Film: Brokeback Mountain

[Strawberry_lovemuffin]

****spoilers*****

not a fan of brokeback mountain

my first complaint of the movie apparently is not an uncommon one: there's no foundation to jack and enis' relationship... they're just all of the sudden madly in love. now, i considered that given the time period, the characters' reserved disposition, and the geographical location, this relationship evloving out of mutual longing and repression actually rings true, but mostly it felt sloppy.

i felt that the main characters were stagnant and undeveloped. both enis and jack started off and ended the film relatively the same (stoic/guarded and vibrant/idealistic). no one really made much progress. this made it difficult to really develop much of a relationship with the main characters. on top of that, the main character who is paid the most attention is nearly devoid of redeeming qualities. seriously we know that enis is tourtured and torment by what he cant have but he totally turns to shit and ruins what he does have. his handling of his family was cowerdly and unadmirable yet you're supposed to come away from the film thinking fondly of him.

someone mentioned the pacing which i found totally akward. this film went on at least 30 minutes too long. having jack and enis' rendez vous sprinkled rather evenly throughout the film just added to the drudgery. also i think the film did a poor job of illustrating elapsed time. i didnt know how much time had passed until a character explicitly said so.

some things i did like....

acting was amazing all around. i was particularly impressed w/ ledger. enis' character seems like a tough one to play. not a whole lot of dialouge but ledger manages to convey his pain, fear, anger etc without saying too much.

as other's said, this film is visually well done. im not so well versed on what makes cinematography 'cutting edge' but i know what looks good and this film was definitely easy on the eyes. of course they were shooting some of the most beautiful landscapes on planet earth so it's kind of a stacked deck

all in all i'd rate this movie i 3. there just wasnt enough there for me. the things that lacked seemed to do so deliberately as opposed to resulting from laziness but frankly thats irrelevent. if a love story in which one of the two lovers dies cant make me even tear up then the discussion is kinda over

o0psy Daisy~ yes i absolutely think that jack's wife knew. i think this was supported by the way she spoke to enis on the phone and also that annoying scene with the other couple (jack's future mistress) at the dance.

also, i didnt think that jack was murdered. i thought that enis was just flashing back to that old man's murder when he heard the news. i could be wrong though, i'd pretty much mailed it in by the end

Completely agree with your review, particularly the part about how throughout the movie you're meant to feel empathy for Ennis - but why? He's actually a huge jerk. I didn't even really feel sad for him at the end! I was disappointed in this; I wanted a hanky-soaking experience, I got one where my back ached, I was bored a lot of the time and only a few moments twinged real emotion in me.

I wanted MORE about the murder/death of Jack, I think that could have been milked a lot more. Ledgers' voice annoyed me. And I know it's good that it wasn't 'melodramatic', but the relationship between the two men at times seemed so subtle and restrained it was hardly 'there'..... I don't know, maybe I just didn't get it, didn't feel it - it didn't resonate with me as much as it was clearly meant to.

I did like Jake's acting, and also Michelle (who played Ennis' wife) - I think her performance was superb. I did like the clever irony at the end of the film, when Ennis makes the sort of allowances for his daughters' wedding, that he could have made for Jack while Jack was alive... perhaps having learned his lesson about what is important in life.

But IMO, the scenery should take out the Oscar. It was one of the best things about the film

 

[mariacallas]

omg jack dies!?!!
http://www.starz.com/features/brokebackmountain/
LOL this is a HILARIOUS bunny parody

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

^^

Now that was comic gold!!

CB

 

[mariacallas]

Watching this right now folks brB

 

[bRoken&foRgoTTen]

haha nice one CC

 

[poopie]

i finally watched this a couple of days ago.

absolutely breath-taking!!! srsly.

i have now seen "crash", "good night and good luck", "capote", and "brokeback mountain". i think "brokeback mountain should have won 'best picture'.

i agree with everything chaos butterfly said.

and, to me, it pained me so much to see ennis so reserved. i've dated men like that. men, who you know have feelings for you, but live their whole life at a 5. they never waiver. so stoic or whatever. i'm totally a 'jack twist' in a relationship- jump right in and get your feet wet!

what i thought was awesome, is how it showed these two men in love, but a lot of the time when they were together they actually looked like "fishin' buddies", even when alone. they were so close/in love, they didn't need to hold hands all the time. it showed how they had developed such a strong friendship.

i laughed so many times at this movie...and dear god, i cried. i mena, c'mon, the postcard and what was stamped on it. then when ennis found his shirt...and then in the end, when he had the two shirts together. oh god....i dunno, i'm just speechless!

the intimate scenes were so amazing. intriguing. and i think the awkwardness was perfect. it reminded me of halle berry and billy bob thornton in "monster's ball". so powerful and really so passionate.

hey, i loved "capote" and scotty j is amazing, but damn.

5 stars. srsly.

 

[StarOceanHouse]

omg jack dies!?!!
http://www.starz.com/features/brokebackmountain/
LOL this is a HILARIOUS bunny parody

haha yeah i saw that before watching the movie. Maybe that's why I didn't like it too much. I really thought there was going to be more character development than I anticipated. I might have to watch it again because I wasn't paying attention the whole time.

I can blame that one on the 30 second bunny parody.

 

[Stasis]

I wish I would've seen the bunny parody first, it would've saved me a couple of hours that I will never get back.

 

[grapeape]

I finally watched this movie yesterday, was hoping to not be let down since there was so much hype. I must say that the begininng was a bit slow, but it definately picked up by the middle and I was bawling my eyes out by the end.

I judge a good movie on how long it makes me think after I finish watching it...here I am the next night, and I am *still* thinking about it. It truly is a love story and most of the time I wasn't thinking anything about them being "gay" or whatever..... they had a true connection of souls. And it was intriguing.

My only complaint is, I would have liked more development/ explaination of the end... I was left wondering what the hell *really* happened to Jack, and I hate that.

anyway, all in all....both performances ( Jake and Heath) are deserving of awards.... I loved it. 5/5.

 

[DarthMom]

boringboringboringboringboringboringboringboring

I really was hoping to enjoy this movie. One of the few I bought instead before ripping off of netflix....I was really surprised at how boring this movie was. Holy shit! Hot gay men kissing! Fuck. I grew up around gay men, and I have showtime, I didn't get off on this.

I don't recall where I heard it, but an older gay man somewhere was bitching about the whole "gay guy has to die in the end" bs this movie succumbs to, as they did in the old obscure 50's gay tales.

this isn't the 50's anymore. it isn't dramatic or sad, just pathetic when someone kills a gay man. and not entertaining for most.

ditto.

 

[Jamshyd]

This movie came up (no pun) in the other thread. Thougt I'd give my opinion...

Watching this film gave me the impression that it was made by straight people for straight people, so that they can all sleep better at night knowing they can watch a gay film without flinching. As a gay person, I can relate to it about as much as I could relate to an encyclopaedia entry on homosexuality.

There is a lot of potential in there, but none of it comes out (ugh, no pun again). I actually watched it a second time and superimposed my own renderings and found it more enjoyable that way .

I agree with DM... I don't think it is provocative enough, and the pastoral/cowboy setting allows the film to be "gay" without having any relevance to reality, and therefore not sad enough either, and certainly not erotic by any stretch of imagination.

I must admit though, they did get the homophobic-woman-i-can-see-you-imagining-me-being-fucked stare down pat

2.5(3)/5

 

[TALLY]

never seen it, never wanted to see it, never will see it!

THE END

 

[L2R]

^a little phobic of your tally man?!

jammy, i reckon you're taking the film a little defensively. the homosexual side of this film could be any taboo love plot and practically the same. what if they were cousins? what if they were mixed race? what if they were having sex with animals.... etc etc

rather than a gay film by straight people for straight people, i see it as a love story with a gay twist made by whoever for whoever likes heart felt drama.

 

[Jamshyd]

^ But see, thats the thing!

Whatever taboo it may be, the way it was set up was made so that it can be watch by those with aversions to such taboos "safely" yet feel as if they've managed to do something risque.

 

[L2R]

I can see how one can take it that way. I remember (it's been a while) just being caught up in the raw emotion of the film to even consider such things.

come to think of it, your argument can apply to lolita and pedophilia, but that still doesn't take away from the (the original) film's greatness.

 

[TALLY]

^a little phobic of your tally man?!

Nah i just dont wanna watch a movie about gay dudes. Same as someone might not want to watch a movie about vampires or werewolves or whatever. I dont want to watch a movie about gay dudes. Just not something that would interest me, thats all.

 

[L2R]

imagine tits on em and pretend they're lesbians. the sex would still work.

seriously, it's a very moving love story. forget about who they are and let the emotion carry you..


or not. no matter bro. your loss though.

 

[alasdairm]

bump for heath ledger

alasdair

 

[L2R]

and here is my thread on the film ang lee did after brokeback mountain: lust, caution

 

[TheDeceased]

An overly sympathetic portrayal of adulterers and terrible parents who allow lust to destroy their lives and their families.

There have been a couple of women who posted on this thread, stating that they found the movie moving and that they felt for the main characters, etc. But if either Jack or Ennis were your husband/ father of your children, would you still have the same opinions?

Wouldn't you hate them?

Arguing that they didn't have a choice is ludicrous. They didn't have to get married and they didn't have to let their cocks control their decisions, leading them to cheat on their wives. They're supposed to be men, not teenagers going through puberty.

If they truly loved each other and wanted to be together maybe they should've made some sacrifices and moved to a more accepting environment - or perhaps attempted to be a bit more discreet.