Brokeback Mountain (2005)

I've watched this beautiful film many times, and it is still as good each time as I remembered it.It is epic, yet intimate; uplifting, yet tragic; heart-warming, yet heart-breaking. The landscapes are magnificent, but they are only the backdrop to a small, gentle story about love and loss, told in a quiet, simple way, with a script that is extraordinarily economical with words - more is said in the silences than in the dialogue.The performances too are understated and subtle, with not a single wasted look or gesture.I always need to be in the right mood for this film, as it is certainly not the most cheerful, but I do keep coming back to it. For me it has become a comfortable film to snuggle up to in the cold.

In many ways, this is a very typical love story : a forbidden romance, bowing down to the rules and needs of the society, the resulting sorrow, ruining more lives in the process with betrayal, a desperate attempt to cling to traces of the romance, just leading to more heartbreak and an unfulfilling life. As can be inferred from the summary, this is a sad movie, but it is also beautifully shot, full of scenes with natural beauty and soothing calm, interspersed with moments of passion which nonetheless mellow out with gentle love and tender care as time passes and the characters grow older. What truly shines though is the brilliant acting performances, especially by Heath Ledger who truly sells a very conflicted and broken soul, torn between love, duty and fear.

Film Review: "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)Based on a short story by Annie Proulx published in The New Yorker in 1997, Director Ang Lee plays out his strongest suit with casting match-making actors Jake Gyllenhaal and all-too-soon deceased Heath Ledger (1979-2008), who carries the picture all along toward trailer homes as the character of Ennis Del Mar, to transform into two cowboys living in the U.S. mid-west of the 1960s.The film covers a time period from approximately 17 years of two man's lives from 1963 to 1980, stretching countryside from Wyoming to Texas as well as the U.S. American Culture of the lonesome struggling drifter, who eventually encounter his personal haven with marrying a woman of care, after the damage had already been done in an incident scene of homosexual intercourse in a tent of the title-given remote area, where beats of violence between two men transforms into anal relaxation, breaking finally with the western mythology between fist-fighting, pub-brawling and occasional pistol duels encountering cowboys.Director Ang Lee, spoiled and partially disappointed on the misinterpreted high-end comic book adaptation of "Hulk" (2003), turns to his independent roots with "Brokeback Mountain" shaking up a dusty story structures of a contemporary melodrama, using the forfeited love story between two men as an universal speaking approach on human isolation within natural needs in an accelerating society.The picture may not strike an initial nerve again as it did on release in December 2005. Yet it had been executed well enough due to breath-taking cinematographic on-location backdrops captured by Rodrigo Prieto's camera operation team as solid pacing editorial by Dylan Tichenor, who supported Director Ang Lee getting back on his feet after a major Hollywood big-budget production melt-down, where he eventually returned to with the all-over internationally successful motion picture "Life of Pi" (2012) to get recognized a second time by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Best Directing.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

** SPOILERS **Let me just first point out that I only saw this movie about a month ago. Compared to all the other types of movies across all genres that I've seen, this in my opinion changed my life. It is the saddest movie I've ever seen (even sadder than Marley and Me and the Notebook). Every time I think of this movie which is 3/4 of the day for most days, it instantly puts me into a sad mood, and whenever I watch it, it makes me cry for more 20 minutes afterwards. I have never seen more heartbreak in a movie than any other movie ever.Secondly, half of the reason this movie gets me so emotional is the fact that for more than 20 years these two lovers have to keep their relationship a secret otherwise if anyone knew they both most likely be dead, because of the time this movie is set (between 1963 and the early to mid 80's), and after one of them dies, the other has to keep his sadness and heartbreak kept inside of him for the rest of his life, also the one that dies tries his hardest to try and create a life the two, he tries over and over again to convince the other to pack up and leave with him. The other half is obviously because one of them dies because of who they love. Throughout the years they had been together, you can see clearly the desperate and emotional bond between these two. It rips you apart when one of them dies. It will leave you crying and feeling sad.Lastly if you plan to watch this movie, I highly recommend a box a tissues cause you will cry, I guarantee you will.