Brokeback Mountain is the story of Ennis del Mar (Best Actor Nominee Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Best Supporting Actor Nominee Jake Gyllenhaal), two young men who meet and fall in love in 1963 on a sheep-herding job on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. The film documents their complex relationship over the next twenty years.
After the two part ways at the end of their job, Del Mar marries Alma (Best Supporting Actress Nominee Michelle Williams) and starts a family. Twist moves to Texas to pursue his rodeo dreams where he meets and marries Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway). After four years without contact, Ennis receives a postcard from Jack announcing he'll be in town. The two reunite and find their passion is as strong as ever. Although Twist broaches the subject of creating a life together, Del Mar is haunted by a childhood memory of the murder of a man suspected of being homosexual, and fears that such an arrangement can only end in tragedy. He is also committed to his family, and even after his wife divorces him, Del Mar refuses to move away from his children.
Unable to live together or to be open about their relationship, the two men are forced to settle for infrequent camping trips in the mountains to satisfy their longing for each other. Hilarity ensues.
Okay, lets get it over with, this is the "gay cowboy movie". It is a tale about forbidden love in a society that just would not understand the...okay, I'm having a hard time with the gay cowboy thing, for one they were sheep herders (insert your own joke here). I really tried to give this movie a chance. It is pretty good, but it tends to be slow and plodding. It was a little painful to watch, but that may be how it was intended to be. The awkwardness is just uncomfortable. It seems to be a movie that Academy members love not because it is the best but because it is trendy, or the "in thing."
Trivia: The football game on television that causes some family friction during Jack's Christmas dinner (in
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Here we go. Oscar week. This is the first time I have seen all of the movies before the Oscars. Be sure to catch posts on every Best Picture Nominee in the next few days. On Saturday, check in to see who I would pick and tell your picks.
thanks for the review...I doubt I'll ever see it.
I already have my pick and I think its coming up soon.
I'm thinking that I might not get to see this movie until it comes out on video. I would like to see what all the hoopla is about.
It's strange being here in Italy and getting all of our news later. Sometimes I feel so out of touch, but then think....but we get the news! It's just so different once it comes to things like this, entertainment, gossip and the such. If I want to know what's going on in the entertainment world, I have to read it on-line. It's not like before where you hear it on the radio, a talk show, or hear about it from your friend during lunch.
Anyways, enough of my blubbering. I want to see the movie because this type of thing doesn't bother me one least bit. It's just about people trying to have feelings no matter what. What's ever wrong with that? My view is...if it doesn't affect my life, what is it hurting? Did you guys see Rent? Then again, I do believe that women have an easier time accepting homosexuality much more than men do.
Yeah, I know, I am being hypocritical here, (see the commentary on Crash). I didn't really have a problem with the idea (although it sounds like I did), I just felt uncomfortable, but like I said, that may be what Ang Lee was going for. Heath Ledger looked like he was in a great deal of pain, like he had an abcessed tooth, during the whole movie.
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