a sin elsewhere. But anyone who thinks that the themes explored in the film only relate to a relationship between two gay men or women have profoundly missed the point. The story applies to the love between any two people which may be considered taboo, or just plain wrong in society's eyes, whether this be for religious, political or sexual reasons, and this is something that will continue to be a talking point for many years to come.Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are two down-on-their-luck young cowboys in 1963 Wyoming. They arrive at Brokeback Mountain looking for work, and are hired by the bigoted Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to herd sheep over the summer months. The work is hard and dangerous, and the pair spend most nights winding down passing a bottle of whiskey. After one particularly heavy night of drinking, Jack makes a move on Ennis and the two make passionate, almost violent love. Aware of society's attitudes towards gay men, the two agree that their relationship must be kept secret and their feelings locked away, and they part ways determined to forget the experience. They both marry (their wives are played by Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway) and have children in the following years, but neither can forget the time spend together on the mountain.Ang Lee's primary focus has always been on character. Even his worst film, the superhero misfire Hulk, spent far more (most would say too much) time concentrating on the human side of its lead instead his angry, green alter-ego. Following Ennis and Jack over the course of a couple of decades, we experience Ennis' inner turmoil and Jack's complete frustration, with the latter's anger stemming from both society's refusal to let them be who they want to be, and Ennis' dismissing of Jack's idea to buy a ranch with him so they can live out their days together. Jack is more accepting of his own sexuality, occasionally attempting pick-ups in bars and often forced to pay prostitutes in dingy alleys. Haunted by an experience with his father as a child, Ennis is in a constant battle with himself. Angry at the discrimination he would face were he display his true emotions in public, and possibly disgusted at himself for possessing such feelings, he stoically drinks and smokes his nights away after his marriage falls apart.The script, by Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana, refuses to over- simplify the characters and force labels on them. It isn't entirely clearly whether the two men are homosexual, bisexual or even heterosexual, as their relationship is built on something far more transcendent. It's one of the many reasons why the film shouldn't be remembered as that 'gay cowboy movie'. Ledger and Gyllenhaal are both terrific, and received Academy Award nominations for their efforts. Ledger is undoubtedly the standout as the buttoned-up, tight-lipped tough guy repressing a range of emotions he doesn't full understand behind his incredibly sad eyes. Tragically, he wouldn't completely shake off his pretty boy image until three years later - the year of his death - after The Dark Knight. It is a film that will no doubt resonate with most people whose feelings fall outside of what society considers the 'norm', and will continue to do so for many years to come. On top of that, Brokeback Mountain is simply a beautiful piece of cinema, with one of the most heart- breaking final scenes ever filmed
... View MoreI am willing to be an unabashed fan of this movie. It is great.Of all the great love stories that I have seen in movies and in plays, I can't think of a story that has spoken to me more intensely than Brokeback. Ever since rewatching it a few days ago, I have been playing back the scene when Jack says "Sometimes I miss you so much that I can hardly stand it" over and over again. It's just that good.Tragic. Tender. Terrifyingly beautiful. From the natural beauty of Wyoming to its rural poverty, the American West has never seemed more full of brutality or love.One of the great love stories of our time, Brokeback should be relevant for far more than the "gay cowboy" closet.(I have seen this several times, most recently on June 22, 2017)
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