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Brokeback Mountain
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (31st March 2009). |
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The Film
 I suppose one could take a rather immature approach in reviewing this film, luckily I'm no longer 14 and can look at films such as this with a mature adult standpoint. "Brokeback Mountain" is Ang Lee's return to small budget melodramatic character driven films after the disastrous "Hulk" in 2003 failed to strum up decent box office numbers. Screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry adapted Annie Proulx's celebrated short story into a beautifully articulate screenplay that was unfortunately unproduced for many years. Although regarded as one of the best scripts around, its subject matter sealed its fate with all the major studios, that is until Focus Features stepped in and Ang Lee expressed interest in helming the project of a Wyoming love story between two male ranch hands. "Brokeback Mountain" tells the story of Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), two down on their luck ranch hands that take work herding sheep up on Brokeback Mountain during the summer of 1963. While up on the mountain the two get to know each other very well and during one cold night share a passionate encounter. When discovered one day by their boss, Joe Aquirre (Randy Quaid) neglecting their duties and wrestling with each other in a 'playful manner' they are instructed to bring the sheep down one month early and are relieved of their jobs. For the next twenty years the two men hold onto their secret of what happened on the mountain, throughout this time both men marry and have kids but meet occasionally to stir up their passion for one another. "Brokeback Mountain" is easily Lee's finest film in some time, at the film's core is the expertly crafted screenplay that encompasses the lives of these two young men and of their forbidden love. The film's first act focuses primarily on the events of the summer of 1963 on the mountain, while the second act deals with the two men's marriage and the subsequent failure in the third. The film provides ample breathing room within each act to allow us time to get to know the characters intimately, without some kind of connection the film's overall theme would have been lost. If you have no emotional connection to their plight well then you're cold inside. If you have no desire to watch it then that's your choice, homophobic or not, many people seem to think it's an overrated film...I do...but it's still a good tear jerker none-the-less. The performances from Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were of the career making variety, especially Ledger whom I had previously only associated with "A Knight's Tale" (2001) surprised me with a tremendously mature and quietly emotional performance. And now he will be remembered for his incredible Oscar winning performance in "The Dark Knight" (2008), in many ways "Brokeback Mountain" was what gave him more dramatic opportunities. The scene were Del Mar tells Twist that they can't be together all the time, in which he delivers the line "Bottom line is... we're around each other an'... this thing, it grabs hold of us again... at the wrong place... at the wrong time... and we're dead" is powerfully portrayed, this scene can be used as evidence of an excellent performance. Gyllenhaal's performance is also very good however not exactly matching the brilliance that is Ledger's. He manages to go toe-to-toe but never really breaks out on his own terms, it doesn't help that he has to deliver what has become one of the cheesiest lines in movies, "I wish I knew how to quit you". The ladies have been cast very well, with Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams adding a bit of estrogen to the mix, both ladies seem comfortable in their roles, Hathaway a little too comfortable but Williams matches Ledger's strong quiet type character with her damaged housewife routine that's not only convincing but also emotionally draining. Finding out rather early in their marriage of her husband's infidelities with another man, she keeps her hurt and anger bottled-up inside so tight it appears as though she's ready to explode. But for the benefit of the children she tries to keep things together until it becomes too hard to bare. Their marriage deteriorates in front of their eyes while Ennis is too busy with Jack to even notice. While these performances are all very strong and lend the film a rather credible voice, I found a few aspects about it that just plain didn't work for me. The first encounter between Ennis and Jack felt too sudden and I never really felt their love for each other was truly genuine. The love scenes were in a way fight scenes between these two, the times when they were honest and open with each other felt forced and at times unnatural maybe a byproduct of the way their loves were handled. "Brokeback Mountain" exhibits two elements that add to an epic film's overall appeal, the photography is second to none in its beauty, even in the 1.85:1 frame cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has managed to show off the majesty of the countryside that is usually only seen in the cinemascope frame to full effect here. To heighten the film's themes and set the tone, Gustavo Santaolalla's Oscar winning score is simplistic yet melodic and makes a perfect match to the action onscreen. Lee and Santaolalla have used music to move the story along and not to overwhelm, additionally a true sign of a good director is to know when not to use music and let the performances drive the scene, and Ang Lee does this very well. While beautiful to look at and listen to, an audience does have its limits and I found the films pace to be slow and occasionally tiring, matched with the run time over two hours and it's a long dink of water to take in. I don't think the film would have suffered had a few minutes been removed here and there. I also felt that the film's hype over the award season was a little too much, granted it was a nice story of forbidden love but ultimately there's nothing entirely new here other than the fact this is about a gay relationship.
Video
This film is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been mastered in VC-1 compression. I've had two previous editions of this film on DVD and now this edition on Blu-ray, which has provided me the opportunity to compare them. It seems like this image used the same master source as the DVD releases (it's also the same transfer used on the previous HD DVD release), obviously this edition is mastered at a higher resolution and the results are terrific. The film's sharpness is better, detail and textures look heightened and colors are natural vibrant and lush especially the countryside locations. The photography is brilliantly presented here, there is no dirt, specks or flaws here.
Audio
Universal has released this film with three audio tracks in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as DTS 5.1 surround tracks in both French and Spanish. The lossless audio mix here adds more depth and range than the previous Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes from the DVD and improves upon the Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 track from the HD DVD edition. The dialogue is clear and distortion free, although Ledger's manner of speaking is still a little hard to understand at times. The film's audio is primarily centered on the front speakers, there's some subtle ambient sounds that add to the overall immersive quality. Furthermore the film's intricate score feels like it has more range here throughout the surround channels. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Universal have released this Blu-ray edition with the same extras as seen on the previous 2-disc "Collector's Edition" DVD release and include a series of 7 featurettes and some BD-Live features. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is "A Groundbreaking Success" a new featurette that runs for 17 minutes 13 seconds, in this clip the filmmakers and critics talk about dealing with the controversial subject matter, getting the film made under adversity, dealing with the religious right and internet reactions even before the film was released having to cope with concerns that Hollywood would water down the story. They cover the release and immediate critical reaction that supported the film, the marketing of the film to mainstream audiences and the success of the film. "Music From The Mountain" is a new featurette that runs for 11 minutes 18 seconds, this clip focuses on the Oscar winning score from Gustavo Santaolalla. The filmmakers talk about the grandness of the locations and creating music to compliment the images, tone and themes of the film. Some cues were recorded before the filming and inspired Lee when visualizing the expanse of the film. Gustavo talks about expanding on the concept of silence and creating a score that brings you into the film without being too overbearing or manipulative. Other musical elements are covered including the various musicians involved in writing and performing songs for the soundtrack. Following that is "From Script to Screen: Interviews with Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana", the third featurette ported over from the previous release, runs for 10 minutes 54 seconds. Here we learn about the discovery of the short story by the two screenwriters and the genesis from writing the script to finding the right filmmaker to make it. I was mainly interested in the process of tuning a short story into a feature script and these two touch on that briefly. Following that is "On Being a Cowboy" a featurette, which runs for 5 minutes 45 seconds, here we learn about how the cast had to train with professional cowboys on how to ride horses, herd animals, ride bulls, and other cowboy stuff. We hear from the main cast as well as the technical advisors that helped them become convincing cowboys. Next we have the "Directing form the Heart: Ang Lee" another featurette runs for 7 minutes 28 seconds and tells us about Lee's involvement in the film and how everyone things he's the greatest thing since slice bread. We also get to hear about his directing techniques and are treated to a few minutes of behind-the-scenes footage integrated into this piece. Next up is "Impressions From The Film" a featurette that runs for 2 minutes 35 seconds, this is a photographic montage set to music from the film's score. These photographs taken during the production are a visual scrapbook of the film and it's themes. The final featurette on this disc is the "Sharing the Story: The Making of Brokeback Mountain" which runs for 20 minutes 48 seconds and is also taken from the previous release, this is your average EPK piece distributed to TV stations and movie channels usually during the film's theatrical run to drum up interest. Interviews with the key cast and crew tell us why this is such an important story to tell and how their film is so wonderful. We get hardly any actual 'making-of' stuff here and I'm rather disappointed by that. Finally we've got BD-Live features for profile 2.0 players or greater and include "MyScenes" bookmarks and "MyScenes" Sharing which allows you to share the scenes with others online.
Overall
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