moviemcpeake snippet: I was mesmerized by the leading ladies. This is a great story that sucks you in and I didn’t want it to end. You really feel part of their world and it was a lot of fun being a part of it. The ending however could stand a bit of a rewrite. Overall wonderful.
recommendation: for sure see. own it if you like easy dramas.
moviemcpeake snippet: What a sad journey to be taken on. I was immersed in a world of fear, hatred, and unhappiness. For a brief moment one breathes a sigh of relief that this doesn’t happen today but that is probably the saddest thing about this story is that it does. Many groups of people find themselves in communities that do not support homosexual relationships. Blue collar, farming, ranching to rappers, politicians, and rural areas, among the few. Many people are still forced to hide, to pretend, to be unhappy.
Brokeback Mountain is the story of two men that have an intense, emotional, physical need for each other. Their secret relationship tears at their “other” families. Their wives, their children, their parents all seem to know but are either in denial or choose to ignore it. It ruins both men as they struggle with anger, fear, acceptance, and deal with a hole in their hearts that only heals when they are together. Only twice a year “fishing” trips allow them to heal but each departure rips the hole even bigger.
This film does a lot of things well. The greatest, being cinematography. Wow! The scenery is so amazing and compliments the story, as well as, becoming the narrator for the film. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal do outstanding jobs acting as lovers and as individuals struggling with their needs, their secrets. Randy Quaid’s small role is also handled well and shows his range. I am not sure that I understand any nominations for the wives (played by Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams). Not because they did not perform well on screen but I did not feel that they had enough presence in this story.
As an independent film, it really plays it safe. This is an independent film marketed and created for the hopes of the mass market. I hate that it is dated because this story resonates across many decades and today. The story needs to show more of the relationship’s intimacy. I am not talking about more sex scenes but they rarely even touch each other which I fell this is untrue to their characters and the relationship. There are two important scenes that show the fear, the hate, the pain. One of the stories is a wedge that is driven between the two men. Two hate crime scenes. The film pans over them like they are not significant moments but a transition scene. This is unfortunate because these scenes could have provided the gut sick emotion that this film was intending to give its audience.
Overall, I love that so many audiences and theaters have embraced this film. We have taken many strides in as fellow neighbors that we at least live in a society where the making and viewing of this film is mass marketed and people aren’t taken aback or protesting theaters. In a time were oppressed groups are beginning to feel and fight harder for a shift in popular views, more brave films like Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain need to share these stories of oppression, of lives unable to freely pursue their lives, to be a constant reminder that these stories are still among us, living and breathing. I hang my hat to the actors and the director who bravely took us to this world and did it so beautifully.
recommendation: see it and let it impact you.
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