Review of Brokeback Mountain (2005) by Daniel K — 17 Jan 2012

4: It's hard for me to believe I've never written a review of this, but I guess I haven't seen it for a number of years. It's still just as powerful now as it was then though. Ledger gives an unbelievable performance on par with the best of Streep or Day-Lewis.

Just as he did with The Dark Knight, he completely immerses himself into the character until it subsumes his persona and he is unrecognizable. All of the little ticks, nuances, and mannerisms of the performance are no where to be seen in any of his other films, or at least I don't remember seeing them.

He barely even opens his mouth or seems to openly register an emotion through all the turmoil. It's a monumental and lasting performance that I doubt will ever be forgotten. His portrayal of the joker is much more bombastic and perhaps outwardly memorable, but I'd be hard pressed to pick one over the other.

They are, in my opinion, two of the best screen performances of the decade (at least). Ang Lee is an incredible filmmaker as well. His work seems to have no area of concentration and virtually no limit.

Few directors can boast of films as good as Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or Brokeback Mountains, let alone all three and all terribly different from one another. Emma Thompson made some comment about it being incredible that a man such as him would understand Austen better than anyone, but the same could be said of his apparent understanding of cowboys, ranch hands, small-town America, etc, not to mention bi/homosexual cowboys.

Of course, he did have help from Proulx, McMurtry, etc, but it's definitely not a coincidence that he made yet another powerful and insightful film. The locations and cinematography are spectacular.

I can't think of another film that so accurately and beautifully portrays grazing/herding in the mountains of Wyoming. The fact that there was a film made about gay men in America was definitely not what made it so newsworthy and controversial, but that it was about two gay American cowboys (played by stars as well).

I've seen much more shocking films with major stars, such as Antonio Banderas in Almodovar's Law of Desire, but they don't strike at the heart of American mythology like this does. I'd say it augments it and enriches it rather than tearing it down though.

In this sense one could call it a revisionist Western. I only wonder if I am underrating it as I think it may deserve 4.5 stars. It takes an extremely intimate look into the lives of a few individuals, but we are unconsciously forced to contemplate just how similar this particular story must be to countless other real life stories of bittersweet and disappointed love.