DVD Reviews

Brokeback Mountain – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Mar 27, 2009, 15:48 GMT

A raw, powerful story of two young men, a Wyoming ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 sheepherding in the harsh, high grasslands of contemporary Wyoming and form an unorthodox yet life-long bond--by turns ecstatic, bitter and conflicted. ...more

One of our most constantly surprising filmmakers, Ang Lee fashioned one of his most commercially (against all odds) and critically successful films with 'Brokeback Mountain.' It was a film which garnered him a Best Director statue and went on to become a zeitgeist of pop culture.

This ostensibly 'gay' Western is one of the best love stories to make it to celluloid in this past decade with all the repressed, timeless emotion that such an effort would require. With all participants firing on all cylinders including Ang Lee, a standout performance from Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, the film rarely if ever hits a false note.

Based on a 1997 short story by Annie Prouix and perceptively adapted by Ossana and the legendary McMurtry (with past works 'Hud', 'The Last Picture Show' and 'Terms of Endearment' providing a pretty good idea of what to expect) with thoughtful, methodical pacing from Lee who draws mostly upon his native 'The Wedding Banquet' for a matter-of-fact handling of gay themes, which, of course, just happen to be human themes, the movie presents a decades-long love story of two loner ranch hands who have to sacrifice love for the reality of their times.

Lee takes his time with the 135-minute film, never rushing a shot, all the more notable considering the seldom and precise use of dialogue. Pictures do, indeed, tell a thousand words here and I would be tempted to say that every theme or emotion that the film tries to convey would have been generated just as well without any dialogue at all. I imagine that would suit one of our two protags, Ennis Del Mar, just fine.

The film opens in Wyoming 1963 and a lean, rough-hewn Del Mar (Ledger) and a perkier Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) wait outside a small trailer-based office for a rancher (Randy Quaid) who employs the two for the summer tending a herd of sheep up in the stunning locale of Brokeback Mountain. With predators grabbing the sheep at night, one of the two have to camp with the sheep to deter predators and keep the head count higher.

Ennis is a man of little words and everything spoken seems forced and a chore - hands in his pockets, head usually down, it takes a while for the more easy-going Texas boy Jack to get any conversation out of him. Weeks pass, though, and they eventually strike up a friendship which turns to one liquor-fueled night where Jack asks Ennis into his tent to keep him warm. An urge takes over that neither seems to fight much and the next morning, they hardly utter a word to each other with the exception of claims that "I ain't queer".

Despite Ennis proclaiming this a one-time thing, it eventually happens again and the summer of boring sheep-herding turns into a passionate love affair. When the summer job ends prematurely, they head their different directions with barely a goodbye. Essentially ignoring that little interlude, Ennis eventually marries a small-town girl Alma (Michelle Williams) and have two daughters.

Jack meets a Texas gal Lureen (Anne Hathaway) at a rodeo and ends up selling farm machinery for her well-off father. They eventually have a son but their marriage seems to be mostly of convenience on both parts. There's a distinct lack of emotion emanating from Lureen that probably worsens Jack's need for an emotional and physical connection.

After more than a few years, Jack lets Ennis know that he's coming to visit and when they finally reunite, they can barely suppress themselves, kissing passionately where Alma unfortunately spots them. Taking off on a 'fishing trip', they realize what they've been missing and needing all these years so these trips become more frequent with Alma quietly accepting the truth.

These trips eventually cause their respective marriages to fail, although not for the obvious reasons, and the years run on with Ennis consistently refusing to set up a ranch together with Jack due to a horrible childhood incident he remembered about a gay couple who got tortured.

The film ultimately becomes a story of star-crossed lovers, two men fortunate enough to meet but unfortunate to live in a particular time and place where they wouldn't be tolerated.

Both actors do outstanding jobs as believably sixties-contemp cowboys with Gyllenhaal getting the slightly more thankless role. Ledger proved to continue his strong dramatic streak that started with 'Monster's Ball' and ended with his unforgettable award-winning 'Joker' role. One of our most strong, young thesps, this film is a cruel reminder of what strong future performances Ledger might have given us.

With strong supporting work from Williams, Hathaway and Quaid, the film is also perfectly complemented by a subtle, moving score by Santalalla that really cements the quiet power of the film. While the film never resorts to outright manipulation or that 'big' scene in a romance where wails of grief hammer a point home, 'Brokeback Mountain' instead relies on the expert use of restraint and the more devastating effect of a quietly sad acceptance of what could have been, a handling that proves more haunting than any big explosion of emotion would have provided.

'Brokeback Mountain' on Blu seems to use the same 1080p 1.85:1 VC1 encode that was featured on the HD-DVD a few years back which was a fine high-def presentation. There's some consistent grain inherent to the source but detail and color is mostly good with a slightly washed-out palette.

A few edge enhancements issues pop up that probably could have been taken care of but this is a mostly quality encode. Upping the Dolby Digital Plus mix from the HD-DVD, the Blu gets a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that does a decent job with the mostly subtle audio.

Slim special features are carried over from the 'Collector's Edition' DVD or HD-DVD which isn't a whole lot. We get 'A Groundbreaking Success' running about 15 minutes that takes a look at the film in the hindsight of its success. Critics, cast and crew all get a turn and it's fine but painfully inconsequential.

One of the more groundbreaking and talked about movies of the decade and this is the only conversations that could be mustered up? 'Music from the Mountain' is a ten minute look at the film's score and composer Santaolalla.

A three minute 'Still Montage', a collection of original featurettes that run 25 minutes, 'Directing from the heart: Ang Lee', 'From Script to Screen' and 'On Being a Cowboy' and a 22-minute TV Special that provides more cast and crew interviews but nothing of any real insight. The BD is also BD-Live enabled but nothing exclusive to 'Brokeback Mountain' is provided.

In my opinion, a must see for fans of a good old-fashioned tearjerker romance or for more adventurous moviegoers, 'Brokeback Mountain' still remains an impeccable piece of filmmaking four years later and the Blu-ray backs it up with fine video, audio and features even if nothing new on the extra front was really provided.