Brokeback Mountain is a fictitious place in Wyoming that film director Ang Lee used as the setting for his 2005 blockbuster movie of the same name. Inspired by the Big Horn mountains and Tecon Peaks of Wyoming the film was actually shot 700 miles to the north in Alberta, Canada, yet in a paradoxical sort of way the success of the film which won four Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture has boosted the tourist economy of Wyoming and the tourist information office still receive hundreds of calls every week enquiring about the location of Brokeback.
The story begins in 1963 and centres around the two main characters of the film Ennis Del Mar (played by Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) who pick up a casual summer job herding sheep in the mountains and ensuring that they don't fall prey to the Wolves and Coyotes.
Left alone in the mountains Jack and Ennis soon find that they have emotional feelings for one another but these feelings are unknown and taboo to them both. These are hard, macho men who live out their lives as Cowboys and earn their living picking up casual work and riding Bulls at rodeo's. Such feelings are both alien and frightening and this film is the tale of the rollercoaster emotions that are associated with this forbidden love affair.
The story itself is a screen adaptation by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana of a short novel by Anne Proulx, published in 1997. A story about two men that fall in love was never going to be without a certain amount of controversy but the sensitive nature in which the story is told, set amongst a backdrop of some of the finest mountain scenery ever captured on film, is both heart-warming and at times surprising.
This is a film that should appeal to any moviegoer who enjoys a good film, be them gay/straight or from out of space, but it will appeal also to those who like a sensitive love story too, for there are moments which will bring tears to your eyes and leave a lump at the back of your throat. The acting is superb throughout and the story keeps you gripped as both men leave the mountains at the end of the summer and go their separate ways, each getting married and settling down to respectable family life, yet we know that it is inevitable that before the credits roll that there paths will cross once more and the emotions that were first stirred on Brokeback mountain will be rekindled once more.
The soundtrack that accompanies the film is very laid back and acoustic. It is largely guitar based and though subtle it accompanies the film perfectly.
If I have any criticisms about this film it would be to say that the film is a little bit too long and drawn out, especially at the beginning, and the DVD extras are rather poor.
The extras on the DVD include a section about the making of the film which is more or less simply a promotional trailer for the film and there is a section about how the actors were trained to understand the lifestyle of a cowboy.
Overall I found this to be a very interesting film and well deserving of the critical release that it attracted. Thankfully nobody that I knew who had seen this film at the cinema had told me the ending and this was a bit of a surprise and certainly not what I was expecting.
Price - £6.99 (Amazon) DVD Release date - 24 April 2006 Certification - 15 Running Time - 134 minutes
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From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee comes an epic American love story, Brokeback ... more
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